Theatre REVIEW: Alas! Poor Yorick- ★★★

If the Two Ronnies were cast as the Gravediggers in Shakespeare’s Hamlet re-written by Samuel Beckett you might have something like Ridiculusmus’s “Alas! Poor Yorick”.

Mixing the mundane with the magical; moments of banal idiocy are interspersed with ones of cinematic elegance to an underscore of groans, grunts and the odd Shakespearean aside. The legendary independent theatre double act of Jon Haynes and David Woods pull out every trick in their theatrical playbook to create a fresh take on Shakespeare’s much-loved clowns, re-enacting all the preceding acts of the original and meticulously staging the famous graveyard scene in all its 420 year-old glory.

Flipping the Shakespearean original tragedy into an existential clown piece, Ridiculusmus cast aside chaos and mistaken murders to unearth a beautiful and oddly moving meditation on work, faith and existence, with the prevaricating protagonist offered in a refreshingly contemporary light.

Where?

The Studio, Festival Theatre - Part of UK Tour

WEBSITE

Stewart - ★★★

"There's nothing quite as hilarious or as deadly dull as a long pregnant pause in comedy. Depends on your preference I suppose, I'm probably somewhere in between but there's a thin line that can teeter on shouting out 'get on with it!' - as is with this Waiting for Godot meets Hamlet's gravediggers style surreal comedy. It certainly has some great moments and the performances of the two cast members are spot on, but perhaps - 'get on with it' - might be a fitting piece of advice. The highlight of the show is when the 2 cast members recreate Hamlet in a series of humorous clowning scenes, but perhaps if anyone is unfamiliar with the play it might get lost on some.

Meanwhile towards the end of the hour there is a delightful collaboration with Lung Ha theatre company (a fabulous company of actors with a learning disability and autism) and some members of their team join the cast. Alas, more Lung Ha and less pregant pauses may have made the show more enjoyable for me. Still this sort of nonsense should always be celebrated and I'd happily buy a ticket to the next Ridiculusmus performance."