The Tragedy OF Hamlet Prince of Skidmark. The Listies.
Conceived by Richard
Higgins, Matt Kelly and DeclanGreene. Directed by Declan Greene. Lighting
designer. Verity Hampson. Composer and sound engineer. Jed Palmer. Costume
designer. Renee Mulder. Produced by Sydney Theatre Company. The Playhouse.
Canberra Theatre Centre. August 3 amd 4 2018.
Reviewed by Peter Wilkins
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| Matt Kelly and Richard Higgins are The Listies |
Hamlet for five year olds? Shakespeare’s classic tragedy for children? With murder,
revenge and dead bodies littered across the stage? And performed by only three actors, none other
than the crazy, zany, madcap Listies with the help of Courtney Stewart as
stage manager and the fair Ophelia. This has to be seen to be believed. So,
with my seven year old grandson in tow, off I went to see how The Listies could
tell the tale of the melancholy Dane to an audience of children, upwards of
five years.
Within seconds of finding his seat, my grandson let out
peals of laughter as bellboy costumed ushers
clambered from the auditorium onto the stage , only to discover that the
company of actors whp were to play the tragedy had all come down with the Brown
Plague, a terrible affliction caused by something they ate and rendering them
the victims of shakes, sweat explosive farts and ensuing results from behind
and out of the mouth. That’s right, it was going to be one of those kind of
children’s shows and my grandson joined an audience of giggling, squirming
wrigglers with delight.
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Richard Higgins as Hamlet, Prince of Skidmark
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What followed was The Listies’ irreverent, hilarious
badaptation of the Bard. Richard Higgins plays the straight man with lapses
into absurdity while Matt Kelly plays his fall guy, the buffoon to Higgins’s
character. Think Bud Abbot and Lou Costello, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, Stan
laurel and Oliver Hardy, Colin Lane and Frank Woodley. Higgins is the serious
clown, carefully controlled until events send him into an uncoiled spin. Kelly
is a turbo charged clown, irrepressible, infectiously funny and the perfect
foil. Stewart completes the cast, taking on Ophelia and Princess Nun-Ninja.
The action rockets through one turbo charged hour of
lighting speed costume changes, snippets of the Hamlet story for the young
child with twisted versions of the four hundred year old plot, sword fights,
audience interaction and some scene stealing by an adorable five year old ,
shadow puppetry of pirate ships upon the high seas, Ninjas, ghosts, zombies and
dragons. There are even quotes from the play as Hamlet (Higgins) holds aloft
Yorrick’s skull or Hamlet despatches Ophelia to a nunnery before he finds he
has to make a fast exit to the dunnery, possibly brought on by feeble puns and
misspelt lists. It’s all in good fun.
The audience, enchanted, engrossed and rocking with laughter
lapped up every moment, giggling at Kelly’s cross-eyed Claudius, doubling up at
the sight of the versatile Kelly’s floss and screaming out instructions during
the old “Where is he?” panto routine.
For the accompanying adults, it might all be a bit familiar
– the knockabout physical comedy, the lavatory humour, the audience
participation and the sheer butane energy of performers who have found their
niche, discovered their target audience’s funny bone and come up with a clever
idea to bastardize the bard, or maybe do him some service by introducing him to
a completely new audience. I just hope they won’t all burst into laughter when
they see the real thing.
One thing is certain. They will remember the story and the
time they saw The Listies and couldn’t stop laughing from start to finish.
That’s an unforgettable lesson in how to love their visit to the theatre.
There’s nothing tragic about that!
