So, it turns out Yorick’s Ghost is Hamlet’s Father – confused? It’s not poor Yorick’s fault. Recalled from the dead, he’s just trying to make a jest and cut a caper in front of us, or to just pop outside to cheer up the uncharacteristically gloomy Hamlet. (Apparently, he’s normally a bundle of laughs.) But is it Yorick’s failed attempts to intervene that are making things worse, or is Yorick trapped in iron lines of verse?
Horror, farce, existential crisis and post-modernist text games
Bouncing between elements of clowning, horror, farce, existential crisis and post-modernist text games, the show definitely has its moments, but the meandering script really only works because of George Rennie’s performance skills. You have to be admirably gallus to appear in front of an audience playing someone who has no idea what they are doing. Rennie is also cleverly able to make use of audience participation, and has the appreciable skill to make us comfortable with the process.
So, not a show for dramatic through-line, but if you like digression, charm, a demonstration of a performer’s range and some gentle clowning, then this fits the bill.
And no, we don’t meet Rosencrantz and Guildenstern…
