NEWS photo Nike Wakefield

PETER ELIOT Weiss’ Haunted House Hamiet runs to Aug. 1 at Presentation House Theatre.

Shakespeare shuffle

” Haunted House Hamlet, Presentation House Theatre, Directed by
Kate Weiss and Peter Eliot Weiss. To Aug. 1. Phone 986-1351.

HEN IT comes to Shakespeare adaptations, there
are those who say “why?’’ and those who say

“why not?’

If you’re a Shakespeare purist
you will say, why take a perfectly
good play like Hamlet, cull out the
good bits, add and/or change
characters, put it in a haunted
house and have the audience
roaming the halls as invisibie
guests spectating on the action?

{fit makes the glay mare ac-
cessible, why not?

Peter Eliot Weiss’s Haunted
House Hamlet, playing in various
Jocations throughout Presentation
House, does moderate sacrilege to
the original, but it’s also a good
time. tn fact, unlike the original,
it's billed as a comedy.

I'm not sure if it’s the new script
or the different scenes | saw this
time, but | recall the first 1986
Tamahnous House version was
more Shakespeare, less Weiss.

There are many scenes not from
the original text, and if you da nat
read the program carefully be-
forehand, and if you do not know
Shakespeare’s Hamlet you will get
a very skewed version!

The story begins when a punk
named Jimmy breaks into Pres-
entation House and encounters
ghosts playing out Hamlet .

Hamlet mistakes Jimmy for

Barbara Black
THEATRE REVIEW

Horatio, and the punk becomes
intertwined in the action, as both
Horatio and himself. (He even falls
in love with Ophelia, a funny, ex-
tra hallway scene).

You choose the scenes you want
to see from there. It’s a goad idea
to read the program to map out
your general route before traipsing
from scene to scene.

Some of the adaptations include
Polonius as a woman (why?), and
an odd one at that, and Rosen-
crantz and Guildenstern as
vaudeville-gnoulies.

The players are cut back to two
{aka Rosencrantz and
Guildenstern in a plot twist), and
the gravedigger, is a female ghoul.

The jazzed up Rosencrantz and
Guildenstern are forgiveable if you
keep in mind that the original
bland duo would hardly be a sure
pick for a scene when up against
Hamlet monologues. These two
provide the comic relief.

New scenes that titillate include
Hamlet teaching Jimmy the
Pavane and Rosencrantz and
Guildenstern rehearsing for the
play.

The set design had some prob-
lems. The subtle computer printed
signs to connecting rooms, for ex-
ample, were difficult to see in the
heat of the shuffie.

Ophelia’s room was exquisitely
draped in white sheets and muslin,
but the Great Hall looked like it
got missed out in the decoration
(and what was that punching bag
for?) -

Highlight scenes are any con-
taining David Ley as Hamlet.

Ley is a commanding presence
who manages to be witty, morose
and emotional in his performance
without overdoing any. Lisa
Waines’ Ophelia is delicate but a
trifle too waifish, and her descent
into madness is embarrassingly
melodramatic.

t enyoyed Nicole Robert as Ger-
trude and Tom Scholte as fimmy, a
role that borders on the extrane-
ous and is not easy to sustain.

One precaution: the choose-
your-own-scene set-up is quite
vigorous and, if you can’t manage
stairs, could be difficult.

Archer’s Crow Flies high

ACCORDING TO North Van-
couver District Library’s annual
report, Jeffrey Archer’s As the
Crow Flies was the most asked-
for book in 1991.

In the non-fiction category,
cookbooks were by far the most
popular choice, but the overall

leader was Peter Mayle’s A Year
in Provence.

Fifty-one per cent of adult
books borrowed were hardcover
novels; borrowing of children’s
materials accounted for 36% of
total circulation.

GET AS CLOSE AS
HUMANLY POSSIBLE.

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