I started my exploration of the Fringe on Thursday night at East End United Church with You, Hamlet from DopoLavoro Teatrale directed by Daniele Bartolini.  It’s an interactive show in which the three performers take the “Hamlets” (i.e. us, about 20 people) around different spaces in the church in each of which a “scene” takes place.  It gets steadily more interactive as time goes by.

We are outside literal reality; neither “being” nor “not being”.  We meet characters who may be alive or not, “sincere” or not. There are scenes reminiscent of, but not from, Shakespeare’s play.  We meet Ophelia and the Ghost.  Gertrude and Polonius get plenty of mentions but it’s not really about Hamlet.  Rather it’s encouraging us to explore the ideas in the play and it’s reception history.  We get readings of famous psychoanalysts take on Hamlet and his relationships with Ophelia and his mother.  We are asked to contribute our ideas on a “better future” for Ophelia.  And so on.  But it eventually turns away from such specifics to our take on the ideas in the play.  Would we rather “be” or “not be” (whatever that means)?  Why?  At the end the audience is left alone to answer a set of questions among themselves; which everybody seemed relaxed enough, or seduced enough, to do in a very open way!.  The ambiguity worked its magic on us Hamlets.

Is it a bit didactic?  Yes, but not in a bad way.  The performers; Danya Buonastella, Nolan Molfetta and Marta Zannoner are engaging, the space is used intelligently and there’s some effective lighting and sound design.  It was quite thought provoking, I enjoyed myself and it’s the most interactive show I’ve been to since work.txt.  Definitely worth checking out if you can.

There are shows almost every night until July 14th but I believe ticket availability is very limited.