Something Rotten – Robert Cohen

‘Hamlet’ is just full of quotations and some hints of Shakespeare have slipped into this atmospheric dramatic monologue. The language is carefully ‘antiqued’, the decorous grammar punctuated with ‘perchance’ and ‘methinks’ enough for us to feel we’d just wallowed in five hours of the original play. Shakespeare’s poetic rhythms are exchanged for adept comic timing and the pace, like Claudius’ ego, is relentless. Claudius slyly wins our attention and, like a royal Warren Mitchell or Steven Berkoff, carefully spins his apologia. We all know the ending but that in no way spoils this well-crafted, erudite and entertaining romp through Elsinore.

Sweet Waterfront 2, 30 May 2016

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