Hamlet roulette replies and thoughts
clavisa replied to your post “Hamlet roulette, 7”
The next best thing to me being able to see this many performances is me being able to read your reviews of this many performances.
In the unlikely event that you manage to visit again in July, August, December, or January, you could see it again!
clavisa replied to your post “Hamlet Roulette Bingo”
Ah this bingo card is super cool! Here's a question: do the actors always stand in the same order while the draw happens, or do they just stand randomly?
Oooh. Good question! I will have to pay more attention. (See?! There is still new stuff to discover!) This time I did notice that, from left to right (i.e. stage right to stage left), it started with El and Megan, who were coincidentally the first two people to get cast (in that order), and Nick was on the far right (i.e. stage left) and was cast third. But I don’t remember what order the rest of them were in.
normallyparenthetical replied to your post “Hamlet Roulette Bingo”
I think I meant internally, but if you wanted to do it aloud, it would be pretty funny for those that understood. Thank you for showing us the order of draw, too. It seems like the tension would slowly increase as you move toward "greater" roles. [And, I agree about diagonals. The order of the actors is arbitrary and there must exist seven arrangements that would give you the NW-SE diagonal.]
Oh, yeah, I’ll definitely be shouting “BINGO!” internally if it happens! But I also think that the cast/director might be amused to hear about it.
Good point about the math! (I hadn’t actually thought about it, but of course you’re absolutely right.)
About the order: the first time I saw it they started with Hamlet, which seems like the wrong order to do things in. But actually, that was when they were drawing a whole configuration rather than one actor at a time (to make sure that everyone played each character twice during previews, they had 14 possible configurations for the first 14 performances), so the director just read them out in the wrong order; they were probably still thinking through how best to do it. When I saw it again one week later, I think he read them in the order that they now draw them.
Naturally, the actors are a bit ...nervous? excited?... before the drawing too. Apparently they make bets backstage. El won money last night because she bet that she would play Polonius, and that is indeed what happened, so when her name was the first one pulled she yelled “I won! I won!” which was pretty funny. Anyway, they tend to act excited about whichever role they get drawn for, but it’s true that at the end it’s a little like a Miss Universe pageant or something where the last two people are standing there anxiously with their arms around each other waiting for the runner-up (Claudius) to be announced.
It’s so interesting to see a play where the illusion is broken before the performance even starts, rather than afterwards during the curtain calls. The actors come on stage wearing all white, not in costume. Each one leaves as soon as they know their role, bringing their labelled, bound script with them, to put on their costume and prepare mentally. Once the casting has happened, the director makes a few announcements, and then some music starts, which acts as the countdown. Right as the song is ending, the actors file out on stage in character (except the ghost/gravedigger sits off-stage but visible to the audience), and just after the song’s last note sounds, the house lights go out at the same moment that the stage lights come on, and the play starts. It’s sort of like... BAM! Let the illusion begin.
But then, the illusion is pretty thin. The actors will ask to be prompted for a line now and then. They are carrying scripts! (The scripts get used as props, representing letters, a shovel, portraits.) The characters will address the audience directly--they know we are there, and even ask us to participate a few times. Each character is putting on an act for the other characters, not just for the audience. There are layers upon layers of illusion and self-reference here, all of which is openly acknowledged.
