A TIPSY TWIST ON THE BARD THAT’S EQUAL PARTS CHAOS AND COMEDY

By Tanya Howard | Founder, The Live Review London · @glamglitzlondon ⭐⭐⭐⭐ | Press Invite

Confession time: I’m not usually one for Shakespeare. Half the time I have no idea what’s being said, and the rest I spend wondering if it’s just me. But the one time I’ll happily give it a go is Sh!t-faced Shakespeare. They make it fun, a little looser, and (usually) easier to follow. That said, I have to admit, Hamlet still tripped me up. Those long Shakespearean monologues are hard enough to decode without a tipsy wildcard running amok during them.

For this performance, the “honoured” drunk was Princess Donnough, playing Ophelia, Horatio, and a courtier. She didn’t remember most of her lines, which meant a lot of ad-libbing and chaotic energy throughout. The sober actors had their work cut out for them, but to their credit, they were lightning-fast with their comebacks.

WHEN THE KING’S GHOST WALKS LIKE A CRAB, YOU JUST ROLL WITH IT

If Princess threw a curveball, like suggesting the King’s ghost moved like a crab, Aaron Phinehas Peters (as said ghost) immediately weaved it into his performance. John Mitton’s Claudius was especially sharp, delivering perfectly timed one-liners. They felt so off-the-cuff; you couldn’t tell if they were planned or just genius improv.

That’s part of the fun here. You’re never quite sure how much of it is genuine chaos and how much is rehearsed “chaos”. Maybe I should stop overthinking and just run with it. One thing I did notice was the accents. They roamed a little, occasionally shifting mid-scene, which was funny but also a bit distracting. Reviewer brain strikes again.

HALF THE FUN IS NOT KNOWING WHAT’S SCRIPTED

At first, I actually thought Jamie Sandersfield’s Hamlet might be the drunk one. His early facial expressions were… intense. Credit where it’s due though, he kept the ship sailing (mostly) in the right direction. Josh Bryant Jones, tasked with being the drunk minder for the evening, could have reined things in sooner at points. Princess was allowed to run wild a little too long in places. But honestly, I laughed a lot, so they must have been doing something right.

Sh!t-faced Shakespeare isn’t for purists, and it’s not going to make you suddenly love the Bard if you don’t already. But it delivers a night of silliness, surprises, and quick-thinking actors reacting to one of their own going gloriously off track.

Sh!t-faced Shakespeare: Hamlet is running at Leicester Square Theatre until Sunday 21 September before going on a UK tour.

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