Hamlet: The Bad Ass Quarto

Stars Yorick, Ophelia (Kimberly Gilbert), Kyd, the brown bag puppet

Imagine if LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Kevin Durant, and the rest of the USA Olympic basketball team got together in the morning, ran through a couple hours of practice, and then faced their stiffest competition for a gold medal that night. Or, if music is more your thing, consider a concert where 4 musicians, after one afternoon of rehearsal, tried to perform a note-for-note rendition of the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's that night in front of a capacity crowd.

Well, both of those scenarios are analogous to what the Taffety Punk Theatre Company pulled off last night with their annual Bootleg Shakespeare performance at the Globe-like theater at the Folger Shakespeare Library.

The multi-talented company, with only one afternoon of rehearsal, delivered a nearly flawless performance of Hamlet: The Bad Ass Quarto which was true to its tragic underpinnings and, at the same time, often  uproariously funny.

Prior to the opening act, Marcus Kyd, who played the mad, moody Prince of Denmark, explained the Taffety process. The actors got the lines from the 1603 First Quarto (which is often called the "bad," rough-draft version" of Hamlet) about 2 months ago. They learned them individually, but didn't perform them together until about 8 hours before showtime. The "bad" quarto is about 1,600 words less than the Hamlet that is normally performed.  That produces an effect that is at once familiar and oddly-alien (most often in the not yet eloquently completed soliloquies such as "To be or not to be...) which only added to the uniqueness of the production.

Of course, as appropriate for a company with punk in its name, the ensemble introduced several clever touches into its production. There was Hamlet's evil uncle dispensing play money all over the stage to signify his wealth. There were contemporary references to such modern ideas as the 1 percent. Rossencraft and Gildenstone appeared bedecked in yuppie attire. Hamlet's love Ophelia was accompanied into her descent into madness by 2 whirling, shrieking figures. Todd Scofield portrayed Corambis (Polonius in the final version of Hamlet) as an even  more blowhardy Frasier Crane.

Two highlights of the play were the mesmerizing performance of Kyd as Hamlet and the intriguing staging of the play within the play scene in which Hamlet helps a group of traveling players reenact a scene similar to the one in which his uncle killed his father. Using the top stage balcony of the stage, that scene was played with members of the acting troupe pulling marionette-like strings for the characters portraying the murder most foul.

This was our first time at a Taffety Punk performance, but you could tell that many in the audience were long-time fans. The loudest laughs of the night came when a paper-bag puppet, who appears in every Taffety production, showed up on the right hand of a cod-piece wearing messenger sent to bring Hamlet to his mother.

So what will Taffety Punk do for next year's free Bootleg Shakespeare? According to Kyd, that decision hasn't been made yet. "We'll probably decide over drinks tonight," he said. Rest assured that we will be there. And, if you are in the D.C. area then, you should, too.

Tales, Tidbits, and Tips
It was clear the Taffety players have fun at what they do. They want the audience to engage in that same spirit. And what better way to do that than to have them actively participate. Last night, on cue, the crowd was expected to make the sounds of trumpets. Also on cue, they were to make the sound of a crowing rooster. Of course, that means that I can now say that I have performed in Hamlet at the Folger Shakespeare Theater. Now, I realize that I was just one of hundreds. But I am certain that while my trumpets were only a little above average, my cock was the best in the place.