Hamlet On Ice.

So last night I went to the Palmerston North presentation of "Hamlet, Ode to Odin."
You know that with a title like that, the experience is going to be a truly unique and informative one. Needless to say, I was not mistaken.

The presentation began at the front of the Esplanade, a park in Palmy, with a taiko drum presentation by International Pacific College. That's cool right, I mean, it's a community presentation, so it only makes sense that they'd want to show off really interesting cultural stuff. Also needless to say, if you've never seen a Taiko Drum presentation, it's well worth it. From there was saw a barbershop quartet, some very, very white girls attempting a chinese dance, some cute old ladies dancing to "Pop Goes the Weasel," then the show finally started. Oh, I'm afraid that I neglected to mention that this was a moving play, the audience walked to each of the performers at the far ends of the park, which was actually a rather nice way to present the community. After the audience was treated to the initial scene with Hamlet speaking to his father's ghost, the audience was led to a corner, where I was to experience the first confustion of the night. After having just seen a scene from the play, I could only assume that it was time to start, and focus on Hamlet. It was then that the audience was led to where three girls, who were obviously not African-American, but were somewhat darker than the majority of Kiwis, performed a 5 or 6 minute long series of Hip-Hop-meets-Disco dances. I can't begin to describe how amazingly underwhelming the performance was, and just as I was about to crack up, laugh in derision and leave, I heard three different people talk about how good their performance was, and how they were better than anyone else who had yet performed. My laughter turned to sadness as I realized that these people thought that this was what Hip Hop dance was supposed to look like. Wow.


From there we were lead to a Gazebo in the park that is often used for Funerals. In this case it was used for Claudius' marriage to Gertrude in the play. I watched as an entertaining and abridged version of Hamlet was put on before me. Then something completely unexpected occurred: The play became Hamlet On Ice. They created a unique song and dance number for Hamlet and Ophelia to act out, and I just didn't know how to handle it. Laughing would be in bad taste, people may get offended. Scowling and crying were likewise not options. So I was forced to think about other things, candycanes and gumdrops, until the song was over and Shakespeare stopped rolling in his grave. The play continued along in this vein, good juxtaposed with invention and improvisation, for the whole performance. Admittedly the majority of the actors performed well, especially Polonius, and it was only 3/4 through the course of the performance that I realized that it was exactly like something that I would direct. And thusly have I eliminated one possible occupation from my list.

Murder Most Foul, indeed.

For your viewing pleasure, here are some more pictures of manawatu gorge: