Augustus Williams as Horatio in Catalyst Theatre’s take on Hamlet Act I scene 1, The Play’s The Thing, Theatre Yes. Photo by Mat Simpson

Freewill Shakespeare Festival does a scene from Hamlet. The Play’s The Thing, Theatre Yes. Photo by Mat Simpson

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca

Well, THAT was fun!. A word that is only rarely (I need hardly remind you) applied to productions of Hamlet.

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The first night of The Play’s The Thing, Theatre Yes’s two-night production of Shakespeare’s longest, most mysteriously alluring play, had 10 Edmonton stage companies each do a scene, from Act I, i through Act III, iv — each in their own signature style. To call it a riotous, original deconstruction would be entirely accurate. But beyond that, what an inspiring way to remind us, at the start of the theatre season, of the remarkable breadth of Edmonton’s performance scene. The sketch troupe Marv N’ Berry, who graciously shared some of the slings and arrows of their Shakespearean research with the crowd, presided; they are the souls of affability.

Catalyst Theatre, home of original, boldly physical reinventions of the musical form with poetic texts, delivered a great opener, elbowing iambic pentameter aside for their own kind of rhymed verse. The theatre kids from Vic, some 20 of them, stepped up, led by Hamlet’s BFF Horatio (“don’t get me wrong, I love the guy…”), an ironic and thoughtful sort with questions about ghosts — and a suspicion that Elsinore was haunted, even before the ghost of Act I, scene i. Once you realize admit the possibility of change, there’s no going back. Yup, four more tumultuous and violent Acts are bound to follow, with momentum as they go.

Photo by Mat Simpson

A couple of bouffon rodents (from Batrabbit Collective, whose Rat Academy was a hit at the Fringe) delivered a very funny version of the farewell scene in which Laertes, who like his dad Polonius is full of pompous advice, announces to his meek, somewhat dim sister Ophelia he’s off to France. There was rambunctious improv from Rapid Fire Theatre, led by artistic director Matt Schuurman; they dallied with Hamlet, gave Rosencrantz and Guildenstern the classic improv craziness of speaking in unison,  and flirted outrageously with the audience. Hello Denmark!

Photo by Mat Simpson

Intriguingly, Hamlet’s great ‘to be or not to be’ soliloquy of Act III scene i landed in the scene assigned (randomly, out of a hat) to L’UniThéâtre. How fascinating to hear it in French. Thou Art Here, the site-sympathetic company that has taken The Man to The People in all manner of locales, did the play-with-in-a-play scene with wild give-‘er puppets, and an overlay of advice from a hyperkinetic concept director à la Hamlet, with an eye on getting held over. A theatre critic with (possibly dubious) blonde hair got to have her first and only and fleeting crack at playing Ophelia, with a Mousetrap audience that included the King and Queen of the Fringe, Murray and Megan.

Zachary Parsons-Lozinski as Hamlet’s mama in Guys in Disguise’s scene in The Play’s The Thing, Theatre Yes. Photo by Mat Simpson

Another queen, Hamlet’s mom Gertrude, played in high style by Guys in Disguise’s Zachary Parsons-Lozinski, did a memorable phone-acting scene with Ophelia, taking her cue from Polonius and trying to ferret out the goods on her wayward son’s activities — with whom and how many?

Workshop West does Hamlet, a scene from The Play’s The Thing, Theatre Yes. Photo by Mat Simpson

Workshop West, Ready Go, Freewill Shakespeare Festival, and Shadow Theatre stepped up too.

So, 10 high-contrast scenes and 10 different companies who had a blast showing off their stuff. We all had a terrific time. And there are 10 more to come tonight, at the Westbury. How does it all turn out for the Melancholy Dane anyhow? Tickets: fringetheatre.ca. All proceeds to the Food Bank.