Shakespeare at the Fringe can tend to be a rather odd affair. In the dark, upside down, backwards in a bunny suit.....you name it, Shakespeare has had to endure it. The reason being, of course, that most of us know the works of Old Will and so companies feel that they need to have something different in their Hamlet than the Hamlet next door to attract our attention.....and, of course, some people are just downright pretentious.
With this in mind, I sluggishly made my way to Zoo Roxy, half anticipating a performance of Othello to snooze to.
Of course, this is all highly unfair and conceived, no doubt, from the beginnings of Festival fatigue.
In actually fact, this was a great production of a great play, where love, lies and jealousy spiral out of control and into bloody tragedy.
A great play requires great performances and all the performers here step up to the mark. Gritty and intense, this young cast bring Shakespeare’s great tragedy to life in an extraordinary way.
The staging is simple and seems to be set, vaguely, within modern times, though it is never specified when exactly. The main focus here is the text, which can be both a blessing and a curse in terms of creativity and appeal. But these guys do it and do it well.
Well worth a look.
Show times: run ended