Word: hamlet
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...development of series characters in fiction is almost always a triumph of commerce over art. No matter how interesting a character is, there is usually one right story about him or her, and a good writer finds it the first time. Shakespeare got just one play each out of Hamlet and Macbeth, and it is hard to imagine what remained for a sequel -- or prequel...
...Bridges and Tony Goldwyn as brothers who trade sadistic practical jokes in a morgue, Malcolm McDowell as a soft-hearted vampire who opts for safe sustenance by raiding the local blood bank, and Jon Lovitz as a sad-sack actor who auditions for a far-off- Broadway production of Hamlet. Turns out that the only role available is Yorick. Alas, poor Lovitz...
THEATER What happens after Hamlet dies? Ask Fortinbras...
...most influential play in English, Hamlet, is generally taken to show the failure of the Man of Thought. It ends with the arrival of the alternative ideal: Fortinbras, conquering prince of Norway, a decisive Man of Action. Lee Blessing's fascinating new play begins literally where Hamlet ends and asks whether Fortinbras proves any better a leader...
Much else is on Blessing's mind in this weirdly comic piece: Shakespeare's shaky dramaturgy (rescued by friendly pirates, indeed!), the meaning of death and the afterlife, the ubiquitous enigma of TV. The play lampoons official cover-ups: by the time Hamlet's friend Horatio tells people what really happened at Elsinore, everyone believes Fortinbras' concoction about murderous Polish spies instead. The hero puns bawdily about nights with Ophelia's lubricious ghost. But the deepest concern is for the shallowness of modern politics...