“Why, What a Dunghill Idiot Slave am I,”
Is not a line from Monty Python or Saturday Night Live, but is, in fact, from the first draft of Hamlet by William Shakespeare, preserved in what is called the First Quarto, circa 1603. The second quarto Q2 dates from 1604. However, the text with which we are all familiar is the First Folio F1, dating from 1623.
As many people know, Hamlet is Shakespeare’s longest play: 4,000 lines and can run, if uncut for four hours. The earliest version Q1, has fewer characters but is a “text of extraordinary economy and startling agility” that is to say “it’s a play with a cracking structure but without the beautiful poetry.”
For Outsiders Inn theatre in Bellingham, Toby Malone has created an adaptation of Hamlet using the economic structure of Q1 and the beautiful poetry of the First Folio F1, to create a “dynamic and high velocity two-hour production performed by a ten-actor ensemble.”
This production is a U.S. premiere with a unique script. There will be one performance in Seattle.
Hamlet (Variorum) adapted by Toby Malone. Outsiders Inn. at Explorations Academy 1701 Ellis St. Bellingham, WA . Tu, W, Th, F. 7 pm April 18 to May 5. Saturday Matinées April 22, April 29, May 6, 1 pm.
Seattle Performance. Theatre Puget Sound, Theatre 4, Seattle Armory (Center House) , Seattle Center. 305 Harrison, Seattle, WA 98109. Sunday, May 7th, 3pm. (One performance only.
Tickets: outsidersinn.ludus.com