The Cheese Danish

Matt and I ended upleaving the con early to go to a production of Hamlet at Matt's theater in Princeton. OMFG, that campus is amazing. It looks like a castle just plopped down in the middle (ok, south) of NJ or something.


The McCarter Theater


"The Arch"


Statue of St. George slaying the dragon


Cute statues of Princeton's mascot, the tiger

The play itself was rather...interesting. I was expecting a lot worse, to be honest. There were a lot of people who left during intermission, and even in the middle of scenes, which I thought was incredibly rude. The director definitely had an interesting take on it. Things I liked:

* Polonius standing between the audience and the half-drawn curtain as he listens in on Hamlet and Gertrude. This was really cool, because we saw the scene from Polonius's point of view. And when Hamlet shot him through the curtain, we could see the blood appear on the back of his white robe, which I thought was an awesome visual.
* The same actor playing Claudius and the ghost. This was a bit confusing at first, and I'm sure it drove first-time Hamlet-viewers crazy, but it turned out really well.

Things I didn't like:

* Hamlet didn't die at the end. You knew he was going to, but at curtain he was still alive. Also? HE SHOT HORATIO! That really pissed me off. Apparently, the director wanted everyone dead, so "the audience would be the only witness to the tragedy" or whatever, but still.
* The implied incest between Ophelia and Laertes. WTF? The Ophelia character had a lot of flaws, actually, but doing this cheapened her relationship with Hamlet and undermined her madness, imo. Plus, it was kinda gross and unnecessary.
There were other things, but I can't think of them right now. For the most part, it was just a really strange retelling. Not bad, but not fabulous, either.