Hamlet: Prince of Skidmark

When you think of Hamlet, one of Shakespeare’s most revered plays, children’s comedy probably doesn’t come to mind. Children’s theatre duo The Listies have teamed up with the Sydney Theatre Company to do a ‘badaptation’ (bad adaptation) of Hamlet.

One half of The Listies and Co-creator of this production, Richard Higgins says they normally create cabaret style sketch comedy, but they’ve switched it up and are using a playwright this time. The comedy duo doesn’t normally do ‘actual’ plays, so this will be something different.

Higgins explains the show as “two guys…battling the odds to try and do a four hour show with 30 characters in an hour”.

“We chose Hamlet because most of our shows have alien attacks, ninja nans and are very low brow, 10-30 undies get thrown into the audience,” he explained. “We thought it would be funny having two idiots trying to do the hardest play that there is – Hamlet.”

“The STC wanted him (playwright Declan Greene) to do a kids show, and he approached us, and they said they wanted us to do an adaptation. We thought ‘why don’t we do the grandest, most famous play there is and fail spectacularly?’”

One of the reasons Higgins began creating children’s comedy is because they interact way better with the cast than adults. The kids want to get up and participate, unlike their grown-up counterparts.

“When you ask a crowd of adults for a volunteer everyone tries to retreat their heads into their bodies like a tortoise.” (AMal)

Jun 16–Jul 17. Wharf 1, Sydney Theatre Company, Pier 4/5 Hickson Road, Walsh Bay. $25-$64. Tickets & info: sydneytheatre.com.au

BY ATHINA MALLIS