Sh!t-faced Shakespeare: Hamlet production image.Let’s start with the set-up, then get to the sh*t-facing: this is a condensed version of Hamlet which lasts two hours, including an interval. It’s mostly, though not entirely, played for laughs. That’s a little bit of a cop-out in terms of staging Hamlet, but it’s fine given the concept of Sh!t-faced Shakespeare. It doesn’t feel entirely fair to review the cast’s acting, given that it’s part of the point that neither the cast nor the audience is taking the story or performances seriously. However, Aaron Phinehas Peters as Laertes and Shady Murphy as Queen Gertrude were notable stand-outs.
Which brings us to the title character, played on press night by Jamie Sandersfield and enhanced by several cans of IPA, plus a few gin and tonics. Sandersfield spent the first scene taking a thirty-second pause between his lines, then conflated Hamlet’s, “antic disposition,” which Antiques Roadshow, and ultimately opted to murder Polonius not with a rapier but a, “falcon punch”. Sh!t-faced Shakespeare’s probably the only play in London where the audience have more power than the lead actor, making it feel genuinely thrilling, occasionally tense, and consistently splutter-out-loud funny.
Given the concept of the show, Sh!t-faced Shakespeare had a knockabout feel, with plenty of improv as the cast facilitated, and occasionally grappled with, Sandersfield’s boozy hijinks. Refereeing proceedings on press night was Charlie Keable, popping on and offstage to keep Hamlet on track and stop him doing anything too bonkers. Despite not playing a character, Keable was one of the funniest performers in the show, a brilliant straight-man to Sandersfield’s drunken Dane. He also involves the audience in the show -with a cast of only five onstage, audience members are needed to step in for Polonius, and occasionally to encourage Hamlet to down another beer.
For the sake of the cast’s livers, Sh!t-faced Shakespeare rotates which performer gets hammered beforehand, so the shows’ run at the Leicester Square theatre will also see Gertrude, Claudius, Laertes and Ophelia slurring their way through the play. I suspect this may not work so well given how much the show rests on the title character. It perhaps may mean the comedy relies too much on the adapted script being intentionally parodic and avoidant of sincerity, and less on the chaos caused by the drunk actor.
Much like a pint of bitter, Sh!t-faced Shakespeare’s is an acquired taste which may not work for everybody. Unexpectedly, its daft, chaotic approach is aimed less at Shakespeare geeks (guilty as charged) and more at people not so invested in the original material. So set aside your Complete Works, forget Kenneth Branagh and David Tennant ever existed, and don’t even try to stretch your mind back to GCSE English- Sh!t-faced Shakespeare is a preposterous, haphazard evening of bawdy, boozy silliness.
Sh!t-faced Shakespeare: Hamlet plays at Leicester Square Theatre until 21 September ahead of a UK tour.
