{"id":2761,"date":"2019-07-18T17:50:07","date_gmt":"2019-07-18T21:50:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theaterreviewsfrommyseat.com\/?p=2761"},"modified":"2019-09-12T01:57:24","modified_gmt":"2019-09-12T05:57:24","slug":"doggs-hamlet-cahoots-macbeth-potomac-theatre-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theaterreviewsfrommyseat.com\/doggs-hamlet-cahoots-macbeth-potomac-theatre-project\/","title":{"rendered":"Dogg’s Hamlet, Cahoot’s Macbeth (Potomac Theater Project)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dogg’s Hamlet, Cahoot’s Macbeth<\/strong> are two early plays by Tom Stoppard which were written to be performed together.\u00a0 Both use Shakespearean text to overtly entertain while being subtly subversive.\u00a0 Presented by the Potomac Theater Project this summer, the double bill is enormously entertaining.<\/p>\n

In Dogg’s Hamlet, the actors speak in Dogg.\u00a0 This is a language which uses English words with completely different meanings.\u00a0 When three school mates sit down for lunch, one asks, “Undertake sun pelican crash frankly sun mousehole?”\u00a0 From the actions on stage, you know they are trading sandwiches.\u00a0 Mr. Stoppard is teasing us with learning a new language and, in this very short play, some of the words actually will stick.<\/p>\n

A delivery man named Easy arrives.\u00a0 He speaks regular English and cannot understand Dogg.\u00a0 Blocks are being delivered and the assembly is a confusion of miscommunication.\u00a0 They are arranged and rearranged, eventually to form a stage.\u00a0 A very edited version of Hamlet will then be performed.\u00a0 The riff here is that Shakespeare’s language is unintelligible to students.\u00a0 A fifteen minute farce is then presented with some famous lines intact.<\/p>\n

The second short play is Cahoot’s Macbeth.\u00a0 Czechoslovakian by birth, Stoppard met playwright Pavel Kohout who had been banned by authorities from working.\u00a0 In 1978 he created LRT – living room theater.\u00a0 They opened with Macbeth with five performers and one suitcase.\u00a0 Stoppard pointed out this inspiration.\u00a0 \u00a0His recreation, however, is semi-serious and comedic, not “a fair representation of Kohout’s elegant seventy-five minute version.”<\/p>\n

Set in the late 1970’s, this Macbeth is staged in an apartment in Prague.\u00a0 An inspector from the government will interrupt the show to sniff out illegal activities, namely any unauthorized (and therefore, subversive) productions.\u00a0 Easy shows up in this play to delivers blocks again, only now he only speaks Dogg.\u00a0 The homeowner notes “we’re not sure if it’s a language or a clinical condition.”<\/p>\n

That character crosses the two plays and Stoppard’s point is clear.\u00a0 Dogg is a form of Resistance.\u00a0 In front of the totalitarian regime, a secret coded language could be used to inspire and oppose suppression.\u00a0 The play was intended as a tribute to Kohout and others forced to endure such conditions.\u00a0 The backstory is essential to a deeper appreciation of these plays but they are certainly fun in their own right.<\/p>\n

Fans of Shakespeare will certainly delight in the liberties taken with the original text.\u00a0 Fans of well-directed, strongly acted plays will find this funhouse immensely satisfying.\u00a0 Director Cheryl Faraone has assembled an excellent cast who pop in and out of every conceivable entrance and exit.\u00a0 The pendulum swung between tragedy and ridicule is remarkably effective.<\/p>\n

Now is a very good time to experience this playfully experimental work.\u00a0 Our current political climate more than hints toward authoritarian and dictatorial behavior.\u00a0 Words are used as powerful weapons.\u00a0 It’s quite comforting to be reassured that words can also be manipulated for good.\u00a0 I plan to use “vanilla squirrel” every time I mean “rotten bastard.”\u00a0 Thanks for the text translations, Mr. Stoppard!<\/p>\n

www.ptpnyc.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dogg’s Hamlet, Cahoot’s Macbeth are two early plays by Tom Stoppard which were written to be performed together.\u00a0 Both use Shakespearean text to overtly entertain while being subtly subversive.\u00a0 Presented by the Potomac Theater Project this summer, the double bill is enormously entertaining. In Dogg’s Hamlet, the actors speak in Dogg.\u00a0 This is a language … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Dogg’s Hamlet, Cahoot’s Macbeth (Potomac Theater Project)”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[4862],"class_list":["post-2761","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-off-broadway","tag-play"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\nDogg's Hamlet, Cahoot's Macbeth (Potomac Theater Project) - 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