Writer and Director: David Woods and Jon Haynes
If there is any Shakespeare that can particularly take the title of ‘bane of every student’s life’, it’s got to be Hamlet. The Bard’s famous tragedy is long, whiney and – spoilers – everyone dies at the end anyway. Thankfully, Shakespeare saw fit to write in two of the best loved clowns in theatre, the Gravediggers. While their witty banter might take a bit of translation today to really hit home, their very existence in that otherwise dismal script means they are ripe for a starring role themselves. Enter stage left: Ridiculusmus!
Playing a variety of roles including, of course, the famous pair of fools, clowns John Gorick and Jon Haynes have breathed new life into the famous (and often cut!) scene of death and afterlife musing. Starting with some slow and classic clowning, making the act of moving two planks of wood up and down the stage look like the most complicated job in the world, the pace remains sedate for the first half hour, as Haynes plays the almost silent foil to the buffoonish Gorick, the former carrying out the labor while the latter makes life increasingly more complicated. Gorick’s Donkey is on particularly fine form during this section, and Haynes’ methodical actions are the perfect build up to the remaining forty five minutes. There’s a spot of toilet humour, some messing with the audience and then suddenly you are watching honest to goodness Shakespeare. Having lulled the audience into a false sense of security by throwing out gradually larger skulls, dragging badly stuffed corpses across the stage and butchering a few simple jokes, Gorick and Haynes manage to make Shakespeare’s most famous tragedy come alive, all while keeping it strictly absurd. Haynes soliloquising (with a lisp!) is stunning, and Gorick’s comic timing is second to none. You have to be an amazing actor to pull off clowning, and both men show this off to the fullest extent. The final twenty minutes of the show is an unexpected delight and frankly a masterclass in the art form which your reviewer will not spoil by describing!
Alas! Poor Yorick is a wonderful night out. While there are a couple of technical errors, some lighting out of place and an immersion breaking door bang or two explained by a lack of familiarity with the theatre, it is a top example of clowning done well, and hands down one of the best performances of Hamlet to grace the stage. Certainly one of the most accessible. The fact it has been created on a shoestring budget, with zero Arts Council (or otherwise) funding, and a last minute actor replacement due to a lack of travel funds is mind blowing. Ridiculusmus are an award winning theatre company beset by tragedy due to a fire in 2015, and it’s criminal that they are on the brink of closing. The pathos of a struggling company choosing to perform an entire show based on characters often entirely removed from their original is not to be undersold. Take a chance on a concept that might sound a little out there and go see Alas! Poor Yorick, you won’t be disappointed.
Reviewed on 5 April 2025
