Alas! Poor Yorick – Harrogate Studio Theatre

Writers/Directors: David Woods, Jon Haynes

Judging from previous enthusiastic reviews, this must have been something of an off-night. Possibly the theatre, perched 44 steps above Harrogate Theatre’s entrance didn’t help, with long pauses (and sound effects) when an actor departed, supposedly for the toilet. The cramped space was a problem too – and certainly an audience that was neither especially large nor particularly responsive completed the on-the-night difficulties.

However, the problems surrounding Ridiculusmus Theatre Company played their part, too. Ridiculusmus have been kicked around by Fate to an appalling extent: at the moment financial considerations mean that, after 32 years, the company has to travel in a borrowed car, sleep on sofas and ask theatres to find essential props. Recently David Woods has been unable to travel to perform “for financial and personal reasons.” John Gorick, his replacement, is excellent, but devoting most of the programme to an account of Ridiculusmus’ problems, though absolutely understandable, helps to set a mood that is not totally responsive to clowning.

To put it simply, much of the evening was flat. Some clever clowning provoked sporadic laughs, but never took off. Perhaps Woods and Haynes’ script lacks substance, but it contains what should be memorable moments. We begin with a man (Haynes) and a donkey (Gorick), the donkey pulling a wheelbarrow containing Haynes and a spade. Gorick’s donkey is an exceptional creation and Haynes sets his clown face (think Stan Laurel) against any emotional response, but it’s a while before anything happens.

The major lift in the performance comes via William Shakespeare. The gravediggers scene in Hamlet, with very few changes, is played in pretty much its entirety in three chunks – and Haynes and Gorick’s at-pace delivery reminds us how funny it is. Then Haynes, mostly a silent presence, appears as Hamlet and, in an inspired piece of foolery, addresses Yorick’s skull with “To be or not to be”, then runs through a whole sequence of top bits of Shakespeare until Gorick stops him on – what else? – “Alas, poor Yorick”.

A final sequence ofHamletbackwards is beautifully detailed, though hampered by a lack of space, with Gorick’s final triumph being pulling Haynes in his wheelbarrow backwards along a narrow aisle, not exactly smoothly, but with the sort of spirit that will keep Ridiculusmus going, we hope.

Reviewed on 16th April 2025, and touring.