BBC4: Stoppard’s 15 Minute Hamlet
Jun 28th, 2007 by Debra Murphy
One of our very favorite Bard ripoffs is Tom Stoppard’s (Sir Tom Stoppard’s, if you can believe it) Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. (See our reviews of the film version here and here.) Well, it’s Sir Tom’s 70th birthday, and in honor, BBC Radio 4 is doing a series of programs, including the following:
| STOPPARD SEASON 15-Minute Hamlet Saturday 30 June 7.00-7.15pm BBC RADIO 4 |
The 15-Minute Hamlet, much like the full-length Hamlet, concerns life, love, death and readiness only in a much more digestible form. This play is what 1066 And All That is to English history – it gives you not everything, but just everything you can remember. It has all the quotable and famous lines – though not necessarily on the same order – and contains just enough plot to enable listeners to understand the whole play.
It is a piece of pure fun and yet a recognition that the essence of the play is irreducible.
John Dougall plays Hamlet in this play directed by Eoin O’Callaghan. It is part of BBC Radio 4 and BBC Radio 3’s Sir Tom Stoppard season, celebrating his 70th birthday.
The season continues with an examination of Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead in Night Waves Landmarks.
Producer/Eoin O’Callaghan
The link to BBC4, which can be heard online on June 30 (you’ll have to calculate the time difference!), is here.
It should be noted that 15-Minute Hamlet is excerpted from Stoppard’s Dogg’s Hamlet, Cahoot’s Macbeth which are two short plays designed to be performed back to back with one shared character.