After months of frantic preparation, weeks of frantic spying and days of frantic PR, Shakespeare day hath come to a close. Release now, ye cruel Gods, the spirits of innocent children forced to endure the strange witticisms of your most favoured bard, Shakespeare. That being said, the plays were all such great interpretations that even the most culturally disinclined misanthrope would have cracked a smile.
Of course there were different prizes and different plays got said prizes, a list of these will be found at the bottom of this article. But this article isn’t about the prizes, it’s about memorable moments, both the good and the bad.
I would like to start with The Merchant of Venice, but yours truly wasn’t up early enough to catch anything but the end. So, one could say that the most memorable moment of the play was the end. Where merchant got prosecuted…for something. Don’t quote me on this.
What I did watch most of was Macbeth, my personal favourite actors were the witches (who were the voodoo ladies in their mob version) who did a brilliant and thoroughly underappreciated job. Favourite moment although, was the big dinner scene where Macbeth “sees” Banquo sitting in his seat (oh no (s)he didn’t!). The whole time Banquo had the most perfect poker face. Do I smell a possible winner of some tournament of a game of chance? Yes, yes indeed I do.
After that we had the best play of the day, Julius Caesar, which is a completely objective judgement and has no base in the fact that it was my class. At all. Obviously. I spent most of my time backstage and made my debut onstage in a very blue and very inappropriate dress for a funeral. Hey, one could say that I put the FUN in FUNeral. Don’t quote me on that either. Apart from that, I heard that that one scene with Brutus quietly sliding behind the curtains was pretty funny. I also heard that the show was amazing and lovely and so good, especially a certain citizen in a blue dress. This is not at all subjective.
Then came Hamlet which was all Jersey Shore, with less skin and more Shakespeare. I thought that the most dramatic part was the funeral scene; mostly because there was some really great acting in that scene, partly because the coffin they used as a prop was going into the ground the day after Shakespeare Day. However, that fencing scene was extremely well done as well (I enjoyed the fact that there was an applause/silence coordinator).
Last but not least, was The Tempest. After 20 minutes of waiting (and munching on ES1A’s treats, aren’t they the nicest?) we were ushered into a show that took 3D to 4D with the opening scene. It was, without a doubt, one of the most memorable moments of the day when water rained down on us and everyone was pirate crazy on stage. Let’s not forget that they had an actual kiss scene (gasp!), talk about PG-13.
Jokes aside, the day was amazing. It was a great way to end (to a certain degree) our first year here at Kungsholmen.
List of Prizes
Best overall production—IB1, Julius Caesar
Best Script—EN1B, Hamlet
Best Actor—Shylock, ES1A, The Merchant of Venice
Best Actress—Prospera, ES1B, The Tempest
Best Supporting Actor—Cassius, IB1, Julius Caesar
Best Supporting Actress—Caliban, ES1B, The Tempest
Best Scenography—ES1B, The Tempest
Best Lights and Sound—EN1B, Hamlet
Best PR—EN1A, Macbeth
Audience Favourite—EN1B, Hamlet