The 2006 Boulder International Fringe Festival, which ran August 17-28 in (not surprisingly) Boulder, featured a diverse collection of performing, visual, and cinematic art from Colorado and around the world. It also provided an opportunity to see local grous in an alternate venue, including Denver favorites Buntport Theatre and A.C.E. Comedy. I was able to attend Buntport’s new spoof of Shakespeare’s Hamlet entitled Something is Rotten, which will have a full run at Buntport in September.
The Boulder International Fringe Festival is a phenomenon unlike any other in the Colorado performing arts world, a “12-day un-juried arts event packed with live theatre, dance, circus art, media art, cinema, visual art, spoken word, puppetry, workshops, and storytelling.” The result is an eclectic mix of the bizarre and the conventional, comedy and drama, plays, dance, and film.
Something is Rotten is the latest original cration by the comic guniuses at Buntport. While many in theatre create spoofs and send-ups of classics, Buntport adds another dimension by building a story with idiosyncratic characters around Shakespeare’s play. It is not so much a spoof as it is a comedy built upon another play. And the Buntport gang (Evan Weissman, SamAnTha Schmitz, Erin Rollman, Hannah Duggan, Erik Edborg, and Brian Colonna) have outdone themselves, giving their three main characters the most bizarre, unpredictable, and brilliantly creative set of devices to present the cast of Hamlet that have ever been conceived.
The basic “story” of Something is Rotten is that three contemporary men are about to perform a somewhat unorthodox Hamlet, having been charged to do so by an unusual apparition (and “we take our apparitions very seriously”). But unfortunately, one of the three (George) is sound asleep as they arrive about to perform. This is apparently not uncommon, and gives Julius and Harold a chance to give some context and background. Since George continues to snooze, his compatriots decide to start the show without him. Of course, while George is an experienced actor, Julius and Harold (the characters, no the real actors) are not actually actors, so it is with great relief that George eventually wakes up, and immediately joins the others in the performance of Hamlet (as Hamlet). The rest of the characters are performed by an indescribably eclectic, creative, and hilarious mixture of puppets, mechanical devices, costume/mask combinations, and a pet fish, just to name a few. To mention more of the devices they’ve come up with would be to spoil the delightful surprise you’ll experience when you see the show.
The three actors (the real actors, not the characters that are also actors) are superb. Evan Weissman as Julius delivers his patented endearing awkwardness seen in other Buntport shows, but adds multiple levels including a steadfast determination and fierce affection for his pet fish. Erik Edborg is charming as Harold, and switches adeptyl between characters throughout. Brian Colonna has the most difficult task as George, for in addition to having to spend a good part of the show asleep, he bounces back and forth between funny bits and delivering many of Hamlet’s meaty lines seriously, creating another level of complexity and making the comedy even funnier. One of the biggest strengths of all three actors is their ability to turn on a dime, going from character to character and from slapstick to intellectual comedy to mock seriousness in the wink of an eye.
If you like Shakespeare and know and love Hamlet (as I do), you’ll love this show. If you don’t understand what the big deal is about Shakespeare and you hate Hamlet, you’ll erally love this show. Audience members that saw it at the Fringe rated it very highly and chose it as one of the “Picks of the Fringe.” If you want to see an amazing display of creativity and fall-off-your-chair-laughing comedy, head down to Buntport to see Something is Rotten as quickly as you can.
-Craig Williamson, September 7, 2006, North Denver Tribune