Director’s Note

Somewhere an audience shuffles in their seats. Somewhere an orchestra sits silently ready. Somewhere lights flood the floorboards of a stage bigger than any you have ever seen. Somewhere the most moving production of Hamlet ever staged is going on. 

This is not the show you are watching tonight.

Instead you get to watch two people stuck in place as the world moves around them, through them, with them. 

~

This play is full of life, which is funny for a play that announces itself as about death from the first five words you hear about it. 

I am thankful to the crew who have worked tirelessly behind the scenes to construct a vision that I very poorly described in words and hand movements. Each and every one of them have put together elements of a show that are ambitious, exciting, and individual.

The cast have built a world that is intricate and exciting and I hope they know how joyful it is to watch them create, how often I have been struck with utter delight , and how excited I am for them to share this with you, and for anything and everything they ever do with themselves. Thank you for indulging my whims, demands, and tricks.

Finally I cannot say enough how grateful I am to my producer, Jodi. Her contribution goes beyond what words can capture. She has the uncanny ability to know what is needed before anyone else knows they need it. She is caring and kind and full of strength, and this show could not have happened without her. I love you Jodi, please rest now.

~

This play has made me realise that I am a little bit messed up. It is funny at times, and sad a lot of the time, because sadness is funny and comedy is sad. I think a lot of us feel stuck in place as events crash on around us, like the world is the onstage whirlwind of Hamlet while we’re waiting in the wings for our time to come on and do something. I think we want to affect change but often struggle against pre-written forces that render us silent, forgotten, or dead.

I don’t want to turn this play into a bigger political statement than it is, but I hope that at least it draws you to get on stage and improvise a little bit, to push against what’s been written for you, and not to blame yourself too much for the things you cannot change about yourself.

Not every story is yours, but if you know that then you can start writing your own.

~