MESSING around with Shakespeare is always a tricky business, writes Victoria Finlay. To make the rewritten scripts work, latterday bards have to make them fast and sharp. Hong Kong Hamlet, written by Joe Studwell and Tom Hope, is not consistently either, although it has its moments.
Hamlet Hamlet, played with tremendous energy by Geoffrey Tsang, returns from Canada to find that his tycoon father has been found dead in the pool with a manhole cover around his neck. The inquest decided it was suicide, but as Hamlet confides to his shrink - played convincingly by Dr Bernard Murphy - he suspects murder.
Meanwhile Hamlet's mother, a legislative counsellor, is about to marry Claudius Chao, Hamlet senior's former business partner - which makes Hamlet's flesh creep.
With Ophelia an environmentalist, furious about the Three Gorges project, and the watchmen obsessed by vintage cognac, the play provides an enjoyable view of Hong Kong today. The main actors gave smooth performances, and Courtney Wu as a pouting, plodding Rosencrantz was delightfully comic.
Hong Kong Hamlet, Not Sp Loud Theatre Company, Fringe Club Theatre. February 3-5.