Review: SH!T-FACED SHAKESPEARE: HAMLET, Leicester Square Theatre

The latest drunken venture coming from Magnificent Bastard Productions's ludicrously perverse minds is the story of everybody's favourite tragically sad guy: Hamlet. The preamble is simple: each performance sees the professionally trained cast dealing with the aftermath of an afternoon spent drinking by one of them. What ensues is an ever-changing, unpredictable show that's guaranteed to have the audience in stitches.

"I'm sorry, Shakespeare!" David Ellis - chosen to be "Classically, Shakespeareanly drunk" on press night - screams as he races through Hamlet's big lines in a moment of clearness only to fail miserably in a shamble of half-slurred mumbles. The show is excellently and delightfully rude. Watching the rest of the company having to fuse whatever nonsense the drunk actor comes up with is as fascinating as seeing the latter struggling to remember his part in its specifics, if not the plot entirely.

A glitter-clad Emcee-of-sorts policies the banter, keeping the play running right on schedule and making sure basic health and safety rules are respected, as well as intruding to stop the action to have Ellis apologise to Matthew Seager's Claudius and the room for saying the c-word. The ensemble is snappy and energetic; nothing the incapacitated actor does or says goes unnoticed and throwaway rambles become running jokes specifically tailored for that night's crowd.

Profanities, good-hearted insults, mischief, and lots and lots of cheek are the bricks that make this throughly well-paced comedy. The actors are exceptionally versatile, delivering clockwork improvisation as well as Shakespeare's own (adapted) speeches, unashamed to stifle their laughs while the house explodes as a result of the nightly culprit. It's a perfectly designed, fickle show but one thing is certain: this side-splitting take on Hamlet is sure to be an exhilarating night out.

Sh!t-faced Shakespeare: Hamlet runs at Leicester Square Theatre until 14 September.

Photo credit: Rah Petherbridge Photography

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