Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Nicely gruesome

Real skull used in Hamlet production. (Via The End of the Pier Show.)

2 comments:

  1. What's Hamlet? I've heard of the Spanish Tragedy, but not Hamlet. http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2008/11/decline-of-civi.html

    In honor of Thanksgiving, I'll be working on my own play, Turkeylet, featuring RosenCRAN and Gobblestern.

    Happy Thanksgiving!

    ReplyDelete
  2. This puts me in mind of the sad story of Del Close, an actor who was legendary in Chicago improv comedy circles. He died in 1999, and asked in his will that his skull be preserved and utilized by the Goodman Theater in any production of Hamlet, with his name properly listed in the cast credits. After the Goodman announced that Close had made his posthumous debut as Yorick, some reporter cracked the case and revealed that, due to some oversight, Close's noggin had been cremated before the Goodman had gotten their hands on it, but that they had managed to obtain some anonymous worthy's skull, had it bleached, and pretended that it was good ol' Del's. Although I am generally a great believer in the value of knowing the truth as often as possible, I can't help feeling that, in this situation, the reporter's investigative talents could have been put to better use. It's Chicago, f'rcrissakes!

    ReplyDelete