Sound and Fury’s Hamlet & Juliet

Reviewed by Alexandra Lekis

On a sleepy Sunday morning, in an almost deserted Gluttony, a dozen eager viewers and reviewers gathered to watch the matinee performance of Sound and Fury’s Hamlet & Juliet. The three lads from Los Angeles who are Sound and Fury have combined the two plays by William Shakespeare, Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet, and have created a comedic treat.

These jolly jesters preceded their show by chatting with the audience to kill time because one of the trio had supposedly wandered off. Then, to wait for any late comers who could boost the numbers of our intimate audience, they began requesting questions from the crowd. There were no takers. After this slightly awkward start they powered on courageously and had the audience giggling in seconds. By combining the classic lines and soliloquies from Shakespeare’s plays with modern lingo and a multitude of sexual innuendos, the story began. The hero of our tale was Hamlet. Hamlet’s father is murdered by his uncle so that he can marry someone in the family, was it Hamlet’s mother? I don’t know, it was hard to tell. Next, Hamlet spies Juliet at a party and soon enough the classic Romeo and Juliet balcony scene is being played out before our eyes…but not quite. Hamlet is now Romeo and Juliet is acting a little crazy and, well, masculine.

Making up for the occasional nonsense and confusing storyline (umm, what exactly was Sean Connery doing under the white bed sheet as Hamlet’s father’s ghost?) their swordplay and witty wordplay had the audience in stitches.

Never missing a beat during their one hour show, the trio left the audience wondering how much of their performance was scripted or if their improv. could possibly be so incredibly quick-witted. With clever and, at times, downright smutty dialogue, Sound and Fury’s Hamlet & Juliet is definitely worth forking out a penny and a farthing at this year’s Adelaide Fringe Festival.

Sound and Fury’s Hamlet & Juliet, Gluttony (The Bally), Feb 19 to March 2