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There is, of course, an almost Thatcher, has emphasized that Olivier turned Hamlet into a
direct "Goon Show" connection since there are "as many Hamlets banal psychodrama by excising all
in terms of personnel involved in as you like, Hamlet can be played the scenes concerned with the
the Shakespeare series for exam- in any way you like." Norwegians' invasion plans.
pie, Peter Cook, who will be lea- Thus he rolled almost frothing Egregious in the latest production
tured as a director in upcoming on the floor after seeing the ghost was the omission of the gravedig- °
efforts like The Taming of the of his father in act 1; and thus he, gers' act 5 discussion of whether
Shrew. Cook, otherwise a sur- with almost gay abandon, fever- Ophelia had committed suicide or
geon, started out in "Goon Show" ishly rolled his mother on her bed died of natural causes, and thus
circles, progressing through Brit- in the bedroom scene of act 3. whether she should receive Chrisish
satirical vehicles such as "Be-
As is usual in the case of Brit- tian burial or not.
yond the Fringe" with Dudley ish productions of Shakespeare, an In Hamlet, as in ail his other
Moore, perhaps best known to infallible indicator of the method plays, Shakespeare uses drama as a
Americans as a result of his per- that lies behind the destruction of weapon to develop a conception
formance opposite Bo Derek in dramatic conceptual content is not of the moral purpose of human
the movie 10. The current fad for only how various so-called char- species-existence. Since British itplantation
cotton-picking hair acters are portrayed, but what is rationalists cannot conceive that
styles isa result of Moore's efforts, intentionally cut out of the text of such a quality is an actual existence
The personnel side of the busi- the play itself, separating man from the lower
ness is more or less interesting in
its own right. What is more important
is the fact that the same
bestial commitment to the irrational
and psychotic which underlay
"The Goon Show" and
"Monty Python" are now imported
by the same peopte into
Shakespeare for the purpose of
further separating Americans from
their active connection to any
kind of culture celebrating the
Neoplatonic history of the development
of their country.
Shakespeare in general is still
known and loved by many Amer-"
icans, testimony to the fact that
that living connection to such a
past still, flourishes. But the cited
production was enough to turn
anybody's stomach, as if to emphasize
that it is no longer possible
to witness competent performances
of any of the classics of our
dramatic tradition anywhere
within these United States.
Hamlet as Thatcher's Disciple
The underlying irrationalism of
the production as a whole was
emphasized by the performance of
Derek Jacobi in the title role.
Jacobi, a political supporter of
the lunatic Friedmanite Margaret DerekJacobi:"asmanyHamletsasyou like"--but noneof themShakespeare's.
CAMPAIGNER / February 1981 47