Argus Angel Award-winner
See the trailer here!
SOMETHING ROTTEN
Brother to a murdered king... Husband to a widowed queen... Uncle to an orphaned prince... Let’s get to know him: Claudius, King of Denmark.
Jumping off from the most celebrated play in theatrical history - let’s face it, one of the most celebrated works of art in any medium - Robert Cohen’s award-winning one-man show looks from a new angle at the tale of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark.
Claudius is one of the most tantalising of Hamlet’s cast of characters, a man who evokes an abundance of questions that mostly go unanswered. In one sense, Shakespeare gives it to us straight: Claudius acknowledges his “foul murder”, committed for “My crown, mine own ambition, and my queen”.
But whence came that ambition? How long has he coveted his brother’s crown – and how long his wife? How long since she first gave herself to him? And what of his nephew? What was the state of their relationship prior to all this unpleasantness? Perchance there was a true familial fondness once upon a time – a real avuncular bond – only then, of course, Claudius went and murdered his nephew's father, supplanted him in the succession, married his mother and became his wicked stepfather...
As Marcellus would have it, “something is rotten in the state of Denmark”, but is Claudius to blame for it all, or is he, to paraphrase from elsewhere in the Shakespearean canon, a man at least a little more sinned against than sinning?
Something Rotten was premiered at the Barnstaple Fringe Theatrefest, and went on to win an Argus Angel award at the 2016 Brighton Fringe. See the reviews so far. Next performance: Upstairs @ The Western, Leicester, 2nd March 2018.
Claudius is one of the most tantalising of Hamlet’s cast of characters, a man who evokes an abundance of questions that mostly go unanswered. In one sense, Shakespeare gives it to us straight: Claudius acknowledges his “foul murder”, committed for “My crown, mine own ambition, and my queen”.
But whence came that ambition? How long has he coveted his brother’s crown – and how long his wife? How long since she first gave herself to him? And what of his nephew? What was the state of their relationship prior to all this unpleasantness? Perchance there was a true familial fondness once upon a time – a real avuncular bond – only then, of course, Claudius went and murdered his nephew's father, supplanted him in the succession, married his mother and became his wicked stepfather...
As Marcellus would have it, “something is rotten in the state of Denmark”, but is Claudius to blame for it all, or is he, to paraphrase from elsewhere in the Shakespearean canon, a man at least a little more sinned against than sinning?
Something Rotten was premiered at the Barnstaple Fringe Theatrefest, and went on to win an Argus Angel award at the 2016 Brighton Fringe. See the reviews so far. Next performance: Upstairs @ The Western, Leicester, 2nd March 2018.