"You will be able to get closer to Hamlet than you ever have before; you will come away richer for having been to this one...This telling is an intimate group effort and a journey that is a unique experience made the more unique because of each person there...Emily Carding does a courageous and intimate 50-minute portrayal of the core of the Prince’s story...The play is brought down to the essence of Hamlet’s experience and point of view."
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"Although I found this framing story a tiny bit confusing, the essentials of what's happening are easy to understand. We're here to stage a version of 'Hamlet,' with Carding in the title role, but with members of the audience filling the other parts...This is An Experience – an opportunity to encounter Shakespeare's most iconic story from the inside – and unless you happen to be an actor, it's an experience you'll never have had before...But if I'm honest, first and foremost, it was pure good fun."
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"Carding is fearless, her grasp of the material flawless and her energy boundless, although it is a shame that the acoustics in the venue are terrible, with the loudest bits of dialogue bouncing back and overwhelming each other. If the right venue can be found to absorb all the slings and arrows, the whips and scorns, the poison and the sword fights, and Carding gets participants who listen to her, this would be an even more compelling telling of one of Shakespeare’s best-known plays."
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"Although the instructions are clear and lines/directions simple enough, never seeing this specific production before results in an unavoidable nervousness regarding everyone catching their cues. This, for me as a participant, took away from enjoying Emily Carding’s performance as Hamlet, which was only inches away...So, even though the performance is bold in its participatory element and features terrific acting by Carding – the overall ‘experience’ is somewhat lacking."
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"On paper, it may sound gimmicky, but it allows the audience to meet the one of Shakespeare’s most complex characters at a very personal level. Outside the framework of Shakespeare’s play, Carding’s melancholy seems utterly genuine and all we want to do is help him. Sigfusdottir’s adaptation and Carding’s sensitive interpretation provide a shortcut to the empathy that many Hamlets crave but seldom achieve."
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