Open Rehearsal: The Court Theatre Blog
November 3, 2009
Mystery Allusion #4
Charles Ludlam’s knowledge of literature was formidable, and he peppered The Mystery of Irma Vep with canny allusions. We’re featuring several of those allusions every week until the opening of The Mystery of Irma Vep. Today’s selection is:
HAMLET by William Shakespeare
BACKGROUND: Universally regarded as the navel of Western drama, deemed by T.S. Eliot an “artistic failure,” it received its first performance sometime around 1602 by the Lord Chamberlain’s Men with Shakespeare starring as the Ghost.
THE ALLUSION: This one’s a twofer:
| THE MYSTERY OF IRMA VEP | HAMLET |
| Lord Edgar: From his fair and unpolluted flesh May violets spring! | Laertes: Lay her in the earth, And from her fair and unpolluted flesh May violets spring. |
| Lord Edgar: Enid, there are more things on heaven and earth than are dreamed of in our philosophies! | Hamlet: There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy. |
And for your edification, 3 Hamlet‘s:
1. Sir Laurence Olivier’s “Yorick” speech:
2. Charlie Newell’s Hamlet at Court Theatre (with Yasen Peyankov as the Gravedigger):
3. The Wooster Group’s Hamlet, performed in front of the Richard Burton Hamlet:
Check this blog again for a brand new Ludlam literary trick!
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