Reviews for The Philanderer

The average rating for The Philanderer based on 2 reviews is 5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2008-05-18 00:00:00 Denny Wisemen Hamlet, abridged: GHOST/DAD: Hamlet, your uncle killed me and married your mom. I want vengeance, so best get to murdering, plzthnx. HAMLET: EEK! OPHELIA: Hamlet, are you okay? HAMLET: Get away from me, skankwhore! OPHELIA: WTF? *goes from zero to crazy like that* GERTRUDE: Kid, you need therapy. HAMLET: And you need to be less of AN ADULTEROUS WHORE! POLONIUS: OMG so rude! HAMLET: Eavesdropping? I KEEL YOU! *play goes on hold while Hamlet talks to skeletons* LAERTES: You killed my dad and drove my sister to suicide, you jerk! I challenge you to a duel! HAMLET: I KEEL YOU! CLAUDIUS: MWAHAHAHA! I put poison in your goblet, Hamlet! GERTRUDE: Yum, poisoned wine. *dies* CLAUDIUS: Whoops, my bad. HAMLET: I KEEL YOU! GHOST/DAD: Wow, nice job son. Except for the part where you're bleeding all over my castle. HAMLET: Ah, dammit. *dies* And then the even more abridged version: ROCKS FALL, EVERYONE DIES. The end. Really, what's not to love? Read for: 12th grade AP English BONUS (courtesy of Married to the Sea, a webcomic you should probably read on a regular basis): BONUS BONUS: Speaking of Ophelia...

Review # 2 was written on 2007-05-12 00:00:00 Troy Fitzgerald I don't have any earth-shattering insights to share from this most recent of god-knows-how-many readings, but this time through I was struck by: 1) what a damn fine piece of stagecraft this is, from the suspenseful, moody opening on the castle battlements to the solemn dead march carrying the prince offstage, and 2) how Shakespeare seems to want Hamlet's personality--particularly the wellspring of his actions (and lack of action)--to remain an enigma, and that he achieves this by infusing the character with so much of himself--so much wit and poetry, so much despondency and savagery--that the result is that the audience simply bows before the great mystery of human personality, and that this reverence for the unknown lurking in the heart of an extraordinary man intensifies the sense of pity, horror and waste that fills us at the end of the play.