Distraught Hamlet marries Ragusa (Meghan Leathers), a young woman whom he detests, and a series of intrigues involving Gertrude's servant, Cascan (an understated yet mesmerizing Alex Draper), leads to a pileup of bodies reminiscent of the final scene of Shakespeare's original work. Read 2 reviews from the world's largest community for readers. It is not the first time Barker took an existing play as the basis for a reworking. Lunney's brilliant Claudius gradually withers as his longing to hear Gertrude's cry again transforms him into a puling whelp. Smoke fills the air, and Mark Evancho's set of gray-stone masonry creates a modern Gothic atmosphere that looks like it's just waiting for someone to die. 22 June 2016 Edward Lukes. Howard Barker's dark and disarmingly funny riff on Hamlet, Gertrude — The Cry takes the moral world of Shakespeare's play and turns it on its head. Club members can see a different show every night of the week. Company Credits: Skylight Theatre Ensemble, Blue Room Theatre: Murdoch Affiliation: School of Social Sciences and Humanities: Other Information: You cannot call it love; for, at y The play does not hew especially close to the plot of Hamlet, in the fashion of Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. Enjoy live events at insider prices. In Cry, the Beloved Country Gertrude is the main character's sister. Complimentary and Deeply Discounted Shows. [2], Webpage on Gertrude on The Wrestling School website, "HOWARD BARKER IN CONVERSATION WITH DAVID IAN RABEY (2/2)", The Seduction of Almighty God by the Boy Priest Loftus in the Abbey of Calcetto, 1539, The Angel of Vengeance – The Female Hamlet, The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged), To Be or Not to Be: That is the Adventure, A Performance of Hamlet in the Village of Mrdusa Donja, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Gertrude_–_The_Cry&oldid=986174975, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 30 October 2020, at 07:27. Discounted NYC Show Tickets for Gertrude: The Cry Available Online. Gertrude- the Cry. Gertrude – The Cry is a play by British playwright Howard Barker. Gertrude – The Cry runs through 30 June. As the king expires, Gertrude and Claudius copulate above the corpse. The play refocuses Shakespeare’s Hamlet through female characters and makes for an interesting puzzle. The one for which I feel the greatest satisfaction in". In Barker’s play, as its title suggests, Gertrude is the central character. Hamlet is puritanical and exceedingly disgusted by his mother's sexual activity. Gertrude -- The Cry is playwright Howard Barker’s response to Hamlet, or rather, his rewriting of Hamlet focused on Gertrude’s sexuality. This is not a regular “retelling” of a well-known story–nor should it be, under playwright Howard Barker’s pen. By signing up you are confirming you are 16 or over. In Howard Barker's Gertrude – the Cry, Denmark's Queen ceases to be a mystery woman – with a vengeance. Its original production featured actors Tom Burke, Sean O'Callaghan, Jason Morell, Justin Avoth, Emma Gersch, Jane Bertish and Victoria Wicks. Gertrude – The Cry is similar to these topics: Judith: A Parting from the Body, The Dying of Today, The Seduction of Almighty God by the Boy Priest Loftus in the Abbey of Calcetto, 1539 and more. Originally performed in Elsinor Castle in 2002, this is a version of events featuring a highly sexualised Gertrude. Drama. In 1991, he re-imagined Chekhov's Uncle Vanya in his play Vanya, and in 1986 he adapted Thomas Middleton's Women Beware Women. It's not always clear what Barker is getting at with his enigmatic plot twists and sometimes perplexing character motivations, but Romagnoli avoids the potential pitfall of letting Barker's language take itself too seriously. If you do not understand the sacred, do not enter the theatre. This tragedy is the contemporary tale of 42 years old Queen Gertrude, Hamlet’s nymphomaniac mother. [1] Its original production featured actors Tom Burke, Sean O'Callaghan, Jason Morell, Justin Avoth, Emma Gersch, Jane Bertish and Victoria Wicks. Gertrude -- The Cry/ Knowledge and a Girl book. "No playwright knows better than Howard Barker of the intimate relationship of sex and death, sin and ecstasy" - Lyn Gardner, in the Guardian, on Gertrude. At the funeral, Gertrude's prudish, petulant son, Hamlet (David Barlow), a poster child for officious morality, finds he cannot shed tears for his father, but he has no difficulty chiding his mother for her unabashedly sexual way of dressing. 2016-06-17. “Gertrude – The Cry” at Theatre N16. It doesn't take long for that to happen. See Gertrude: The Cry in New York City. Hamlet is indecisive. Gray, Robert Emmet Lunney, Alex Draper, D Gertrude – The Cry is a play by British playwright Howard Barker.The play had its world premiere in 2002, directed by the author, in the great hall of Elsinore Castle, Denmark as part of the annual international Hamlet Festival. As in Hamlet, the play is set in Elsinore Castle and its environs, but the time has shifted to the present. In the first eye-popping scene, Gertrude (a statuesque Pamela J. 3.0 Reviewer's Rating. For example, Gertrude and the rest of the family go to a church meeting to hear a black nun speaks about her experiences. In a compelling two and a half hours, Gertrude portrays the Dane's mother not as the guilt-ridden queen of Shakespeare's play but as a sexually voracious, society-defying mastermind behind her husband's murder. Directed by Richard Romagnoli. She’s far removed from the older, genteel and fragile woman who is usually seen on stage. Barker, along with an electrifying cast, crafts a story with building and palpable intensity. By Howard Barker. Gray plays Gertrude with an elegant ferocity, reveling in the ecstasy of instinct. Its original production featured actors Tom Burke, Sean O'Callaghan, Jason Morell, Justin Avoth, Emma Gersch, Jane Bertish and Victoria Wicks. I was immediately interested in Gertrude—The Cry, a play examining the passions of a woman mostly known for being the mother of a famously temperamental Danish prince.. Howard Barker. Hamlet in Gertrude, the Cry by Howard Barker is relegated to second level and no longer a central character. Simple lighting too – greens, with some white spots occasionally providing sidelight through the doors at the sides of the acting space. First produced in London in 2002, Gertrude is now receiving its U.S. premiere at Atlantic Stage 2 in an inspired production for Potomac Theatre Project. … Calder, 2002 - Fiction - 137 pages. In William Shakespeare's play Hamlet, Gertrude is Hamlet's mother and Queen of Denmark. 1 talking about this. Its original production featured actors Tom Burke, Sean O'Callaghan, Jason Morell, Justin Avoth, Emma Gersch, Jane Bertish and Victoria Wicks. Gertrude – The Cry: | ||Gertrude – The Cry|| is a |play| by British |playwright| |Howard Barker|. (Danielle Nieves' costumes for Gertrude, complete with stunning hats, are fabulous.) Home/Drama/ Gertrude: The Cry – Theatre N16, London. In this dark drama, playwright Howard Barker brilliantly re-imagines the story of "Hamlet" through the eyes of his mother, Gertrude. Instead, Barker's play freely plots its own course as he meditates on the nature of morality, which makes for some heavy Act 2 philosophizing. His actors effectively bring out the searing comedy hidden in Barker's dark words. Gertrude sells alcohol and is also a prostitute. With Pamela J. Its original production featured actors Tom Burke, Sean O'Callaghan, Jason Morell, Justin Avoth, Emma Gersch, Jane Bertish and Victoria Wicks. The Play’s the Thing UK is committed to covering fringe and progressive theatre in London and beyond. G ertrude- the Cry is Howard Barker’s response to Shakespeare’s ‘Hamlet’. Abstract. 0 Reviews. Stay abreast of discount offers for great theater, on Broadway or in select cities. Produced in London in 2002, Potomac Theatre Project brings the play to New York for the first time in their summer repertory season at Atlantic Stage 2. Complicit in her husband’s murder from the off, Gertrude begins a tempestuous and raw physical relationship with Claudius, much to the disgust of her prudish son Hamlet. 0 Reviews. Gertrude: The Cry ; And, Knowledge and a Girl : the Snow White Case. Seeing her dying husband, naked Gertrude utters a primal cry that is part nauseous wretch and part orgasm, and that drives Claudius mad with desire. For ‘Gertrude. Still, this production offers tremendous rewards as it considers the need to shatter moral codes in order to save civilization. Barker has placed her at centre stage with spanking new interpretation of her action and attitude. View our Privacy Policy. Gertrude, No Prude, So Lewd! Gertrude – The Cry is a play by British playwright Howard Barker. Gertrude (The Cry): AND Knowledge and a Girl (The Snow White Case) by Howard Barker (12-Sep-2002) Paperback: Books - Amazon.ca Its original production featured actors Tom Burke, Sean O'Callaghan, Jason Morell, Justin Avoth, Emma Gersch, Jane Bertish and Victoria Wicks. The Cry’, the only stage dressing is a few basic wooden chairs. The play had its world premiere in 2002, directed by the author, in the great hall of Elsinore Castle, Denmark as part of the annual international Hamlet Festival. Gertrude – The Cry is Howard Barker's reworking of Shakespeare's Hamlet, focusing on the character of Gertrude, the mother of the protagonist in Shakespeare's play. Though the second act tends to get a little mired in its conceits, we're permitted a little schadenfreude while watching the lives of the play's self-indulgent characters unravel. Gertrude reveals no guilt in her marriage with Claudius after the recent murder of her husband, and Hamlet begins to show signs of jealousy towards Claudius. Gertrude—The Cry. And Kates is a riot; her Isola dislikes everyone, and she sounds like your scolding nana from Brooklyn. She is the reason why Stephen Kumalo comes to Johannesburg . His mother, however, is a lot more resolute. London's first major revival of Howard Barker's reworking of the Shakespeare’s classic Hamlet. Drama London Review Shakespeare Shakespeare 400 Gertrude: The Cry – Theatre N16, London. You may wind up feeling confused at the end of Gertrude — The Cry. Richard Romagnoli's smart direction makes Barker's thematically complex play accessible and entertaining. Chris Hislop is a brave director. Claudius' mother, Isola (Kathryn Kates), is no fan of Gertrude's sluttishness, either, so Isola tempts Gertrude into seducing the duke of Mecklenberg (Bill Army). Howard Barker's rare, bold and brassy revival of Gertrude - The Cry is receiving a limited run at Theatre N16 Balham in June. Her relationship with Hamlet is somewhat turbulent, since he resents her marrying her husband's brother Claudius after he murdered the king. Yes, with Howard Barker, even the peripheral theatre-etiquette notices are characteristically lapidary. Gray) and Claudius (Robert Emmet Lunney) come upon the sleeping king of Denmark (Gertrude's husband and Claudius' brother). GERTRUDE – THE CRY Riverside Studios, London W6 Opened 23 October, 2002 "Tragedy is a sacred art. It is run entirely voluntarily and needs regular support to ensure its survival. Gertrude: The Cry ; And, Knowledge and a Girl : the Snow White Case. The Potomac Theatre Project returns to Atlantic Stage 2 this summer with two main-stage productions. Gertrude – The Cry is a play by British playwright Howard Barker.The play had its world premiere in 2002, directed by the author, in the great hall of Elsinore Castle, Denmark as part of the annual international Hamlet Festival. Gertrude —The Cry, Howard Barker's 2002 cerebral/visceral take on Shakespeare's Hamlet, opens with an eye-searing bang—in both the metaphoric and the colloquially crude meaning of the term—in the Potomac Theatre Project's heady production at Atlantic Stage 2.. At its center of it all is Gertrude, Hamlet's mother (Pamela J. The play had its world premiere in 2002, directed by the author, in the great hall of Elsinore Castle, Denmark as part of the annual international Hamlet Festival. Gertrude does so, even after learning that she is pregnant. 2 minutes read. Seeing her dying husband, naked Gertrude utters a primal cry that is part nauseous wretch and part orgasm, and that drives Claudius mad with desire. Gertrude - The Cry, traces out every detailed step of pleasure, politics, and agony leading up to the tragic end. Unable to recreate her 'cry', Gertrude tries to find what drives her lust – and in doing so, gains power over all of the men around her. The Reviews Hub - London 12/06/2016. – Please, absolutely no food, drinks or mobile phones in the theatre." Gertrude's sexuality reveals something interesting (and kind of troubling) about Cry, the Beloved Country 's view of women in general. Drama. Gertrude: The Cry. Gertrude's cry, in Barker's words, is "the cry of a damaged world.". Gertrude – The Cry is a play by British playwright Howard Barker.The play had its world premiere in 2002, directed by the author, in the great hall of Elsinore Castle, Denmark as part of the annual international Hamlet Festival. Claudius orders Gertrude to remove her clothing — "Let me see why I am killing" — then pours poison into the king's ear. 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