Fate and the Bard

It was a week of Shakespearean coincidences last week. I viewed a video remake of Macbeth from the BBC ShakepeaRe-told series then attended a Canberra Rep production of Humble boy, a recent play on a Hamlet theme. But the strange thing was meeting Duncan during the interval who warned me of naming “The Scottish Play”. Spooky! Not really, but the plays were interesting.

The Macbeth was one of a series of four BBC TV plays. These were retellings in modern guise, with new script, in different surroundings, but basically following the plot of the original. And as you’d expect from today’s Britain, this was clever and engrossing. Joe Macbeth is the sous chef and Ella, Joe’s wife, is Maître d' for the Michelin 3-starred restaurant of celebrity chef Duncan Docherty. Committed chefs Joe and Billy Banquo are upset that Duncan gets the credit and his son Malcolm will get the business. Three rubbish collectors appear with predictions and deaths follow, and Joe must beware of head waiter Peter Macduff. Ring any bells? Beautiful stark imagery, clever interpretation and clear parallels. With TV like this you can really believe in a Cool Britannia.

The Hamlet derivative was an award-winning play that premiered in London around 2004. Felix Humble’s father has died. His mother, Flora, is planning an overhasty marriage to George Pye (the future Humble-Pyes). She was an ex-model with a taste for the good life who married a bright but mild schoolteacher with training in biology and who kept a well weeded garden and had a passion for bees. Felix, estranged from his mother, is an astrophysicist with a nervous stutter. There are various twists around old lovers (presumably Rose as Ophelia, but much more steady), an unknown daughter, the father’s ashes (Yorick’s skull?), the meek neighbour Mercy (Polonius?), Jim the gardener as the ghost and references to bumblebees and black holes and even to Glen Miller. It was entertaining and sometimes touching, and clever, especially if you know its source, Hamlet. The cast was James Scott (Felix), Naoné Carrel (Flora), Helen Vaughan-Roberts (Mercy), Jason Savage (Jim, the gardener), David Bennett (George Pye) and Jodi McAlister (Rose, George’s daughter). Humble Boy was written by Charlotte Jones and directed by Corille Fraser for the Canberra Repertory Society. Another clever piece of English literary art.