DOGG'S HAMLET, CAHOOT'S MACBETH -- Tom Stoppard

Samuel French, Inc -- playscript
New York -- ©1979 -- 83pp
ISBN: 0-573-60046-5
Full-length play; two one-act plays

This clever romp is two short plays. In the first, a troupe of English schoolboys (played by adults) speak in a mock language called "Dogg." This hilarious language babbles along until the schoolboys, who are studying Shakespeare's "foreign" language, present an incredibly funny 15 minute version of Hamlet and then encore with a two minute version! The second play, dedicated to dissident Czech dramatist Pavel Kohout, is about a performance of Macbeth he and his friends once staged in a living room since the government banned public performances. The action shifts between the bare stage and the police inquiry. The murder and intrigue of Shakespeare's play are juxtaposed with the Czech political harassment.

#####

I thought I knew this (these?) play(s), but having now read them, I realize that I've only seen a popular cutting from the Dogg's Hamlet section.

This play (actually two one acts, but they really do rely on one another to create a full play) is really rather unique and complicated. It is both hysterically funny and frighteningly intense. It is witty and clever, it incorporates two great Shakespeare plays quite well.

Of course I laughed through the beginning section of Dogg's Hamlet, but I didn't quite 'get' the transition to the Hamlet rehearsal/performance.

The "Cahoot" section was intriquingly intense, which let's up with the return of a "Dogg's" character.

I give this only three stars because, as literature to read, it is difficult and perhaps confusing. As theatre, this could be a really fun production in the hands of a director who has really explored it. I'd love to see this staged, fully....