Were it to play at Elsinore, Polonius would probably announce Michael Hurst's first one-man show as "tragical-comical-historical-pastoral", for it is a giddy grab-bag of Shakespearean riffs.
Suicidal tendencies are the subject of absurdist comedy ("why am I wearing tights?" asks a bewildered character in Hamlet's doublet and hose); while Sean Lynch dims the lights to make Macbeth's murderous intent genuinely menacing. Hurst - spittle flying - changes gear smoothly and rapidly from pathos to melodrama to slapstick.
With a script he penned with directors Natalie Medlock and Dan Musgrove (writers of Basement Christmas ensemble pieces Toys and Christ Almighty!), Hurst plays blockbuster tragic heroes Hamlet, Macbeth, Othello and Lear as they bicker in an actor's grungy bedsit (designed by John Verryt).
Hurst uses his rich voice and fascinating face rather than his straight-backed body to differentiate between the men, and his characterisation of Macbeth as a foul-mouthed, cheerful, bragging "dwarfish thief" (as Shakespeare put it) is particularly enjoyable. In a successful Scots accent he taunts Hamlet for being the beribboned-bootie-wearing "ponce of Denmark".
Those with at least a school-earned familiarity with the tragedies will glean the most from the hour, for in the midst of a good bard career, Hurst has one or two meaty comments to make on Shakespeare's oeuvre.
