←Recommendations of Noir Hamlet -- Festival Version

Very few things bring me more delight than a well-executed parody. John Minigan's combined comedic (non-)sensibilities and obviously intimate knowledge of Hamlet make each plot deviation and tongue-in-cheek reference a joy to behold. Also, sneaking in a quote from The Mourning Bride while discussing Gertrude? Brilliant!

In NOIR HAMLET, John Minigan achieves the impossible. He takes Shakespeare's beloved tragedy and turns it into a short, fun, comedy, while maintaining that familiar storyline. If you like HAMLET, but you need a play that's not so heavy or long and you have a small cast, look no further. Highly recommend.

Absolutely hysterical. This shorter version of the play moves very quickly--and cohesively. Filled with brilliant wordplay and deliberate callbacks (repetition is the mother of wit), this script does exactly what it says on the tin, and it does it incredibly well. I especially would love to see the scene in the morgue with Yorick-the-skull live. Loved it!

A riveting noir that has us in its grip as we follow Hamlet on the road to discovery about his father's death, protecting his mother and holding on to his own love. Well done!

Under the auspices of YASPLZ LLC, I co-produced this crowd pleaser at the 2019 Edinburgh Festival Fringe. It is a peerless, rousing mashup of those '40s tough talking detective movies and the Bard's classic. Don't know what "film noir" is? Haven't brushed up on your Shakespeare lately? No problem: this comedy packs a theatricality that appeals to audiences, young and old and from around the world. It's a fast paced hour of laughs and surprises.

In “Noir Hamlet," John Minigan treats audiences to a brilliant translation of Shakespeare’s Hamlet into the language of classic Hollywood film noir. The result is high jinx and plays on plays: a morgue for the graveyard; a talking skull; Ophelia as an aspiring cabaret singer/femme fatale; a family of gumshoes for royal intriguers; and sunny Los Angeles for gloomy Elsinore. Snappy dialog, double entendre, and “words, words, words” transform tragedy into comedy, with an ending you won’t see coming. This short festival version is highly recommended for high schools and touring companies. Audiences will love it.

Hamlet meets film noir and Shakespeare is jumping up and down saying, “Yes! This is what I was trying to write but there was no Los Angeles yet.” Minigan is scarily clever with the Bard and if you’re not a Hamlet scholar, you will still have too much fun trying to make sense of this murder mystery where the ending cannot be more unpredictable. Whether you like your murder “neat,” or “on the rocks,” you will find this goes down smoothly with a sweet, small burn. Enjoy! And hope it comes to a theatre near you.

Saw this at The Edinburgh Fringe 2019. Very funny! Very smart! Quick pacing with a tommy gun spray of laughs to boot. I hope to see the full version some day. Someone produce it!

Noir Hamlet is the funniest, most inventive, superbly written new play I have seen in the past five years! To say the premise and the writing are extremely clever doesn't do it justice. Noir Hamlet is everything you want from an evening of theater... and then some. I can't wait to see it again and to see any other plays John has written. Anyway who can write a play like Noir Hamlet is worth paying close attention to.