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Dogg’s
Hamlet and Cahoot’s Macbeth It is hard to tell whether Tom Stoppard loves Shakespeare or loathes him, but one thing is for sure: he is certainly obsessed with him. To those not in the know, the first reaction to the title of this play must be “huh- what’s ‘Dogg’ or ‘Cahoot’”? What’s the sense or the reference? And that’s what you’ll find yourself still trying to work out throughout the play, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Your brain is constantly engaged in an attempt to understand the private language that is used. The language game is played in an amusing way in the first play, Dogg’s Hamlet: Dogg is the language spoken in a particular school and the comedy kicks in when ‘cretinous git’ has the same sense as ‘what’s the time’ in the normal world. Go figure. The second half, Cahoot’s Macbeth, has a different mood to it, and feels slightly like the result of a channel switch from late night Channel 4 to BBC 1. It is, afterall, dedicated to Kahout, a Czech playwright who lived in the period of ‘normalization’ following the fall of Dubcek in the 1970s. In an oblique way, it refers to the first play for its sense; the play conveys a sense of how ‘normalization’ was anything but normal, and also how the world of theatre spoke a different language from politics. Both plays are clear and distinct entities, but Dogg’s Hamlet is a necessary condition for Cahoot’s Macbeth to be understood, though definitely not sufficient, as it has an independent historical reference, of which knowledge of is necessary to fully grasp its significance. (NB: The programme booklet is a worthwhile investment.) The acting is on the whole excellent, with great comic timing, and the audience is treated to a which is highly amusing reduced Hamlet segment. A very commendable production of a play that promises to be as timeless as Hamlet and Macbeth themselves. Wittgenstein once remarked that a serious work of philosophy could ‘consist entirely of jokes’. If a comic work of drama could ‘consist entirely of philosophy’, this is it. Ching Li Tor, 12.06.02 |