Drama was never more fun or with
pun at the Lionel Wendt when stage light and magic presented `Hamlet at
Elsie’s Bar’
The character of William Shakespeare, played by Brandon Ingram and
Nathan Imboden was a good attempt to depict how it must have been like
to be a legendary writer without having writer’s block.
 Likewise,
William who spends quite a lot of time at his local watering hole with
friends Ben Jonson, Christopher Marlowe and John Donne, finally stumble
onto a brilliant story that is close to home. Finding inspiration from
the brick walls of Else’s Bar, the story of Hamlet unravels right in
front of his very eyes.
The play, the brainchild of Feroze Kamardeen, its director was
produced by Sirraj Abdul Hameed. It has some amazing talent that really
reveals how much drama in Sri Lanka has to offer. Ranil Gunawardane made
wonders with his music and Sonali White’s dazzling creations were really
worth writing about. Dilan Irugalbandara was the Vocal Director for the
production and the chemistry on stage was just ready to pop like a
heavily shaken champagne bottle.
The name `Elsie’ is a name coined from the actual Hamlet scene `Elsinore’,
the Danish castle which is the background of the play. However, certain
characters have been excluded and played around reflecting how difficult
it would be to reenact the whole Hamlet drama and more, it was quite a
breath of fresh air from the traditional norm that signifies drama.
The story unfolds at `Elsie’s Bar’ which is owned by Osric, but there
are problems within, as his brother Claude, employed by him, has an
affair with his wife Ophelia. The drama becomes melodramatic as Claude
challenges his brother in a drinking duel to uplift his position among
the drinking circles at the bar in a bid to win over Ophelia.
However, Claude poisons his brother’s drinking vessel and Osric dies
making Claude the owner of the bar with Ophelia by his side.
Horatio, realises that his uncle has poisoned his father and vows to
get revenge.
 Meanwhile,
Horatio’s girlfriend Layertee wants to get married soon but the two
waitresses - Gilda Stern and Rosie Crantz from the bar, lies that
Horatio is cheating.
This impels Layertee to write a letter ending their relationship
which adds more problems for Horatio who is dealing with the loss of his
father.William records all these happenings and then gives Horatio the
idea for stage a play where a king is killed by his brother, marries his
wife and claims the throne.
However, while confronting his mother Horatio about her love for
Claude and that he killed his father, he accidentally kills the two
waitresses for they eavesdrop on the conversation between the two. It is
his madness about his father’s death that leads him to destruction.
The stage actors finally act the play that written by William and
then Horatio looks at the reaction on Claude’s face. Very soon, Horatio
takes Claude on to a drinking duel and poisons his uncle’s mug.
Horatio’s mother and lover of Claude drinks the poisoned mug and she
dies too.
The drama ends with merriment when Horatio is made the rightful owner
of `Elsie’s bar’ and they all are supposed to live happily ever after
with Shakespeare having a story in the form of ‘Hamlet’.
Nilma
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