I think Stage Blood is a very effective comic version of Hamlet. In order to achieve this, it just changes the circumstances slightly and it can no longer be taken seriously by the audience. When it suddenly becomes tragedy in "inappropriate" situations, it looses the tragic component and can be nothing else but funny. It plays on what we as a society see as situations that are naturally funny; for example, a toilet -- even with the head of a corpse in it, it is still funny. By just slightly tweaking the conventions and understanding the symbolism and what objects are usually associated with what, a great tragedy can be turned into a great comedy. Another aspect, I think, is the fact that none of the characters really seem to treat it as a tragedy. They are not devastated by the "tragic" events; they just bounce back with another twist in the plot, ready to move onto the next thing. They play into clichés constantly and over exaggerate them so that they become an integral part of the comedy and not just an annoying overused side bar.
Posted by brek0075 at February 16, 2005 10:30 AM