SEASON ONE '08

MALTHOUSE THEATRE PRESENTS
POOR THEATRE'S

THE TRAGEDY OF HAMLET

PRINCE OF DARKNESS

A FILM BY OSCAR REDDING
AFTER WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
CAST ALEX BENMAYOR, MARTIN BLUM, HEATHER BOLTON, BETH BUCHANAN, STEPHEN CLEMENTS, DITCH DAVEY, ISAAC DRANDIC, JOHN FRANCIS HOWARD, GUY KABLE, ERIN LAMBIE, BRIAN LIPSON, STEVE MOUZAKIS, ADRIAN MULRANEY, TORQUIL NEILSON, MERFYN OWEN, RICHARD PYROS, CRAIG ROBINSON, JUDY RUTHERFORD, MARK WINTER, THOMAS WRIGHT

CINEMATOGRAPHER ARI WEGNER DESIGNER ADAM GARDNIR SOUND DESIGNERS ROB STEWART & ARLO MOUNTFORD MAKE-UP CHRISTINA MANANIS EDITOR FRANZ MORITZ SOUND JOEL VALERIE BOOM STEVE BOND GAFFER FABRICE GALLI LEGALS SHAUN MILLER, MARSHALLS & DENT SOUND PRODUCTION MUSIC & EFFECTS POST PRODUCTION DIGITAL PICTURES PRODUCERS ALEKS RADOVIC, OSCAR REDDING AND RICHARD PYROS

Poor Theatre’s cinematic adaptation of its acclaimed stage production of Hamlet played to sell-out crowds at the 2007 Melbourne International Film Festival. In 2008, the Tower Theatre was converted into a boutique cinema for an exclusive season of screenings.

Taken from the walls of Elsinore, this is a tragedy that shivers under the neon glare of Bourke Street billboards, a restless drama that races through the streets of our city. The Bard’s prose echoes in the subways of the CBD, permeates the flocked wallpaper of exclusive hotel rooms and sets alight the sands of St Kilda beach.

Like Denmark’s Dogme film movement, this Hamlet abandons convention to focus on the bleeding essence of its source material – a young man driven to the brink of insanity by outrageous fortune. Here, his only friend, Horatio becomes a hand-puppet, his only hope, a revenge as absurd as it is inevitable.