Horatio, In Thy Heart at Jack Studio Review
Written by George for Theatre and Tonic
Disclaimer: Gifted tickets in exchange for an honest review. All views are our own
Scrawled in the margins of Shakespeare’s play, Horatio draws his breath in laughter and pain to tell the story of someone jangled out of tune – himself. Horatio has followed his situationship home for Christmas break. The fact that the young man in question is heir to the throne of Denmark, and the son of a murdered warlord, soon proves to be the least of his worries.
In my opinion, this script, written and performed by Merlin Stevens, was not written in a way that aided a one person show. There were multiple moments where Stevens was having conversations between two characters and physically stepping from side-to-side to play both parts. It made for very unclear storytelling and the audience could have benefitted from Stevens giving clearer characterisation to differentiate from character to character. Hamlet and Horatio were performed so similarly that I often didn’t know which character was speaking, which easily confused a story that for many audience members without a working knowledge of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, could already be quite difficult to follow. The character of Horatio is a very interesting point of focus and the script follows Horatio during his friendship with Hamlet at university, tying in the ghosts of his family and friends along the way. I would have loved to see more of a personality given to this character, the script was very much written to narrate the whole story, allowing it to wash over me as opposed to making me think about what was being played out and the character I was discovering in more detail.
I also feel that bigger, more experimental choices could have been made by director, Arden Fitzroy to make scenes in the play more visually interesting. Many of the moments were completely still and lacked dynamics. The most cheerful scenes of the play came in the form of two characters being performed as sock puppets, a comedic and fun energy that I would have liked to see throughout to give more variety and rhythm to the show and characters.
However, the strongest elements of this production came from the detailed lighting and sound design by Hector Laszlo Cosmetatos. Challenged with creating the ghosts that Horatio can hear and see in his world, he made excellent use of voice recordings with the sound balanced between the speakers in the auditorium to feel as though the ghosts were moving around you. Cosmetatos used squares of light to create the ghosts presence on stage and although simple, his effective use of cold and warm colours transported the audience to many different places as the story unfolded. Cosmetatos’ design is a clear example of how technical elements can tell a story and bring life to the world of a production.
Overall, I feel that Horatio, In Thy Heart needed more of a bubbly energy and pace to keep the audience engaged with the story of Horatio. Stevens and Fitzroy have an interesting idea that has the ability to take a new form and leaning into the more comedic side could open up the characters and story for the audience in a very unique way and breathe life into the world of the play in the same way as Cosmetatos’ design.
Horatio, In Thy Heart completes its run at Jack Studio Theatre on Saturday 18th of July.
★★
