by Pat Cook
Presented by the Westbrook Village Players
Directed by: Linda Siegwald
The Westbrook Village Players will present Barbecuing Hamlet a farce by Pat Cook. The play will be performed March 8th, 9th, 10th & 11th in the Vistas Recreation Center Ballroom, 18825 N. Country Club Pkwy, Peoria, AZ 85382.
The cast consists of Mary Wright, Jim Roch, Rosa Leigh Sullivan, Max Allen, Debey Marti, Deb King, Brian Fry, Dennis Wells, LuAnne Wells, Vanessa Stiller, Helen King, James Borgman, Jeff Strickman, Kay Neighbors, and Nancy Roberts Borgman.
Play Synopsis:: Wouldn’t it be great fun to direct William Shakespeare’s Hamlet? That was what Margo Daley always thought until she is hired to do just that by the Peaceful Glen Memorial Players in their theater, a renovated funeral home.
They DO have a couple of conditions, however. Margo has to make the lay a melodrama, so the audience will know when to throw the popcorn. And they can’t be too loud because the lady who lives under the bangs her cane on the stage. Oh, and Margo has to insert the sponsor’s names into the play and, by the way, it has to take place in the Old West.
“And make sure the actors talk real loud because of all the noise the audience makes sucking their fingers.” states one of the council members, and occupational hazard brought about them selling barbecue before the show.
All kinds of eccentric characters come out of the woodwork in the riotous tribute to life on the community theater stage. Even the pizza delivery boy is given parts – several since Margo only has four actors to portray the five-act tragedy.
Fast lines and even faster exits punctuate this farce as Margo and her troupe of unwilling actors find out what it’s like when they begin Barbecuing Hamlet.
Tickets are available at the box office.
