A boozy take on Hamlet keeps the laughs flowing and Shakespeare accessible – best enjoyed with a beer.
If you think Shakespeare is too high-brow, too slow, or too sober – Sh!t-faced Shakespeare is here to change your mind, pint (or Jubel beer) in hand.
Bringing high but lighthearted energy to the London scene, Sh!t-faced Hamlet delivers a condensed, irreverent take on the Danish tragedy, with one catch: a different cast member is genuinely drunk every night. This time, the inebriated crown rested on the head of Hamlet himself – a first in my experience – and it created a fascinating shift in the dynamic. While with previous shows I have seen the love interest or a more peripheral character take on the alcoholic gauntlet, putting the title role under the influence is a bold move, and one that resulted in moments of brilliant disruption, but occasionally at the cost of the play’s rhythm and clarity.
Highlights included Hamlet sneaking into scenes he wasn’t in to applaud dastardly going-ons, or accidentally dropping major plot points well ahead of time – all hilarious, if slightly chaotic. With the main monologue-deliverer under the influence, the show occasionally lost momentum, and the repetition of drunk ramblings (and a few too many “èr’s”) started to wear thin by the second half.
Fortunately, Sh!t-faced Shakespeare anticipates these moments of madness – with a hilarious compère ready to intervene via blaring air horn, frequent audience interaction, and just enough structure to keep things moving. At a tight two hours including interval, it turns out that’s exactly the right amount of time to find a drunk actor funny without overstaying their welcome.
The cast is quick-witted, resilient, and clearly well-rehearsed in improvisation. Hamlet (drunk or not) was a standout, alongside Claudius, who kept the pace brisk and the audience laughing. Gertrude showed remarkable poise, volleying back ad-libbed nonsense without dropping character, while Ophelia and Laertes perhaps gave a little too much space for Hamlet’s drunken tangents, allowing some scenes to drag.
While the condensed script is mostly effective – and certainly accessible to Shakespeare newcomers – some moments (notably Ophelia’s burial and the opening ghost scene) lacked the comedic punch or energy of the rest of the show. But that’s a minor quibble in an otherwise very funny night. My companion had never attended a Shakespeare before and was already planning to return with her partner to see if they got a different actor drunk the next night.
Having previously seen Sh!t-faced shows at the Edinburgh Fringe, I’d wondered if the format would lose some of its magic outside of that festival bubble – but this summer run proves it’s perfectly suited for rowdy Londoners and more traditional theatre-goers alike. It’s Shakespeare with a twist, and it works.