PERFORMANCE: Gertrude - the Cry

Howard Barker - described by the English press as 'the most terrifying export since football hooligans' takes Shakespeare's Hamlet and reworks this canonical play to focus on Gertrude - mother of Hamlet, lover of Claudius, and amoral lover of life. Some key characters are retained, some new ones appear, and in the style of many of Barker's plays - or in Horatio's words near the close of Shakespeare's play - 'So shall you hear of carnal, bloody, and unnatural acts, of accidental judgements, casual slaughters ...' This new Barker play, premiered in 2002, centres on a battle between the moralists and the immoralists, and Gertrude's cry in orgasm - the cry that Claudius would die for - is the focus for that battle. Not for the faint-hearted.