Hamlet with American accents!

As I’m not in too much of a rush today, I didn’t get up until 7am and then did some things online until about 9am when I checked out of my hotel.

My room was the bottom right of this photo – I think the person next door is here for a long stay, hence the plants!


My kitchen:



On the way I stopped at a scenic outlook that wasn't at all scenic but I did take this photo. Along the roadside in the US they tell you which hotels and food places there are at each exit which I think is a great idea:



It was about a two hour drive up to Madison, NJ and the traffic was quite light as it’s a Sunday. I found the theatre easily enough as my SatNav put me right outside. It’s part of a university campus. I then had a snack at a Friendly’s and got back to the theatre by 1.30pm.

Most of my friends know that Hamlet is my favourite play so I like to see as many productions of it as I can as the way the story is told varies so much from production to production – I’ve never seen it told the same way twice! This was my first time of seeing it in the US (I’ve seen 6 or 7 times productions so far this year in the UK) so I was interested to see if they would use Received Pronunciation or American accents. They opted for the latter but all except Ophelia didn’t have strong accents. This was a production by the New Jersey Shakespeare Company and was well produced but I wasn’t overly impressed with the guy who played Hamlet. Normally that would have been a problem but Robert Cuccioli who played Claudius was excellent in his role and carried the play totally.

Unfortunately it was bitterly cold in there as the air conditioning was way too strong! During the interval I went out to my car and collected my coat (as did other people) but I was still a bit chilly with that on! The poor guy next to me was only wearing a shirt and I could feel him shivering next to me! As he had sandals on with no socks, his friend lent him his shoes to get him slightly warmer. The mother of one of the actors was in the front row and she could obviously see from stage that she was cold so during the interval the actor sent out a cardigan for her mother!

The play lasted almost three and a half hours (including the 15 minute interval) so we got out at about 5.30pm. I was staying only about 20 minutes away and I easily found the hotel. Again, as I am only staying for one night, I opted for a cheap hotel and it was decent enough and the wireless Internet connection was good. I seem to be on a horticultural tour of the US as so far I've stayed in Laurel, MD, Maple Shade, NJ and tonight it's Pine Brook, NJ!

After a cup of tea I went out for dinner and ended up at an Applebee’s again as that was the only decent place nearby. Unfortunately they had a different menu to last night’s place and there wasn’t as good a choice.

I got back to my room by about 9pm and completed my review of Kasim’s gig, plus uploaded all my Washington photos.

I got to sleep at about 1am and it’s another peaceful hotel!