ADL Fringe 26: Sh!t-Faced Shakespeare

I'm an English literature major, and so while people have been telling me to watcg Sh!t-faced Shakespeare for years now, I was too hoighty-toighty to take the plunge into what I considered low-brow comedy. As Will himself would say, "the fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool", and boy was I a fool to put this off for so long. Sh!t-faced Shakespeare takes one of the most famously brooding plays in the English canon and gleefully throws a spanner in the works. The concept is brilliantly simple: each night, one actor is genuinely drunk, while the rest of the cast - sober, composed, and impressively professional - attempt to guide a performance of Hamlet back toward something vaguely resembling the original script.

What I didn’t realise going in was that only one performer would be inebriated. I assumed the whole cast would be tipsy, but the real magic comes from the contrast. Watching the sober actors desperately improvise around the increasingly unpredictable behaviour of their intoxicated co-star turns the whole thing into a comedic high-wire act.

Our unlucky participant of the evening was the actress playing Horatio/Ophelia, who had reportedly polished off roughly a quarter bottle of vodka and several beers before curtain. It didn’t take long to identify her when the cast was introduced - she was already swaying with impressive commitment. From there, things only escalated. She gleefully broke the fourth wall (“Seriously, Anthony! Yes everyone, that’s right, his real name is Anthony!”), wandered wildly off-script, and at several points had to be physically carried offstage so the plot could limp forward.

Credit where it’s due: the rest of the cast handled the chaos with remarkable skill, weaving improvised explanations and reactions into the performance while barely suppressing their own laughter.

The rewatch value is sky-high. Not only is a different actor likely to be the designated drunk each night, but even the same performer could deliver an entirely different show. I’ll admit that when I drink I seem to develop about six distinct personalities of my own, so the idea that one actor could bring a completely new chaotic energy each time feels very believable. It’s chaotic, clever, unexpectedly educational - the hangxiety alone deserves a standing ovation.