Re-member Me

To be or not to be? That is the question.

Re-member Me is a fabulous new show by Dickie Beau. It’s a complex techno love affair with a handful of famed actors in their sometimes notorious and always memorable performances as the Prince of Denmark.

Broadly speaking of course Dickie Beau is here from London to appear in his wonderful show for the Melbourne International Arts Festival. An award winning lip-synch and fabulist performer, Beau has developed a multi -faceted live show using visual effects, props, costumes, silhouette and video projection. Impressive and rather high camp you could say; he cut his own teeth in cabaret and drag shows after studying dramatic arts and has since taken the world by storm with his conceptual performances.

In a fabricated séance, with recurring ghostly motifs, Beau calls on the memories of famous actors who played Hamlet, using tapes of recorded radio interviews along with a simulated technical overlay of his head shots that are projected on to a screen divider. He lip-synchs the likes of Ian McKellen upon reflection  of his  yearning for success and fame.

Prejudices and anti-gay sentiment were rife in the upper echelons of English society. Sir John Gielgud, who suffered the beatings and performed the role 500 times, was wheel chair bound on his way to the grave embittered and reflective in his old age. The tempestuous Daniel Day Lewis is dismissive of his Hamlet at the National Theatre in 1989. Peter O’Toole is farcical. Richard Burton, Jonathan Pryce all have their stories.

It is a complex production and at times bewildering to watch as Beau reflects on himself and his ideal of the great Shakespearian actor that he will never be.  He clearly provides his audience with a new deconstructive understanding of collective memory, ambition and fame.

Flora Georgiou