One of the joys of living in Central Texas is that you can live in the country outside of Jarrell on a little ranch with your horses and cows and chickens, oh, my! and, when you feel the need for a little culture, drive in to Austin for the evening to see Hamlet.  With all the parts played by 5 people.

Let me back up.  My daughter, who is attending UT-Austin, called and asked if I'd like to go see Hamlet Thursday night, and I needed to decide right then, because she needed to buy the cheap tickets right away while they were still available.  "Sure," I said, and she got tickets for herself and her SO and for her Dad and I. 

By the time the night arrived, both SO and Dad had to work late.  (A not uncommon occurrence.)  So she invited a couple she knows to join us.  Turns out, the gentleman of the couple, who works with her SO, had to - guess what - work late.  (We suspect a conspiracy on the part of the men - their loss!)  So his wife joined us, and a long-time friend of mine (and DD's) made four. 

We met at the new Whole Foods Market flagship down on 5th and Lamar, where we dined (yes, there IS Real Food at Whole Foods! - I had Prime Rib and fantastic mashed sweet potatoes and a sauteed brocolli that tasted like it was picked just before cooking - a big plate full, all for 10 bucks).  Then it was off to UT's Ida Payne Theatre to see The Actors From the London Stage present Hamlet.  Geoffrey Beevers, Robert Mountford, Anna Northam, Richard Stacey, and Terence Wilton are this year's traveling players.  (Beevers I know from many different PBS Mystery series - Inspector Morse, Sherlock Holmes, Poirot, as well as such shows as Magnum, P.I.  And, of course, from Victor/Victoria and Curse of the Pink Panther - the man is nothing if not versatile!)

You wouldn't think 5 people could make Hamlet compelling with no more in the way of set and props than 10 chairs in a semicircle and a few pieces of cloth - but they did.  In the program, they quote the Prologue to another of Shakespeare's plays, Henry V, that somewhat explains it:  ""Think, when we talk of horses, that you see them,/ Printing their proud hoofs i' the receiving earth/For 'tis your thoughts that now must deck our kings."   I suppose, if the actors of Shakespeare's time could convince their audience to see horses, five outstanding actors of ours can convince us we're in Denmark.