The Fifteen Minute Hamlet: A Play (French's Theatre Scripts) (Paperback)

by Tom Stoppard (Author), William Hamlet Shakespeare (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 16 pages
• Publisher: Samuel French Inc Plays (June 1978)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0573025061
• ISBN-13: 978-0573025068
• Product Dimensions: 7.2 x 4.6 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #555,638 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Succinct Shakespeare at its Best!, April 7, 1999

By A Customer

Not only does Tom Stoppard brilliantly compress one of Shakespeare's longer plays into 15 minutes, he even adds on a 2 minute encore!! A hilarious edition of one of Shakespeare's lasting works. A great play for a cast to perform (trust me, I know!). Loads of fun to read AND perform.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A little known classic, August 15, 2005

By	Mr. Timothy Johnson (DICKSON, ACT Australia) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

It says something about Tom Stoppard's sense of humour that he considers Shakespeare's longest play (which often runs for over four hours when performed) perfectly fair game to be ultra-truncated into a short, 15 minute performance.

This play is rarely performed these days as nobody really pays to go and see a performance they know will last just 15 minutes. However, the play forms the core of Stoppard's `Dogg's Hamlet' and also effectively forms the last 15 minutes of the comedy performance, `The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)', so you may have seen it in one of those contexts.

This play, then, is to Hamlet what `1066 And All That' is to English history - it gives you not everything, but just everything you can remember: it has all the quotable and famous lines and contains just enough plot that you can understand the whole play. And if you already know Hamlet quite well, then the choice of dialogue and scenes for inclusion and the rapid changes from one to another are quite funny; the joke might fall flat on those seeing Hamlet for the first time, but it's a rare hilarious gem for those in the know.

Read the book, or better yet - track down a performance, or use this script to stage one yourself.

5.0 out of 5 stars wonderful play!!!, June 13, 1998

By A Customer

This is a little known but great play. It is not so much that the actual wording is so good, in fact, any cast looking at this would think that it is gut-wrenchingly stupid. It is all in the presentation. Shakespeare's longest play ever... cut down into fifteen minutes. Who needs the rest anyway?