Halloween Hamlet to scare and delight

The Hamlet cast preparing to bring the tragedy to life this Halloween are (from left) Prea Millar (Horatio), Bronwyn Chittock (Queen Gertrude), Chris Rapley (King Claudius), Connor Haley (Hamlet), Eleanor Rarity (Ophelia), Grant Hall (Osric), and Maximilian Hunt (Laertes). PHOTOS: BRAD REEVE PHOTOGRAPHY

Tickets to watch Hamlet at the South Canterbury Museum are selling out.

Aidan Theatre director Kimble Henderson said the collaboration with the South Canterbury Museum had been something in the pipeline for a few years.

"Collaborations are good in the sense that you have to compromise, and everyone needs to win, so it’s working through that relationship what can we compromise on."

One of the compromises had been late night shows.

Mrs Henderson said as the museum was open during the day they were not able to do day shows, but to try to make their budget they had to do five shows, which meant two nights of performing two shows back-to-back.

She was really excited about the late night shows.

It was out of people’s comfort zones, because most wanted to be in bed by 9pm.

Attempting to cheer up a depressed Hamlet are (from left) Prea Millar (Rosencrantz), and Maximilian Hunt (Guildenstern) with Connor Haley, as Hamlet, seated.

While that ambience would still be there in earlier shows, she said the later show might be a bit more intense.

She said the small space gave the actors a big challenge, which she was not scared of, "because everyone loves finding solutions".

She said "intimate" was one of the words they used at Aidan Theatre, however this performance "was definitely taking that to the next level".

Courier reporter Connor Haley, who is set to play the lead character Hamlet, said, "If we somehow managed to fall off stage we’d land in an audience member’s lap."

While he had a lot of experience in theatre this was the first time he had had to switch out highlighters when highlighting his lines.

He guessed that from the 80-page script there were probably only 15-20 pages where he was not speaking.

Mr Haley managed his voice by having apple cider vinegar every morning, and when he was struggling, "iced water is ridiculously good".

Mr Haley said the play had pretty dark themes.

"Sitting in the museum at midnight itself was pretty spooky without watching Hamlet as well."

Each performance would seat up to 50 people, so with only five shows the tickets would sell out fast.

"The audience can also feel very involved, very part of the world of Hamlet, and the world of Hamlet being a hybrid ... we have been a little irreverent in our approach," Mr Henderson said.

Tickets are available from humantix.com