Win Tickets to Bard on the Beach: Hamlet
byVancouver’s annual Bard on the Beach Shakespeare Festival is on now until September 13th, 2013 with Hamlet and Twelfth Night in the 742-seat BMO Mainstage tent, and Elizabeth Rex and Measure For Measure on the studio stage at Vanier Park.
Hamlet is one of my favourite Shakespearean works so John and I made a date night out of our trip to event one sunny evening. Walking around the Seawall from the West End, we hopped a False Creek Ferry across English Bay to the Maritime Museum, passing stand-up paddle boarders, sailboats, kayakers and other traffic in this busy waterway. The sun started its descent as we walked from the ferry dock across the grass at Vanier Park and over to the main entrance of Bard on the Beach.
Bard’s version of Hamlet this year, directed by Kim Collier, is set in 2013 with everything from iPads to Bluetooth document sharing — and a good sword-fight.
Hamlet is the source of some of pop culture’s most famous Shakespeare references and phrases such as “To be, or not to be”; “This above all: to thine own self be true”; “The lady doth protest too much, methinks”; “In my mind’s eye”; “A little more than kin, and less than kind”; “Do you think I am easier to be played on than a pipe?”; and many more.
Despite some ambient noise from the bay, floatplanes overhead reminding you that you were indeed still outdoors, I was sucked into the story thanks to the convincing portrayal of Jonathon Young as Hamlet. The character is tough to master and one must avoid going too over-the-top crazy, which I think Young pulled off splendidly and catapulted him to the top of my list of favourite Hamlets.
Jonathon Young as Hamlet. Photo: Davie Blue.
The rest of the cast was tight, with Barbara Pollard as Hamlet’s mother Gertrude, Bill Dow as his murdering uncle Claudius, and Jennifer Lines as his old friend Horatio (I like that Horatio was played by a woman).
Rachel Cairns plays Hamlet’s sweetheart Ophelia with Richard Newman as her interfering old father Polonius, and Todd Thomson as her brother Laertes.
Duncan Fraser is Hamlet’s father’s Ghost, The Player and the First Gravedigger, while Daniel Doheny, Andrew McNee, Robert Olguin and Allan Zinyk play numerous characters including other Players of the court. Naomi Wright (another role traditionally played by a man) and Craig Erickson are Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.
The set is posh and sleek, and the technical timing is spot on. To top it off, the BMO Mainstage tent has comfortable seats, with cup holders, and the refreshments are reasonably priced (compared to sporting events in town).
Bard on the Beach is Western Canada’s largest professional Shakespeare company. Performances run Tuesdays through Sundays with evening curtain at 8:00pm, except Sunday evenings and from September 4th onward, when curtain time is an hour earlier at 7pm. Matinees are presented on selected weekends and weekdays.
Ticket prices include all fees & taxes and are $43 (evenings) and $25 to $30 (previews, matinees and long weekend evenings) with a $25 Youth Rate (6-25 years, all performances). Prices for special events, groups and multi-play ticket package discounts can be found on the Bard website. Early booking is recommended for best seat selection (all seats are reserved) and because many performances sell out in advance.
Contest
Catching a show at award-winning Bard on the Beach is a truly Vancouver experience and I’d love to share it so we’re giving away a pair of tickets this summer. Here’s how you can enter to win:
- Leave a comment on this post with a Shakespearean quote (1 entry)
- Post the following on Twitter (1 entry)
I will draw one winner at random from all entries at 12:00pm on Thursday, July 11, 2013. The winner will be able to select the Hamlet performance date of their choice until September 12th (based on availability, excludes Bard-B-Q fireworks nights).
Follow Bard on the Beach Facebook and Twitter for season updates and to learn about their special events.
Update The winner is @QuipsAndTips!
158 Comments — Comments Are Closed
This above all: to thine own self be true.”
Great contest! thanks!
But soft, what light through yonder window doth breaks?
Why tis a free ticket, and I its winner.
If music be the food of love, play on.
🙂 Thanks!
Thanks for the chance to win
“To sleep, perchance to Dream; Aye, there’s the rub,
For in that sleep of death, what dreams may come,
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause.” Hamlet
Dreaming of winning some tickets!
Get thee to a nunnery!
“To do a great right do a little wrong.” (The Merchant of Venice)
I would love to win – BotB has been on my “list” for years but I haven’t yet had the opportunity!
Hamlet is one of my absolute favourite plays hands-down. And not only because my family’s Danish, and well, some of them very much like Hamlet himself.
OH, and I can’t edit the above comment. Boo!
Or, read instructions it seems.
My favourite quote:
“Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice.”
“Give me my Romeo; and, when he shall die,
Take him and cut him out in little stars,
and he will make the face of heaven so fine
That all the world will be in love with the night”
Romeo & Juliet
two tickets so my beloved and I may celebrate our first anniversary.
money is tight…we are both looking for work
“Something is rotten in the state of Denmark”
Hamlet is my favourite Shakespeare play! I haven’t managed to see Bard on the Beach yet and would love to go.
All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players: they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts, his acts being seven ages.
Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none
Out dam spot. Out.
Doubt thou that the stars are fire;
Doubt that the sun doth move;
Doubt truth to be a liar;
But never doubt I love!
“Hamlet” :)))
It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves.
“Tickle us, do we not laugh
prick us, do we not bleed
and wrong us, shall we not revenge?”
-General Chang, Star Trek VI 😉
“To be, or not to be”
If you prick us do we not bleed? If you tickle us do we not laugh? If you poison us do we not die? And if you wrong us shall we not revenge?
William Shakespeare
Bard on the beach is dreamy…
Something is rotten in the state of Denmark
“The play’s the thing. Wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the king.” Hamlet II iv
O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo?
Haven’t been yet (despite being in Vancouver for 8 years) and would love to go
“Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow”
“You speak an infinite deal of nothing.”
― William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice
To sleep, perchance to dream; Aye, there’s the rub,
To be or not to be
To be or not to be…That is the question.
My Lord, I have remembrances of yours that I have longed long to redeliver; I pray you now receive them.
” to be or not to be , that is the question “
“I am not of that feather, to shake off my friend when he must need me” from Timon of Athens
“Sweets to the sweet”. Hamlet
Would love to win this!
A fool thinks himself to be wise, but a wise man knows himself to be a fool.
“This above all: to thine own self be true”
A fool thinks himself to be wise, but a wise man knows himself a fool.
” The quality of mercy is not strained. It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven upon the place beneath. It is twice blessed: It blesseth him that gives and him that takes.” Never been to BoB but would love to go. Portia was my grade 8 character – Haha.
O Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou Romeo?
If music be the food of love, play on.
A personal favourite: “Give thy thoughts no tongue.” Pick me!
This above all: to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.
Farewell, my blessing season this in thee!
(Hamlet)
If music be the food of love, play on.
To be, or not to be
(also later said by Luongo)
If music be the food of love, play on.
To be or not to be. The question is will I win tickets?
Child Rowland to the dark tower came,
His word was still ‘Fie, foh, and fum
I smell the blood of a British man.
“Sit by my side, and let the world slip: we shall ne’er be younger.”
(The Taming of the Shrew)
All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players
“Something is rotten in the state of Denmark”
O Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou Romeo?
There are more things in heaven and Earth, Horatio than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”
‘The course of true love never did run smooth.’
“It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves.”
“If music be the food of love, play on.”
“If music be the food of love, play on!”
oh my goodness, just noticed that the person above me posted the same thing, that was not on purpose!!!
All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players…
“Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears; I come to bury Caesar not to praise him”
I would love to go to Bard on the Beach! Thanks.
Oh Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo!
“To be, or not to be: that is the question”. – Hamlet
“I must be cruel only to be kind.”
good contest!
i wanna win tickets! i wanna see Bard on Beach
If music be the food of love, play on!
But soft, what light through yonder window doth breaks?
Here’s hoping! It will be my first bardonthebeach
Bard on the Beach is the BEST Vancouver show to see every year… is an awesome experience!!!!
All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players: they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts, his acts being seven ages.
Would love to see Bard this season!
We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life, is rounded with a sleep. [The Tempest]
Would love to see Hamlet!
“Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.” from “All’s Well That Ends Well”
“Sit by my side, and let the world slip: we shall ne’er be younger.” – Taming of the Shrew
<3
Thanks for having this contest!!
*crossing my fingers*
“This above all: to thine own self be true”. – Hamlet (Act I, Scene III).
To be, or not to be: that is the question.
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? To die; to sleep;
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heartache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, ’tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wished.
“A little more than kin and less than kind.”
“Good night, good night! parting is such sweet sorrow,
That I shall say good night till it be morrow.”
― William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet
Thanks for the chance to see an amazing play!
Twitter fan@plumerea
to be or not to be… thanks!
If music be the food of love, play on.
I would be so awesome to have the opportunity to see this play!
Macbeth does murder sleep — the innocent sleep,
Sleep that knits up the raveled sleave of care,
The death of each day’s life, sore labor’s bath,
Balm of hurt minds, great nature’s second course,
Chief nourisher in life’s feast. (Macbeth, Act 2 Scene 2)
It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves.
it [Life] is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing
Don’t shoot the messenger.
To enter or not to enter? WHY OF COURSE TO ENTER *giddy with excitement*
Love is not love which alters when it alteration finds
“But earthlier happy is the rose distilled
Than that which withering on the virgin thorn
Grows, lives, and dies in single blessedness”- A midsummers nights Dream
A fool thinks himself to be wise, but a wise man knows himself to be a fool.
to be or not to be
“Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice.”
― William Shakespeare, Hamlet
I love Bard!!! thanks for the contest =)
Ha! Got to love “I do desire we may be better strangers.” As You Like It (3.2.248)
Ask for me tomorrow, and you shall find me a grave man.
“The quality of mercy is not strained.
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest:
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes.”
-Portia, The Merchant of Venice
Would love to go to Bard on the Beach!
If you prick us do we not bleed? If you tickle us do we not laugh? If you poison us do we not die? And if you wrong us shall we not revenge?
“This above all: to thine own self be true.”
the lady doth protest too much methinks.
“Now is the winter of our discontent”
“The lady doth protest too much, methinks”
“That it should come to this!”. Hamlet quote (Act I, Scene II).
be not afeard. the isle is full of noises, sounds and sweet airs that give delight and hurt not
To be or not to be… that is the question.
“Better a witty fool than a foolish wit” Twelfth Night
Oh I love Hamlet!
“To die, to sleep –
To sleep, perchance to dream”
Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice
“I’ll be back.” I’m totally kidding!
Doubt thou the stars are fire,
Doubt that the sun doth move,
Doubt truth to be a liar,
But never doubt I love.
– Hamlet
“What’s in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet”
If music be the food of love, play on. – twelfth night
“As flies to wanton boys are we to the gods;
They kill us for their sport.”
-King Lear
“Though I am not naturally honest, I am sometimes so by chance.”
Autolycus, A Winter’s Tale
If music be the food of love, play on.
“Lord, what fools these mortals be!”
“There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.” Hamlet, Act II, Scene II
“Better a witty fool than a foolish wit.”
O, speak again, bright angel! For thou art as glorious to this night
This above all: to thine own self be true.
“One half of me is yours, the other half is yours,
Mine own, I would say; but if mine, then yours,
And so all yours.” — Merchant of Venice
“The course of true love never did run smooth”.
It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves.
“To be, or not to be”
Though this be madness, yet there is method in ‘t.
All the world’s a stage, but there is only one Bard On The Beach!
“Doubt thou the stars are fire;
Doubt that the sun doth move;
Doubt truth to be a liar;
But never doubt I love.”
Out, vile jelly!
To sleep, perchance to Dream…
All the world’s a stage!
Parting is such sweet sorrow,
That I shall say good night till it be morrow
When a father gives to his son, both laugh;
when a son gives to his father, both cry.
“Out, damned spot! out, I say!”
🙂
(From Macbeth)
Hark, what light through yonder window breaks?
It is the east and Juliet is the sun!
To be or not to be.
get thee to a nunnery!
Polonius: What do you read, my lord?
Hamlet: Words, words, words.
“The lady doth protest too much, methinks”, but I won’t protest if I win the tickets!
Beware the Ides of March!
do you bite your thumb at me sir?
There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so
O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo?
“This above all: to thine own self be true.”
-Hamlet
Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and caldron bubble.
Bard on the Beach, what a great summer event!
“Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.”
there are more things in heaven and earth, horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
“If you prick us, do we not bleed?
if you tickle us, do we not laugh? if you poison
us, do we not die? and if you wrong us, shall we not
revenge?”
“To be honest, as this world goes, is to be one man picked out of ten thousand.”
Pick me
“If music be the food of love, play on.”
– Twelfth Night
“The bright day is done, and we are for the dark.”
beach… bard.
“Better three hours too soon than a minute too late.”
“Brevity is the soul of wit.” –Hamlet
“When he shall die,
Take him and cut him out in little stars,
And he will make the face of heaven so fine
That all the world will be in love with night
And pay no worship to the garish sun.”
-Romeo and Juliet
“Frailty, thy name is woman!”
“Yearly will we do this rite.”
It’s usually for my hubby’s birthday 🙂 but we would love to do it more!
“Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears; I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.”
“This above all: to thine own self be true” Hamlet quote (Act I, Sc. III).
“If music be the food of love, play on.”
– Twelfth Night
Better a witty fool than a foolish wit.
To be or not to be.