Yorick!
Created by Rachel Baker, Joel Baxendale, Oliver Devlin,
Melanie Hamilton,​Isobel MacKinnon and Meggan Rollandi

Director Joel Baxendale
Performers Isobel MacKinnon, Rachel Baker, Freya Finch & Oliver Devlin
Performance Designer Meg Rollandi
Lighting Designer Rachel Marlow
Composer Oliver Devlin
Producer Melanie Hamilton
Marketing Manager Lydia Zanetti for Zanetti Productions
Production Manager Bridget Carpenter
Musical Arrangement Jake Baxendale
Publicist Elephant Publicity


Pervious performances:
13-23 April 2018, Q Theatre, Auckland MATCHBOX 2018

In the midst of the ruin of an exploded production of Hamlet and some musical , four performers strike out on an optimistic quest to understand mortality. 

Yorick! is an uplifting performance spectacular that explores death.

The show is a comedic look at the barriers we create to avoid thinking about our own mortality, the ease with which we can distance ourselves from the inevitable, and an exploration of how we deal with death in our everyday lives. 

The show has five parts, which each draw inspiration from Hamlet and the different perspectives on mortality that he experiences throughout the play: from indifferent musings observing gravediggers, to intense grief at Ophelia’s funeral. The show also draws inspiration from Musicals, incorporating songs based on musical theatre tropes and harnessing their spontaneous and positive energy.

The performers are personal, direct and playful in the face of their impossible task of storytelling, singing and dancing, while simultaneously doing worthy battle with the most infamous of riddles. Ultimately however, they are their own worst enemies, knee-capping themselves with their own stubbornness, egoism, intellectual competitiveness,

It is a medium scale show for theatres, with four performers (including a live musician on piano), and incorporates a lightweight performance design (based on pulleys and trapdoors) and an original sound score.