An Infinite Monkey Attempts to Write the Complete Work of Shakespeare explores William Shakespeare’s plays through a sisterhood that can only be found in the women’s nightclub bathroom. Edinburgh University Shakespeare Company’s A Midsummer Nightclub braids the woes of modern and Shakespearean womanhood through the confessions of the playwright’s leading women.
The “infinite monkey theorem” describes the concept that an infinite/immortal monkey pressing random keys on a typewriter for an infinite amount of time would eventually type every piece of literary work ever, including Shakespeare’s. The eponymous infinite monkey writes A Midsummer Nightclub, where the women in Shakespeare’s plays are thrown into a therapeutic run-in in the club toilets, appropriately set to modern bards like Raye and Calvin Harris.
On one half of the stage sits our infinite monkey, observing the play she has written. On the other, a multitude of characters recite excerpts of dialogue from the plays, mixed and modernised yet still true to the original scripts and characters; Juliette, Beatrice, Lady Macbeth, and more monologue boy troubles and 21st century struggles.
The characters circulate with their problems, providing advice, reassurance, and concern; those familiar with the dynamics in a nightclub’s women’s bathroom know the conversation, comfort, and community that can be found in front of those mirrors.
However, Infinite Monkey isn’t all serious advice and the concerning irrationality of Shakespeare’s men. One scene references Beatrice’s implied lesbianism in her speech on refusing a husband (Twelfth Night) through direct confrontation and lesbian iconography like carabiners and flannel. Various characters unsuccessfully attempt to escape Tatiana’s long soliloquy (A Midsummer Night’s Dream), which follows questions about Juliette’s real age (Romeo and Juliette)—she is barely a teenager in Shakespeare’s version—playing perfectly into EUSC’s joke about fake IDs. There is also some excellent meter throughout the monologues and appreciable ape/monkey jokes.
A Midsummer Nightclub concludes with a familiar group mirror selfie and the feeling that the women of Shakespeare’s plays would have benefitted greatly from the communality of a nightclub bathroom and some sisterly advice. It’s refreshing to see Shakespeare’s women performed independently.
An Infinite Monkey Attempts to Write the Complete Works of Shakespeare is running until 15
August at the Olive Studio at Greenside at George Street.
Buy tickets here: https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/an-infinite-monkey-attempts-to-write-the-complete-works-of-shakespeare-a-variety-show
Images Via Shakesoc
