On the Town: Wigs, scarves, false mustaches, facial expressions, voices and movement are used by actors Paul Meade and Enda Kilroy to play all 29 characters in Shakespeare's Hamlet.
"It's a light-hearted approach," said David Parnell, director of the tragedy, which is currently running at Project in Dublin's Temple Bar. "It's a celebration of theatre and of playing. Our philosophy [at An Gúna Nua Theatre Company] is that theatre should be fun."
"The soliloquies are played for real," he added of the production. "The bits we laugh at are the quick changes, because [the two actors] have to play so many characters. We are not playing it for laughs but it will inevitably be humorous."
The play's producers, Lori Connolly and Barbara Nealon, were both looking forward to the audience's reaction on opening night.
"It's very pacy, it's very fast and it's quite funny," said Connolly, who studied Hamlet at school in St Mary's College Secondary School in Naas. Then, she recalled, "I wanted to see something with a bit more oomph to it", adding that the current production "is completely faithful to the text".
Among those who came to the production's opening night were playwrights Bernard Farrell and Jimmy Murphy. Artist Amanda Coogan, who designed the set, was also in the audience.
Joe Devlin, artistic director of Focus Theatre was also there, as was Sarah Ling, of Bedrock Productions, which is currently preparing to stage a new play by Des Bishop and Arthur Riordan, called Shooting Gallery, in the autumn.
Donal Shiels, chief executive of the St Patrick's Festival, was there, chatting to the actor and singer, Dave O'Meara. Also in the audience was Jim Culleton, of Fishamble Theatre Company, who is currently directing Monged, a new play by Gary Duggan, which will open at Project on Thursday, April 14th.
Hamlet, by William Shakespeare, in a production by Gúna Nua, will run at Project until Sat, Apr 9