The text written was what was being delivered.

I meant to remark when we saw it a month ago. We went to our local Shakespeare Tavern to see a performance of Hamlet. Well done as are almost all of their productions.

What struck me was, in contrast to virtually every other performance I have ever seen, they played up the humor of Hamlet.

I think of Hamlet as almost unrelievedly a tragedy. There is no humor there.

But actually there is. In set after set, contrasting the tragic baseline, there were notes of humor. A laugh here, a chuckle there. It was so marked that at an intervention, I took the opportunity to check them against the text, thinking they must be taking some liberties.

But no, they were playing straight. The text written was what was being delivered.

It was all in the timing of the lines and in the body-language of the delivery. I am not sure I have ever seen such a masterful demonstration of the actor's art as in this capacity to deliver a line which is usually dark and sober with a turn of humor that gets laughs, simply through the art of delivery.