Last night the Book in the Head Salon was held in the basement of Type Books. In this event, a dozen booklovers were asked to reconstruct a literary text from memory, the goal being to see how much of the story would survive without the book. The participants were not given any hints prior to the event as to the tale they would have to tell, but they did so with astonishing detail.

Inspiring of a much loved episode of the Simpsons and from which The Lion King is loosely based, it is probably the most referenced of literary tales, the most quoted, most satirized, most familiar of stories. You guessed it: The Tragedy of Hamlet.

Although the Prince of Denmark could not survive his own play, his story will survive the death of the book. Many of us could only form a general story arc and recall a few iconic phrases, but some of the participants provided ample entertainment as they pieced together line after line. They took away the show by reciting entire scenes, and could easily have gone the whole night without much paraphrasing.

The game started out with surprising accuracy, but as time grew short the scenes were summed up by “the poison fight” and “when they started stabbing each other.” The players worked co-operatively to remember particular lines. However, after a few beverages this process became a little bit silly. Hamlet’s innuendos were paraphrased as “the dirty parts”, and my own personal favourite, the suggestion of “How now brown cow,” instead of “How now Ofelia.”

An interesting addition to the game was the Prompt Book: the actor playing the dead text. When the players needed a point in the right direction, the melancholy book would give them a line. Some of Shakespeare’s most melodramatic lines were read with a completely inert tone. The role was well played and provided many laughs for the participants.

There may be a reprise of this experience at the Main Stage so that all might see what we came up with in recollecting a classic. A good time was had by all.