Hamlet has quite a few asides throughout the play and instead of simply having him speak to the audience in real time, they artistically chose to slow down time and have the rest of the actors move through the scene in slow motion while Hamlet delivers his asides. This was very fascinating because it makes it seem more like the lines he gives are the thoughts in his mind and he is fighting with himself.
The transitions between scenes are then frequently depicted as time sped up and we see people moving very quickly to change scenery or speed through different actions. This gave some idea of the passing of time or the change of a scene without actually closing a curtain. This was usually accompanied by dissonant music and flashing lights.
One of the most interesting staging differences that I saw was right after Act III, just before the intermission. As Claudius delivers his final lines of the scene as a flurry of dirt and dust fills the stage. The rest of the play then is enacted on top of piles of dirt that fill the palace. At first it seemed like an odd choice. But as Ophelia wanders in her madness and grief then commits suicide, as they all attend her burial, as Laertes and Hamlet fight, the mounds of dirt actually lend an important feeling to the play. I felt like it symbolized the turmoil and filth that had penetrated the royal house after this point in the play. It makes the final scene where everyone lays in their own blood even more devastating.
These were just a few of the items of artistic staging and style that really intrigued me and made it feel like a very unique adaptation of the traditional play.
