This version of Hamlet was
incredibly symbolic, so I’m going to focus on the symbolism of the dark debris
that fills the stage. Near the beginning of Hamlet
the banquet table darkly mirrors the supper Hamlet later talks about to Claudius, when he says Polonius is at supper, feeding the worms, As Isaac noted, the antlers on the table hint at
the decay and death to come, even in the midst of celebration and life. The
banquet is a safe place since Hamlet has yet to learn of his father’s murder
which sparks the chain of events leading to the death of everyone.
Later however, the same room is layered with dirt, which to me symbolizes
the characters being buried, basically to become a banquet for worms. Everyone ultimately
will end up dead. In Hamlet, there is
no natural death. It is always determined by other characters (except in the case
of Ophelia who chooses to kill herself). The dirt burying the
actors, to me, symbolizes the death question: Is it wrong to die an unnatural
death, if we all end up in the same place anyway? Does who killed who matter if
the characters all end up like the many skulls hidden in the debris?
Ophelia’s death scene will haunt me forever. When she faces the audience
after playing the piano, her face holds real grief of losing a father. My
roommate says Ophelia’s death is romantic because her heart was broken by
Hamlet, but this production showed me that her death really comes from losing her
father. If the dirt that fills the stage represents a grave, then it’s a beautiful
moment when Ophelia crawls out of the grave and steps into the light, like she’s
going to heaven. Then the light fades. Could it possibly be saying that suicide
isn’t wrong, which seems a question Shakespeare poses in Hamlet?
Also, the photographs that Ophelia leaves behind are a cool symbol of
preserving the past. Kind of like how Yorick’s skull is the only thing left of
the man, photographs are all we have left of the tragic woman driven mad by her
father’s death.
Anyway, can I just say how awesome Hamlet was? SO GOOD!
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