Shelby's Thoughts on Hamlet, Performed

I hate to admit this, but this performance of Hamlet was my first exposure to the play being acted out (other than about 50 different versions of the “To be, or not to be?” speech.) I loved it! I mean, how could you not? The actors were invested and convincing in their roles, the scenes were beautiful, and the music did a great job of guiding my emotions throughout the show. Here are a few things that caught my attention in particular.

Laertes. He was clearly a spectacular actor, but I thought that the choice to cast a black man was really interesting and added to the story. I’m not being racist or anything, but stating the obvious. The rest of the cast is white, so Laertes definitely stands out. I think one of the main reasons that the casting director might have done this is that one of his jobs in the story is to serve as a dramatic foil to Hamlet. The way that he and Hamlet react to the same events, the deaths of their fathers, is totally opposite. Laertes is furious and hungry for revenge. He barges in, intent on killing Hamlet, and tries to see it through until it costs him his life. Hamlet, on the other hand, knows how his father died and who killed him, but makes no major moves throughout the whole play. The difference in the skin tones of the actors provided a greater contrast and helped me understand Laertes’ role much better.

Another thing that I really liked about the play was Ophelia’s camera. I think that the choice to give her a hobby made her a deeper character. It showed that she was interested in capturing the beauty of the world around her, just like how she gathered flowers. When she drags her trunk of photos out onstage before she kills herself, it foreshadows to the audience that she’s given up on the beauties of this world and they no longer have meaning for her.

All in all, I’d definitely watch this show again! I’d love to pick out further nuances in it!

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Review of the Best Hamlet Adaptation Ever!!

I have seen quite a few versions of the play Hamlet but this version is definitely my new favorite! I felt like it was extremely well casted with Benedict Cumberbatch as Hamlet, Ciaran Hinds as Claudius, Anastasia Hille as Gertrude, and Sian Brooke as Ophelia. But what was the most interesting to me was a lot of the staging, effects, and lighting.

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.

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