The Workings Of Fate

All of the posts on this blog have dealt with some aspect of Hamlet.  My experience with Wittenberg, though, was affecting enough that I decided to pause to reflect upon fate.  For the die-hard Hamlet buffs who follow this blog, this post may not suit as well. It is a much more personal statement.

The playbill for Wittenberg has a note from the director, J. Paul Nicholas, about fate.  As he puts it,

"The fact that all of these seeds were planted in just the right way so that you would be in this space on this date to reap the harvest is so miraculous, it is almost as if it were predetermined by...well, you fill in the blank."

That statement rang very true in my case.  That I was sitting at that play at all could hardly have been less fateful.  I had planned to visit Richmond over the Christmas holiday.  Unplanned circumstances prevented me from getting there, so the trip was deferred.  Spring Break provided the perfect opportunity, both in terms of free time and choice weather conditions.  So there I was on April 13, heading south into I knew not exactly what.

On one of my first stops in the city, I picked up a copy of Style Weekly, a Richmond alternative newspaper.  It was nearly expired, but I kept it to read during a free moment.  While sitting at dinner at the Village Cafe, I pulled out the paper and began to leaf through it.  What should I discover but a review for a play entitled Wittenberg?  I actually missed the article on the first pass and did a double take.  I had never heard of the play, and I was intrigued immediately.  (I did not read the review entirely so as not to bias myself.)  The play was continuing during the week.  Again, opportunity.

Upon returning to the hotel where I was staying, I went to my laptop and looked for the play.  Although the reference given in the paper was a dead end, I found information at another website.  The play was running on weekends, which was less convenient for my schedule (but not impossible).  There was a performance the next evening, though--a Tuesday night Industry Night, at reduced ticket cost.  Were tickets available?  I discovered that they were indeed.  In fact, one seat that was open was front row, center.  Could this have been any more fortuitous?  Bought and reserved in a matter of minutes--I was going.  (While searching for the play, I learned of yet another coincidence that I will save for a future post and a future vacation.)

Opening the playbill, I found the director's note and was struck again by the workings of fate.  Then there was the play itself.  The content resonated on several levels.  It touched on my own philosophical and religious thoughts and questions.  It touched on a work-related discussion about religion that had occurred in the week prior to vacation.  It fit beautifully with the Hamlet blog.  Even something as simple as The Seeker, a song by The Who that appeared in the play and that had been heavily quoted in a book described in a previous post (3/23/14) was one more sign.

And so I am left even more certain that there is something called fate in this strange venture called life.  I go back one step further.  I would not be sitting here typing this at all had it not been suggested to me once that I should start a blog about Hamlet.  If not, then what exactly would I be doing at this moment?

"If it be now, 'tis not to come; if it be not to come, it will be now; if it be not now, yet it will come:  the readiness is all."

Educating Hamlet

A confluence of chance occurrences led me to the Richmond Triangle Theatre on a cold, rainy Tuesday night in April.  The reason:  Wittenberg, a play written by David Davalos and presented by the Henley Street Theater and Richmond Shakespeare.  The work brings together three characters:  professors Dr. John Faustus and Rev. Dr. Martin Luther, and an undergraduate student and Prince of Denmark, Hamlet.  It is a beautifully constructed "What if?".  What if all three characters knew each other?  What if Hamlet were taught by Faustus and Luther?

Before the play opened, we were treated to an assortment of topical music.  Included were Losing My Religion by REM, Living on a Prayer by Bon Jovi, One of Us by Joan Osborne and the Leonard Cohen classic, Hallelujah.  That set the tone for what was to follow.  During the play itself, three other songs were performed by Dr. Faustus--The Who's The Seeker (channeling a previous post about Pete Townshend on this blog), Robert Palmer's Bad Case of Loving You and Doris Day's Que Sera, Sera.

The set was minimal and yet very workable.  There were a couple of desks, one of which became Dr. Faustus's office (noted as Room 2B).  On his desk sat a skull.  On shelves next to his desk were medicines, including coffee and something labeled with a marijuana leaf.  A lectern was moved around stage to suit Rev. Luther's need's.  A table was brought in for a pub scene, and a grave appeared from below a portion of the stage for a cemetery scene.

I have no intention of spoiling the plot here.  In summary, Faustus and Luther serve as teachers to Hamlet, each vying to have the lad follow the particular teacher's path.  For Faustus, it is a very philosophical bent.  For Luther, it is a decidedly religious one.  Each of the teachers struggles with his own discipline, though.  Faustus seems rather self-assured, although his desire for a relationship with his girlfriend leads to difficulties.  Luther's primary battle is with John Tetzel and the Catholic Church over the issue of indulgences.  His secondary battle is with his insides, seriously constipated.  (As Faustus comments, Luther is indeed "full of shit.")  Hamlet, still undecided on a college major, struggles with his bad dreams and with trying to find a path in life.  By the end of the play, each of the three has chosen--one taking a sabbatical, one breaking with the Church, and one heading home to assume the throne.  Opto ergo sum.

One joy of this play was the foreshadowing of what is to come in Shakespeare's tragedy.  Numerous one-liners reference Hamlet, leading the audience to see whence Hamlet's behaviors come--Faustus or Luther.  Some of the lines that appear are noted below.

• A thing of nothing (Hamlet)
• Time is out of joint (Faustus)
• More things in Heaven and on Earth than are dreamt of in your theology (Faustus to Luther)
• Being and not being; those are the questions (Faustus)
• Hoist on one's petard (Hamlet)
• Providence in the fall of a sparrow (Luther)
• Readiness is all (Faustus)
• Divinity that shapes our ends (Luther)
• Something rotten in the papal states (Hamlet)

Three references deserve special recognition.  In one scene, Faustus gives Hamlet a leaflet entitled Miching Malicho.  In it is a story entitled, "The Murder of Gonzago," which Faustus has heard is being turned into a play.  The second act opens with Hamlet engaged in a tennis match with a student whose first two names are Laertes and Corambus.  The match is punctuated with palpable hits, touches and very John McEnroe-esque outbursts from Laertes.  Hamlet wins, and it noted that he plays very well on grass (pun intended).  The third noteworthy scene is a game of Word Association between Hamlet and Faustus.  It is allusion upon allusion, and it ends with Faustus's pronouncement of it as "Words, words, words."

The play included much discussion on the nature of religion.  In that respect, it is a very thought-heavy play.  Faustus refers to church as "where they keep the sanctimony," which Luther corrects as sanctity.  Luther questions his own belief:  "Do I believe the Church?  What if it isn't true?"  The arguments are thought-provoking:  philosophy vs. religion, action vs. faith, faith vs. doubt.  It's hard not to be affected...and not to find oneself choosing a side.

This was a supremely enjoyable night of theatre.  Well acted and well directed, it was terrific both in its own right and as another addition to the Hamlet canon.  The print version of the play is already ordered and on its way to my bookshelf.  Thankfully, fate worked in the blogger's favor this time.

Fortinbras

Many years ago I came across a play written by Lee Blessing and entitled Fortinbras.  I bought it, read it and then added it to the small collection of Hamlet items on my desk at work.  The occasion of the blog gave me reason to return to it. 

Fortinbras begins where Hamlet ends.  In fact, it opens with the original play's closing lines and final deaths.  Fortinbras enters to find Elsinore in a terrible state with bodies strewn about.  Trying to understand what has happened, he speaks to Horatio and Osric.  He attempts to put the situation into words.

"So what?  I mean, who can understand all this stuff?  A ghost appears to Hamlet and tells him his uncle killed his father, so Hamlet pretends to go crazy -- or maybe he really does, who cares? -- and he decides to kill his uncle.  But he stalls around for a long time instead, kills a guy who's not his uncle, gets sent to England, gets rescued by pirates, comes back and kills everybody -- including himself.  I mean, come on."

That pretty much covers it, methinks.  When put that way, though, it really does sound kind of wild.  Fortinbras decides that no one will buy this, so he invents a new story involving a Polish spy.  Not only does it explain the happenings at Elsinore, but it justifies Fortinbras' pending military action against Poland.  While the truth cannot be changed, "it can be ignored," to quote the protagonist.

Fortinbras' plan is simple.  Unfortunately it is foiled by ghosts.  Elsinore has become a veritable haunted house.  Ophelia, Laertes, Gertrude, Claudius and Polonius all surface and antagonize Fortinbras.  They are visible, audible and even tactile.  As one of them states, it is harder for them to turn their ghostliness on and off.  Eventually, even Hamlet reappears.  First he is trapped in a television set; anachronism was not a huge problem for Shakespeare, so Blessing merely follows the leader.  As the play unfolds, Hamlet is able to escape from the TV set and join the rest of the crew.

The action continues with military advances and Fortinbras' increasing insanity.  Before the play concludes there are several more deaths, which lead to even more ghosts haunting Elsinore.  The curtain drops on Marcellus and Barnardo reading a speech about "shuffling off a mortal coil" from a book they found in the castle. 

Fortinbras is a very clever take on Hamlet.  As with Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead, it brings side characters to the fore.  To quote Fortinbras:

"I'm not here to finish their story.  They were all here to begin mine."

The play functions much better as a sequel than did Hamlet 2 (see 4/6/14 post), and it attempts to analyze some of the action of its predecessor.  Its discussion on the nature of truth resonates even outside of the realm of the play.  All told, it is an excellent work that I hope to see performed live someday.

A Sequel?

That was the idea with the 2008 film, Hamlet 2.  It depicts the efforts of Dana Marschz, a Tucson high school drama teacher, who attempts to stage a play that will save his soon-to-be-shuttered program.  His masterpiece is "Hamlet 2," a muddled concoction that involves the characters from Hamlet, Jesus and a time machine.  Hamlet goes back in time to save all of the characters who die at the end of his story, including himself.  (Jesus apparently was a stowaway in the time machine.)

The film, a comedy by description, fails to live up to its billing.  It has its mildly amusing moments, but overall it really does not do much for the genre or for the Hamlet oeuvre.  To quote the father of Octavio, one of the high school students, I found myself "simultaneously horrified and fascinated."

I would not go as far as Octavio's father, who objected to the play on literary grounds.

"We merely expressed our absolute distaste for a sequel to what is arguably the greatest play in the English language.  Not to mention the quality of the writing, which is quite low."

Indeed, that point of view has merit.  Instead, though, I find myself allied more with Noah Sapperstein, the high school drama critic who panned consistently the school's dramatic productions.

"Sometimes an idea could be so bad, it starts to turn good again."

Hamlet 2, unfortunately, is not that bad.