An Even Briefer Hamlet

Some discard items appeared at another local library.  One of the items drew my attention.  It was a two-CD set entitled Shakespeare:  His Life & Work.  I was able to pick it up free of charge.  (Thanks, Kathy!)

The work is a 150-minute biography and retrospective of Shakespeare's work.  Interspersed within the oral biography is a chronological treatment of Shakespeare's works, performed by Judi Dench and Timothy West.  As frequent guests of this site might guess, immediately I skipped to the fourth track on the second disc.  That is the Hamlet excerpt.  The biography sets the scene for Shakespeare writing the play.  While he was working on it in 1601, his father, John, died.  The inference is that the death of Shakespeare's father impacted his contemporary work.  There follows a very condensed plot summary.  The producers included one complete soliloquy as representative of the play.  Guess which.

A brief Hamlet (4:30), and an equally brief post.  The length of the set does give me incentive to undertake the remainder at some future point.