Uncovering Hamlet

In 2012, PBS aired a series entitled Shakespeare Uncovered.  The films each featured Shakespearean actors who described a particular play or plays.  The hour-long segment on Hamlet was hosted by David Tennant, who played Hamlet both on stage and in a film adaptation (see 2/23/14 post).  It was a brief and very enjoyable look at Hamlet, inside and out.

At the outset, Tennant attempts to discover what makes Hamlet appealing 400 years later.  Why is is that audiences and readers continue to flock to it and to rank it as Shakespeare's "best" play?  To answer these questions, Tennant uses a synopsis of the play to pace the film.  He visits with directors, actors and other authorities to converse with them about their experiences with the play.  Interspersed with these interviews and chats are clips from productions of Hamlet:  Olivier, Gibson, Jacobi and even Tennant, himself.

In addition to discussions about productions of the play, we are treated to glimpses of Hamlet-related artifacts.  A visit to the British Library yields a look at three original versions of Shakespeare's Hamlet:  the "Bad Quarto" (of which there are only two copies in existence), the "Second (Good) Quarto" and the "First Folio."  As Tennant reveals, those three volumes represent a worth of approximately 10 million pounds.  We also see an eerie prop held by the Royal Shakespeare Company--an actual skull bequeathed to the company for use as Yorick's skull.  It is an idea that was parroted in Slings & Arrows (see 1/1/14 post); I had no idea that it was based on fact.

Ultimately, the questions of Hamlet's popularity remain.  Jude Law, himself a Hamlet alumnus (see 9/16/13 post), broaches an answer.  He believes that people still love Hamlet because it deals with fundamental themes that we all must face:  "Why are we here?" and "What's the point?"  Those questions are timeless.

Ophelia To The Fore

While browsing used books in a local bookstore, I came across a title I could not resist:  Dating Hamlet:  Ophelia's Story.  The novel by Lisa Fiedler brings Ophelia to center stage.  Although the title and cover art were groan-inspiring, it was, if nothing else, another piece to add to my collection.  It ended up being an enjoyable read.

The novel takes place during the action of Shakespeare's play.  Ophelia narrates the work in first person, relaying her thoughts on that which is familiar to the reader of Hamlet.  It is an interesting touch in that it provides a new look at a classic through different eyes.

Where Dating Hamlet differs is in the plot.  Ophelia discovers early on that her father actually is not Polonius.  This information comes to her from the ghost of her mother, which visits during what reads as a drug-induced hallucination.  Ophelia and Laertes, we learn, were sired by the gravedigger, who had been intimate with their mother before her marriage to Polonius.  This changes considerably Ophelia's feelings for Polonius, especially after his death at Hamlet's hand.

Ophelia and Hamlet are romantically involved, but to a much greater degree than described in Hamlet.  This allows the plot to take a fantastic turn.  Ophelia, Hamlet and later Laertes all become part of a grand conspiracy:  to kill Claudius.  Their mutual plan involves antic dispositions and feigned madness.  In a twist taken from Mission: Impossible, the conspirators use poisons that mimic death in order to fool observers into thinking first that Ophelia has drowned.  She does not; it is part of the plan.  The poison is used to full effect in the duel scene, when Gertrude, Claudius, Laertes and Hamlet each "die."  Fortinbras arrives at Elsinore and is given a full recounting of the happenings by Ophelia, disguised as a young boy.  The bodies are carried away, some to be revived with the poison's antidote, one to be buried in the earth.

As the novel concludes, we are left with Ophelia and Hamlet debating where their journey should take them.  Several allusions to other Shakespearean works surface, eliciting smiles and perhaps a chuckle from the reader.  The work ends as a tragedy never would:  with characters living "happily ever after."

Hamlet Takes Ithaca

The Ithaca Shakespeare Company will present Hamlet as part of its 2014 summer season.  The performances will take place at Cornell Plantations during the month of July.  As summer vacation approaches rapidly, this is one destination that will be on my calendar.

Harbage on Hamlet

My most recent reading on Hamlet is Alfred Harbage's essay "As They Liked it:  An Essay on Shakespeare and Morality," excerpted in Hamlet:  Enter Critic.  In it, Harbage discusses the subject of Hamlet's dilemma in particular and the field of Hamlet criticism in general.  As Harbage puts it,

"Hamlet's dilemma is so obliquely treated that no two people can see it in precisely the same way, and no agreement will ever be reached on the exact element of which it is composed."

Further, Harbage states:

"The area of agreement about Hamlet includes, one should suppose, the belief that it tells an absorbing story full of arresting episodes in magnificent language."

The bulk of the essay excerpted here centers on one topic:  Why does not Hamlet slay Claudius now?  To that end, Harbage offers numerous answers.  He finds that although plausible answers may be justified within the text, they prove contradictory.  Ultimately, we are left attempting to read Shakespeare's mind.

Harbage's summation is a wonderful statement on Hamlet, the character, and Hamlet, the play.  It speaks to why both continue to interest readers to this day.

"[Shakespeare] has left this man, who is sad and gay, arrogant and humble, cruel and kind, brutal and tender, who can mock the aged but forbid others from doing so, who can talk bawdry but worship purity, who can kill, 'lug the guts into the neighbor room,' and then 'weep for what is done' as something for us to consider--an enduring moral enigma.  It is the most astonishing balancing feat in literature, and the play provides more pleasurable excitement than any other in the world."

Hamlet Visits the 1980s

Here's another Hamlet that I discovered too late to view.  The Redhouse Arts Center in Syracuse, NY, recently staged a production.  In the tradition of making Hamlet fit any historical context, the play was moved quite a few years into Shakespeare's future.  This time, Hamlet took on the 1980's, the decade of big hair, boom boxes and The Breakfast Club.  A local review is linked here for your reading enjoyment.

C.S. Lewis on Hamlet

I came across the quote below while reading C.S. Lewis's work, "Hamlet:  The Prince or the Poem" (in the previously cited collection Hamlet:  Enter Critic).  In part of the lecture that has become the written piece, Lewis answers T.S. Eliot's comments on Hamlet being "an artistic failure."  Lewis's rejoinder does well to explain why he, and perhaps Hamlet fans in general, find it so appealing.

"[If] this is failure, then failure is better than success.  We want more of these 'bad' plays.  From our first childish reading of the ghost scenes down to those golden minutes which we stole from marking examination papers on Hamlet to read a few pages of Hamlet itself, have we ever [known] the day or the hour when its enchantment failed?  That castle is part of our own world.  The affection we feel for the Prince, and, through him, for Horatio, is like a friendship in real life....[Hamlet] has a taste of its own, an all-pervading relish which we recognize even in its smallest fragments, and which, once tasted, we recur to.  When we want that taste, no other book will do instead."

Coming Attraction

While searching for information and tickets for Wittenberg, I discovered that the Dane is making another appearance in the Richmond area.  The Henley Street Theatre and Richmond Shakespeare are producing Hamlet in their 2014-2015 season.  The information below is from the press release detailing the season.

HAMLET by William Shakespeare
The Richmond Shakespeare Festival at Agecroft Hall
July 2 – July 26, 2015

We are honored to be joined for this production by visionary theatre artist Lisa Wolpe, who directs and stars in our ground-breaking all-female production of Hamlet. Inspired by the theatrical practice of Shakespeare’s own time, we bring you the first single-gender production in the history of the Richmond Shakespeare Festival—played entirely by a cast of women! Renowned for her award-winning work as Producing Artistic Director of the Los Angeles Women’s Shakespeare Company, Wolpe will lead the company in a passionate, moving, visceral production of Shakespeare’s greatest work.

“Wolpe is one of the great stage actors of our generation who breathes life into Shakespeare’s words as though they were dredged from her own soul.”   – SHAKESPEARE IN LA

As fate would have it, I was at Agecroft Hall the next day for a visit and tour.  (It is well worth the trip!)  Although the play is far in the future, it is not too early to begin making arrangements to be there.