Zombie Hamlet

There are certain things one would consider buying only when there is a gift card involved.  (Thanks, Kathy!)  That was the case with this post.  With money to kill at Amazon, I searched through the DVD section for Hamlet.  What surfaced--way down the list--was a relatively recent something called Zombie Hamlet.  With free money in hand, I figured it had to be worth a shot.  Surprisingly, it turned out to be a lot of fun!

The film is less an adaptation of Hamlet than a film about someone making a (very loose) film adaptation of Hamlet.  It follows the latest venture from director Osric Taylor.  The title:  Hamlet, Son of Richmond.  It's a version of Hamlet set during the Civil War.  Aside:  As a Civil War buff, this combination of Hamlet and the Confederacy grabbed me immediately.  Seriously, I think it actually has potential....

The film hits obstacles from the outset.  The budget is reduced significantly.  While scouting locations in Louisiana, all financial backing is pulled.  A reclusive author and owner of the plantation that becomes the film set offers to pay for the film.  There's a catch.  Osric has to add zombies.  They're hot in the current film-making climate, after all.  When Osric objects, the Louisiana District Attorney responds, "Who'd even pay to see a movie about Shakespeare?"  The zombies stay and suddenly it's Hamlet meets Ken Burns meets The Walking Dead, starring the second worst actor who could be cast in a Shakespearean role (right behind Hulk Hogan).  Then the financier dies.  What to do?  It must be seen to be believed.

What follows is a story of bodies alive, dead and undead; carnal, bloody and unnatural acts; and voodoo loan sharks.  This is no highbrow movie by any stretch.  It is an entertaining ninety-minute diversion, though.  The casual slaughter of Shakespeare's masterpiece ("To not to be or to not not to be...") is good for plenty of laughs.  In the end, even the mindlessness of social media and viral video plays a part.  As the curtain falls, Osric is off to his next several projects, including Romeo and Ghoul-iet.  (Yes, really.)  If that's not enough, the worst actor who could be cast in a Shakespearean role gets his chance as Vampire Macbeth.  To quote that Martin Sheen classic, Acapulco Now, "The horror, the horror!"

Dreyfuss Dialogues

The final interview among the Special Features included in the DVD release of Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead was with Richard Dreyfuss, the Player King.  As with this post, it began quickly, with the moderator wasting no time in asking what Dreyfuss thought the play was about.  The actor was at a loss.  First, he compared it to a scene from The Honeymooners, when Ralph doesn't think that question will ever be asked.  Then Dreyfuss quoted comedian Buddy Hackett, "It all depend how you look at it."  Next he answered that the play represents the experience of Hamlet all turned around.  Ultimately, though, he admitted that the play is beyond his own intellectual capabilities to understand it.

The next question, "What drew you to the film?" was a bit safer.  Dreyfuss replied that he took the part because it was a role from Tom Stoppard.  Later, Dreyfuss called working with Tom Stoppard intimidating.  For a first-time film director, Stoppard was very certain of everything, very quietly sure.  Another reason Dreyfuss took the role was that it was a role he never believed he would be asked to play.  He went on to say that he did not really prepare for the role.  If anything, he went to Donald Wolfit.  I had to look up that reference.  Wolfit was a British actor of stage and film who played King Lear, among many roles.

The interviewer drew a parallel between Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead and Groundhog Day, the 1993 film in which Bill Murray is forced to relive February 2.  He asked Dreyfuss if the characters having to relive Hamlet is what makes the Player so world-weary.  Dreyfuss agreed in part, stating that the Player does know more than the others.  This helps to inform the sense of irony in the play.  Dreyfuss suggested a revision to the film.  He would have liked to see it end exactly where it began, in order to play up the cyclical sense of the action.  Perhaps, though, this was only because admittedly he didn't understand the play in total, but only moment by moment.

Dreyfuss commented repeatedly how much he enjoyed his role.  He loved the Player doing Priam standing on a table.  He called it thrilling and another way of acting different from what he had done.  He was not intimidated by it, though.  In fact, he regretted not doing more Shakespeare in his career.  Dreyfuss discussed later a brief two-and-a-half week stint directing Hamlet.  He discounted his effort as becoming the director that he hated, with line readings and posed action.

For an actor who repeated that he did not understand the play, Dreyfuss posed a very interesting observation about R & G and Hamlet.  He called the former a fulfillment of his own idea about Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.  He believes that they are not slimebags but rather pigeons or "schmoos," trapped in an accident of fate.  When they arrive at Elsinore, the first person they meet is Claudius.  It is he who tells them that Hamlet is mad.  He's the King of Denmark, so he must know what he's talking about.  This initial conversation colors their later perceptions of Hamlet.  What would have happened if they had not met Claudius first?

When asked to name his favorite role, Dreyfuss replied, "Hamlet."  (The interviewer meant one of Dreyfuss's own film roles.)  When asked what part he yearns to play, Dreyfuss's answer was the same:  "Hamlet."  He didn't know why he never took the role.  He did say that he would like to produce Hamlet for radio.  (I don't know if that ever happened.  I found that he did direct a stage version in 1994 at the Old Repertory Theatre in Birmingham.)

Dreyfuss's admiration for Hamlet is evident.  He admitted that there are probably six or eight guys who love the play more than he does.  He stated that he finds greatness, mystery, wackiness in every line.  If he were on a desert island, Hamlet would be the play he would take with him.  I agree with him on that one and on a comment toward the end of the discussion that could be my new philosophy.

"If I could just wake up and go to Barnes & Noble and go home and read my books, I would be fine."

Who wouldn't?  Indeed, who wouldn't?

Stratford Preview

Because it's never too early to begin planning for summer vacation...

Stratford has announced their 2016 season.  This season's trip to see Hamlet may have started an annual tradition!  There are several items of interest, including a Scottish headliner.  Check the link here for the full lineup.

Roth Riffs

Tim Roth's interview was the third one I viewed in the Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead DVD set.  (See 7/5/15 post.)  While it was not restricted solely to the film and wandered into Roth's career, the R&G tidbits were certainly interesting enough.

Roth opens with the story of how he got the role of Guildenstern.  He met with Tom Stoppard and Gary Oldman.  Roth and Oldman had worked together previously (which could be why they seemed to get on so well together in R&G).  Roth refused to read for the part, an example of a general practice for him.  (Apparently Oldman would not read for his part either.)  Things went well in the meeting, but Stoppard was not sold on Roth.  It was between Roth and Daniel Day-Lewis, who was playing Hamlet at the National Theatre in London.  On the night that Stoppard went to see Day-Lewis perform, the actor had a nervous breakdown during the performance.  In the first scene, when the Ghost appeared, Day-Lewis saw the ghost of his own father.  Day-Lewis had to take care of the personal issues, so he became unavailable for the role of Guildenstern.  Roth got the part.

Roth is asked why it is that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are confused by the other characters.  He attributes this as a device created by Stoppard.  He denies the assumption that this practice can be traced back to Shakespeare's time.  In R&G, perhaps it's because they have complicated names.  Maybe it is due also to the relative lack of concern accorded them by the other characters.  In this work, Roth considers them to be two sides of the same coin.

Roth relates his thoughts on the death of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.  He thinks that the end for them is not quite the end.  They won't get to die, but they'll be trapped in reliving the play, trying to figure things out and to get it right.

Near the end of the interview, Roth tells the interviewer that he might like to do more Shakespeare.  In fact, he and Oldman inquired about recreating their roles in Franco Zeffirelli's Hamlet starring Mel Gibson, complete with the same costumes.  They were not hired.  Considering the sloppy manner in which the roles were handled in that film, perhaps it was a blessing in disguise.

Welcome Le Moyne Students!

Greetings Fellow Dolphins!

To those of you who have found this blog and are enrolled in Hamlet: Views and Variations, I bid you welcome.  As a sometime student and now Le Moyne College alumnus (Class of 1997), I hope that you enjoy the class.  It did not come along until after my time on the Heights, so I was never fortunate enough to be able to take it.  I hope that the posts on this blog may help to deepen your appreciation of Hamlet...or at least help you to graduate.

Best wishes on your study of Hamlet this semester!

The Stratford Archives

While visiting Stratford, I was able to visit the festival archives.  It was a great chance to hear about the history of the festival and the efforts both to preserve that history and to make it available to the public.  There was a display of items from productions past.  As it turned out, there were several relating to Hamlet, and photography was permitted.

Production stills and costume design sketches from past productions.

Design sketch for Gertrude's costume

Costumes from past productions, highlighting different directorial visions

Artifacts from past productions

One item of particular note was not included in the archive display.  Stratford keeps within the archives "Composite Scripts" for Shakespeare's canon.  The scripts, prepared from stage manager's notes, detail how each director has rendered the text in his particular production.  They allow subsequent directors to see what was done by a previous director, and they provide a fantastic historical document of the Stratford stage.  I was able to view the script for Hamlet, and it was a true highlight.  Each director's emendations are noted in the Shakespearean text with a different color ink.  It was easy to see which changes are consistent and which are unique.  (Cue the pool table!)  For a self-professed Hamlet nut, the trip to the archives provided a perfect denouement to the Stratford visit!

Star Talks Stratford

In addition to the Stratford Festival's excellent stage productions, there are numerous free events for theatre goers.  As luck would have it, one of these occurred immediately following the July 29 performance of Hamlet.  Toronto Star theatre critic Richard Ouzounian joined in conversation with Antoni Cimolino and Jonathan Goad.  Cimolino is Stratford Festival's Artistic Director and the Director of Hamlet.  Goad plays Hamlet in Cimolino's production.  To have such an opportunity dropped into my lap made it an absolute must!  Notepad at the ready, I was able to record the discussion that ensued.

The first topic was the selection of an actor to play Hamlet.  Cimolino's discussion with Goad began nearly ten years ago and continued through planning of the current production.  The technical needs for the role are enormous.  Plus, the actor must be able to play a soldier, a courtier and a scholar while dealing with issues of justice and vengeance.  When the offer to play Hamlet came, Goad felt he was probably too old for the role that he called "an intimate experience."  He asked his wife, and she told him that he certainly was not too old.  We discovered that Goad's wife is Adrienne Gould, the actress who played Ophelia opposite her husband.  Thanks to her, he took the part.

The conversation moved to the matter of the setting of the play.  Cimolino described Hamlet as a play about killing children, about sacrificing the young to avenge the crimes of their parents.  The ghost of Hamlet's father is the voice of the old generation calling to the younger generation.  The tragedy of the play is the loss of youth trying to find justice in a corrupt world.  With this philosophy in mind, World War I seemed a perfect setting for the production.  It was a time when the world said goodbye to the old ways and hello to a modern era.  The stage set was designed with this in mind.  The rectangular prisms were based on the Memorial to the Murdered Jews in Europe in Berlin.  (Different World War perhaps, but no matter.)  I had never seen the memorial, but a photograph of it makes this parallel very obvious and striking.

When asked about the look of his character, Goad said that he trusted his director in that respect.  The look in the play is one for all time.  Goad furthered this discussion of flexibility.  No two shows are exactly the same, one of the beauties of live theatre.  He described it as classical jazz, giving the play room to breathe.

A discussion of casting and the roles in Hamlet followed.  The entire Stratford company gets extremely high marks.  Cimolino gave a reason for the high quality of the company.  The Canadian TV and film industries are not as highly renowned as in the U.S., so the actors are blessed to be able to do the classics and not get rich.  (Jonathan Goad:  "So blessed!")  Regarding Polonius, Cimolino chose to portray him as a religious, Richelieu-esque figure.  Religion figures in Hamlet, and the chapel is mentioned although many productions do not show it.  This production displayed it prominently.  Gertrude was portrayed as a professional woman, not a "clothes horse."

The conversation shifted to the topic of Hamlet's relationships.  Goad took this question.  He finds all of the scenes difficult and challenging.  Hamlet's relationships are a series of disappointments.  Hamlet is not a lover; he yearns for connections.  The scenes with Ophelia--the nunnery scene, her funeral--are especially difficult.  (That he and Ophelia are married in real life adds to this!)  Ophelia is completely abandoned in the play--by Laertes, by Hamlet and ultimately by Polonius, although not by his choice.  She's left alone and dies alone.

The nunnery scene in this production was marked by Hamlet exiting and reentering repeatedly.  Cimolino described this as the repeated failure of Hamlet's words.  He tries to talk to Ophelia and keeps getting it wrong.  Goad added that the idea of the scene was not male violence perpetrated on women.  Hamlet tries to say good bye and just can't bring himself to leave.  Family contact was a constant theme in the production.  This was evident both in Hamlet's family and in Polonius' family.  As Cimolino put it, they try to hold on tight, but by the end of the play it "all still goes to ratshit."

The next topic was Hamlet's soliloquies.  Goad described them as dialogue, not monologue.  Hamlet is isolated in the play, so he talks to the audience.  Sometimes this plays a little more evidently than others. ("I have heard/That guilty creatures sitting at a play....")  In delivering the speeches, Goad had to erase the weight of history.  He tried to stay in the moment, to bring himself to the soliloquies and to put an original stamp on them.  Cimolino commented that the "How all occasions" soliloquy is very important.  He described Hamlet's tragic flaw as an excess of passion.  After the ghost's visitation, Hamlet wants to "get it right."  Then he kills Polonius inadvertently.  Seeing the Polish soldiers marching to their deaths has a huge effect on Hamlet.  The soliloquy is Hamlet remarking that nothing is perfect, so one must do one's best.  In that speech, the idealist in Hamlet dies.

The next topic was the troupe of players.  Just as the conversation was about to begin, Mike Shara, who played Laertes, appeared at the window behind the dais.  A knock and a wave--it was a beautifully inserted comic moment.  Returning to the discussion, Cimolino said that he chose to portray the players as wandering Romany gypsies.  It is a gesture designed to elicit empathy for the wandering underdogs who were much persecuted in European history.  The first player is as a second father to Hamlet.

At this point, the floor was opened for audience questions.  To the question of an aha moment, Goad replied that you have to know the lines so well that you forget them and lose yourself in the performance of the story.  On the topic of Hamlet's constant motion on stage, Cimolino ascribed it to his active hunt for the murderer.  A question was raised about Hamlet's supposed inactivity.  Goad stated that one thing they did with this production was to examine the text in order to question the standbys in this play.  Hamlet is never asked to kill anyone.  He's not effeminate.  He's not an artist.  He's not indecisive.

In response to a question about how the play mirrors the director's personality, Cimolino said that family is hugely important to him as well.  The family unit is greater than death.  Perhaps the loss of youth was a light into the life of William Shakespeare, who lost his own son around the time that he was writing the play.

A discussion about Ophelia dropped a bombshell on the audience.  She was pregnant!  It was not obvious, but Cimolino said that it was there.  (This makes the play fit for repeated viewings.)  Goad said that Hamlet and Ophelia have been intimate.  The songs that Ophelia sings are about men taking advantage of women.  Perhaps the one that she and her father duet early in the play was one of his favorites from his youth.  In addition, one of the herbs mentioned later in the play was used as an abortion drug.

The final topic of the Star Talk concerned the scene in Gertrude's chamber.  As Hamlet is dragging the body of Polonius away, he says, "Good night, mother."  Cimolino referred to it as a dream that has become a nightmare.  He paralleled the encounter to that of a young son who visits his mother in her room and doesn't want to leave.  Goad said that the moment itself was not intentionally comic, but the juxtaposition is.  It's an absurd moment, but it's done.  And with that so was the afternoon's discussion.