Directorial: Hamlet

Hamlet Directorial

Part One

            My adaptation will tackle the classic Hamlet by William Shakespeare. There are elements of change within my interpretation, but my ultimate goal will be to portray Shakespeare’s story honestly. My version will implement a modern take on the literary classic, translating the setting, character development, and a few plot points to modern times. This will hold my audience’s attention, making the characters and story more relatable. This adaptation will hopefully do the original Hamlet justice while incorporating my creative voice and personal interpretation.

World-building

            I will be taking Shakespeare’s Hamlet and transporting it into modern times. I don’t want to choose a specific location for the setting, but just have the world be more contemporary and universal. This will mean removing the plot lines concerning geography and external war conflicts. Instead, I will focus on the relational aspects of the story and the greater character arcs. This will create a more relatable story for the modern audience while still holding true to Hamlet’s core.  [SB1] [MJ-(2] [MJ-(3] 

            Though the play will be set in modern times, I want to keep technology out of the picture. This will maintain the focus on the characters and story line instead of more contemporary distractions. The characters will speak in modern English, including slang and some sparse cursing, much like would be found on today’s television program or movie.

            The play’s sets will be fairly simple as well. I’d like to create different set pieces to show changes in location, including Hamlet’s household, his room that we will visit in his slumber and the confrontation with Ophelia, and an outdoor location. I would implement backdrops that serve as scenery and views of a horizon when outdoors, accompanied by set pieces of walls and rooms inside. There will also be a view furniture pieces on stage when the characters are indoors. These will be modern in design while also portraying Claudius’s wealth and status. 

            The actor’s costumes will be simple, casual clothing you could find presently. Jeans and T shirts for the men and casual dresses for the women will tie in the modern gender roles as well, an important aspect of the women’s character developments.

            My play won’t call for many special effects. The scenes are primarily straight forward, not requiring any fancy technical achievements. Sound effects will also not be highly prevalent in my adaptation. Dialogue is the main focus in driving the plot forward, and no scenes contain diegetic sounds or narration.

            The dialogue in my adaptation will be a mix of traditional and contemporary text. I’m interested in keeping much of Shakespeare’s poeticism, as well as the more famous lines. However, I would like to experiment with mixing new pieces of dialogue as well. The characters will maintain the traditional rhythm, frequently adding more relaxed vocabulary that a modern audience would recognize.

Characters

            I would try my best to keep the characters’ representations fairly true to the original text. Though many characters will be nearly identical, there are a few minor changes I’d like to implement. These alterations will help translate the play into a more modern setting, making the characters more powerful and relatable to the audience.

            Regarding Ophelia, I’d like to give her a bit more of a voice[SB4] [MJ-(5]  in both dialogue and demeanor. I would keep her obedience and submission to authority, but she’ll be more visibly upset about her role in this. Like most modern women, she will feel compelled to obey the men in her life (Polonius, Laertes, Hamlet), but will struggle with her sense of autonomy and finding her own voice. I would see her being the most comfortable standing up to Hamlet since he isn’t a member of her family. This causes a more equal confrontation with Hamlet, opposing the original scene where she is verbally attacked with no rebuttal.

            Gertrude will still remain a bit of a mystery in my adaptation. I appreciate that her motives aren’t always clear in the original text and that the audience never truly understands her thoughts in her final scene. I’d keep her love for her son evident, even in his madness and confrontation. I wouldn’t, however, have her show remorse for her remarriage. Similar to Ophelia, Gertrude feels bound to obey the men in her life. She won’t have as much confidence refusing orders as Ophelia does, but will take her stand against Claudius’s doings by drinking from the poisoned cup to end her life.

            Hamlet will remain broody and sensitive. His outlook at the beginning of the play is rather hopeless, grieving his father’s loss and his mother’s quick turnaround. Once he sees his late father, he gets a bit more motivated. However, his mental state quickly becomes muddled with his act of madness. Hamlet’s family and friends, in addition to the audience, seriously question and begin to doubt his stability. A parallel between his actions and Ophelia’s spiral suggest even more concretely that his mind has unhinged. His decisions become messy and impulsive by the end of the play, where he takes no time to weigh any consequences and is unwavering in having revenge. Though he ends up succeeding in his revenge, it ultimately ends in his demise. I’d like to maintain the portrayal of his satisfaction in the ‘success,’ though the consequence to his actions may not have been worth the triumph to an audience who began to root for him.

            Claudius would still be portrayed as malicious and devious. His reasons for killing his brother betray the other characters’ strong familial loyalty. He has no trouble murdering him for monetary gain, and even shows no respect for the king’s marriage. He later kills Hamlet with no hesitation or remorse. He sees him as a threat to the crown, therefore disposing of the risk. The man’s nonexistent allegiance to his family contrasts the other characters’ morals, as they are overwhelmingly prepared to kill for the honor of their household. I’d like to maintain the strong difference among the characters in my version of this play as I see it as an important aspect of their character identities.

Plot

            The central scenes will be those in which Hamlet schemes to find the truth about his uncle. I found this plot line to be key to Hamlet’s character development, and it suggests a few of the play’s larger themes. One theme would be Claudius’s fault, introducing the idea of murder for the sake of revenge. Could Hamlet kill his uncle just because his passed father told him to? So much energy is spent proving that Claudius is truly at fault, and I believe this is just Hamlet stalling because he is following through with something he does not fully agree with. The focus on these scenes will deepen Hamlet’s character arc while also bringing a familiar struggle to the audience: do you do what you feel is right or what you have been trained to believe is the only option?

            Looking at elements of story line, Hamlet’s family will not be royals, but rather the owners of a multimillion dollar company. This will help the story translate to a more American audience, while still giving Claudius motive and setting the stakes high.

            In terms of plot, I would implement a few changes in my version of Hamlet. Instead of Hamlet seeing a physical ghost while walking at night, he would see the vision of his father nightly in his dreams. Here, the ‘ghost’ of his late father would explain his murder and ask for revenge, much like the original play. The consistency of the dreams every night and the existing suspicion surrounding his uncle would be enough to bring Hamlet to uncover the truth. This would also bring about more reason for Hamlet to need evidence of Claudius’s guilt, as dreams stem from one’s own imagination.  

            Hamlet would then confide in Horatio, explaining his suspicion about the new king. Together the two would devise the Craziness Plan, in which Hamlet feigns madness to uncover the truth. I want there to be more visible debate as to whether Hamlet is merely acting unstable, or has lost his senses. There will be a scene or two where Horatio confronts Hamlet, more or less to say, “Either you’re an amazing actor, or you’re seriously unhinged. Which is it?” Hamlet would go in and out of his madness and his normal speech, halfway trying to reassure his friend but not doing a very thorough job. The scene will leave Horatio even more confused about Hamlet’s true mental state, and it will leave the audience to assume something more is going on inside his head.  

            I’d also like to keep the scenes in which Hamlet wrestles internally with his plan. I found these monologues central moments in defining Hamlet’s character, as they illuminate the true turmoil he struggles with. The grief-stricken man at the beginning of the play continually fights to gain the strength for revenge, as showcased most clearly in his solo scenes.

With Ophelia having a more powerful voice, her scenes will be altered slightly from the original text. In one scene, she will obviously take note of Hamlet’s mad behavior and try to ask him about it. When he doesn’t give her a straight answer, she becomes angry, since they are supposed to trust and confide in each other. Hamlet would not take kindly to Ophelia standing up to him, which is where the “I loved you not” dispute from Act 3 Scene 1 would appear.

            The acting troop will be a similar scene compared to the original text: a performance group hired for party entertainment for Claudius. Hamlet will still write up a scene for the group to perform, with the intent of watching his uncle’s reaction. Claudius will react in the same way, leading Hamlet to conclude his fault. Even though he decides his uncle is responsible, he still cannot kill him right away. His internal battle with revenge continues on as the story progresses.

            Much of the rest of the play will remain true to the original plot. Hamlet will confront his mother, and he will kill Polonius, somewhat by accident. This murder reinforces the idea that Hamlet is mentally unstable, keeping the audience and his mother suspicious. Laertes will want revenge as well, but plan a sort of street fight instead of a formal duel. Ophelia will unhinge in a similar way, speaking madness as Hamlet had been, drawing a parallel between her behavior and Hamlet’s. With her instability ending in her passive suicide, it further suggests Hamlet may be at risk of the same fate.  

            I am choosing to eliminate the scene at Ophelia’s funeral. Characters would discuss how her death may have been a suicide, but it won’t be set at the graveyard. This will maintain the play’s pacing while keeping the scene’s importance.  

Instead of traveling to London to taint Hamlet’s reputation, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern will remain around Hamlet’s household. When Hamlet discovers they have been spying on him per Claudius’s orders, he concludes their actions are a betrayal. He would then have two higher-ups in Claudius’s business to take out the young men.

            At Laertes and Hamlet’s confrontation, I will have the murders occur from poison. Though this isn’t a very common way to kill someone in modern times, I appreciate how it draws parallels to the king’s death. I would consider this fact a bit of tragic irony. Hamlet debated for so long about committing the act of revenge, ultimately deciding he must follow through. Perhaps because the process was so drawn out, Claudius is able to kill him as well. He dies the same way as his father did while attempting to avenge his very death.

            The most pivotal moments in this production would be Hamlet dreaming of his father, the acting scene that confirms Claudius is guilty, and the final death scene. These are the most important plot points and would be the most impactful to the audience.

            While my adaptation implements modern changes, it attempts to portray Hamlet in the same historic light. The characters hold contrasting and important attributes that are relatable and understandable to the audience, while explaining motivation and furthering the plot. The sets, costumes, and other mise en scene elements will introduce a modern atmosphere, transporting the story to the present day. While some specifics of this classic are different, the heart of the story will hold true.

Part Two

            The Globe’s Hamlet implemented different relational ideas and character representations. Where the staging and world-building aspects remained rather traditional, the choice in individual character portrayal strayed from the common path.

            The Globe’s adaptation seemed to be set in a more traditional atmosphere. All of the geographical aspects remained true to the text, and the costuming leaned more toward the original time frame. Most notably, Claudius and Gertrude wore traditional royal dress that often complimented each other in style and coloring. Contrastingly, some actors wore very casual, modern clothing, like Hamlet’s ski beanie and the child actor’s black tee and jeans combo. This served to distinguish between the upper and lower classes, but also hinted at this adaptation’s overall portrayal of Hamlet.

            Where my production would portray Hamlet as conflicted and distraught, this version emphasized his naivety and immaturity. For a large portion of the show, Hamlet walked the stage in complete clown attire, make up and all. Though this might have been an exaggeration of his act of madness, I felt it did more to portray his inner character; I personally found my interpretation a bit more effective. I tried to showcase the many layers of Hamlet’s persona and dilemma, while I felt The Globe leaned more toward his comedic affect alone. I wasn’t able to take their Hamlet very seriously at all, which I believed to be their goal in the first place.

            A character representation I did appreciate was that of Gertrude. I found our interpretations of her to be quite similar, showing her affection to Hamlet but also her devotion to Claudius. The actress did a great job in playing a layered character whose motives aren’t always apparent. I felt sympathy toward Gertrude, especially when Hamlet confronted her. All of her scenes were quite powerful, and I hope my depiction of Gertrude would stand out in the same way.

            The Globe’s Claudius was different than I was expecting. The actor portrayed him a bit sympathetically, and I found myself feeling sorry for him in ways I wasn’t while reading the text. This choice caused for an interesting family dynamic: the audience was more on Claudius and Gertrude’s side instead of Hamlet’s. There was a heightened disregard of Hamlet’s validity that was further explored through Claudius’s likability. I found this portrayal interesting, but I think my original interpretation is still what I’m drawn toward. I appreciate being able to hate Claudius for what he did, feeling sorry for Gertrude for the situation she finds herself, and finding uncertainty but understanding for Hamlet and his decisions. The role reversal at The Globe did not hold the same weight for me.

            The Globe also kept Ophelia’s character fairly traditional. Her lines were true to the original text, and the actor played her rather airily. There was not much substance given to her personality other than her role as the love interest. Even in her mad scene, I felt the portrayal remained on the passive side, still not as vocal and visibly heartbroken as my adaptation would have handled the situation.

            The driving message from this performance was a commentary on man’s own naivety. Often, while one feels in the right, their actions can uncover the truth in their morals. The artistic choices made in The Globe’s Hamlet reflected this idea by finding immaturity in madness, challenging one’s sympathy, and reflecting on the duality of man.

Works Cited

Hamlet. By William Shakespeare, directed by Federay Holmes, 22 July, 2018. Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, London, England.

Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. Ed. Stanley Wells. Oxford, Oxford University Press. 1987.