AO5: Theatrical Interpretations

Question 1

Kozinstev 1964 (6)

Answer 1

-Entrapment and claustrophobia (gates surrounding D)
-Focus on war and court
-Ophelia as a puppet
- Hamlet acts extremely rashly stabbing P as he says “Almost as bad, good mother, / As kill a king and marry with his brother (lines 28–9).”
- O made to wear iron corset after P’s death (controlled even in madness)
- Audience never actually see ghost (accentuates H madness)

Question 2

Royal Court Theatre 1980 (2)

Answer 2

-Ghost speaks inside of Hamlet
-Jonathan Pryce as Hamlet

Question 3

Kenneth Branagh 1996 (3)

Answer 3

• H “little more than kin” dressed in black (mourning)
• H play within a play loud, aggressive (everything heard)
• H doesn’t shut P’s eyes - lack of respect
• Ophelia hands daisies (love) to no one (in a straight jacket)
• Flashbacks to O+H having sex
• Cyclical theme of OKH statue

Question 4

Edinburgh Festival Play 2000 (2)

Answer 4

-Angela Winklers as Hamlet
-loving and loyal Hamlet played by a female

Question 5

RSC 2009 Production (10)

Answer 5

-David Tennant as Hamlet (hyperactive)
- Filmed through CCTV cameras (link to spying) -Theme of surveillance
- Claudius allows himself to be killed she doesn’t want to live in a world with no G
- Play within a play C shakes head at H (disappointment)
- H looks down barrel of camera (performative nature)
- O has sh marks
- G protects C from L (out of <3)
- Real human skull used in production (H focused on skull doesn’t look at Horatio)

Question 6

László Bagossy 2014 (3)

Answer 6

• Hungarian play
• Presentation of death
• Post - Brechtian images