Productions Flashcards
David Garrick, 1771
Garrick portrayed Hamlet as a truly noble prince, and made the play into a genuine tragedy. He therefore cut anything that detracted from a heroic image of Hamlet, including Hamlet’s speech about Claudius in the chapel scene and the counter-plot with which Hamlet sends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to their deaths. In other details: poison is not used in Act 5, Gertrude dies offstage in guilt-ridden insanity, Fortinbras is cut and Laertes survives the duel to jointly rule over Denmark with Horatio.
Laurence Olivier,film, 1948
In Peter Donaldson’s words: ‘Laurence Olivier’s film of Hamlet announces itself as a psychoanalytic, Oedipal text. The phallic symbolism of rapier and dagger, the repeated dolly-in down the long corridor to the queen’s immense, enigmatic and vaginally-hooded bed, the erotic treatment of the scenes between Olivier and Eileen Herlie as Gertrude all bespeak a robust and readily identifiable, if naïve Freudianism’ (1998). Also, throughout the film, Hamlet’s soliloquies are presented as voiceovers rather than as speeches out loud, intensifying the impression that this is a play about the workings of an individual’s psyche, rather than about his interaction with the world.
Zeffirelli Film, 1990, Mel Gibson as Hamlet and Glenn Close as Gertrude,
‘…encourages a psychoanalytic reading of the play … [as] the potentially sexual nature of the relationship between the mother and son was emphasised by the performances…’
Kenneth Branagh, film,1996
While delivering his ‘To be or not to be…’ speech, Hamlet looks into the mirrors, seeing only himself, but the audience are shown Claudius and Polonius behind the mirror, listening in. Some ambiguity seems to be intended as to whether Hamlet knows that he is playing to an audience, or whether he is ignorant of the surveillance. The ending (the arrival of Fortinbras) is staged as a violent coup, drawing attention to this transfer of power and questioning the kind of future it promises. Huw Griffiths (2005) suggests this film emphasises political ‘power struggles’, and is less introspective and psychoanalytical than some earlier film versions.
Michael Almereyda film - Ethan Hawke as Hamlet, 2000,
A version of Hamlet is set in the business corporation climate of contemporary New York. Huw Griffiths (2005) suggests this film emphasises political ‘power struggles’, and is less introspective and psychoanalytical than some earlier film versions. The film is also littered with references to contemporary modes of surveillance such as CCTV producing an atmosphere of claustrophobic paranoia.
Ingmar Bergman film, 1986
This production concludes with Fortinbras gunning down the entire court, perhaps suggesting that Claudius’ corrupt regime will be replaced by a brutal one.
Sulayman Al-Bassain play, 2002.
In the 21st century there have been a number of extremely political versions and adaptations of the play – for example, The Al-Hamlet Summit (2002), by Sulayman Al-Bassain, which imagines Shakespeare’s characters from a modern Islamic perspective and resets the play in an unnamed Arab kingdom. Hamlet becomes an Islamist militant, while Ophelia becomes a suicide bomber.
Play - Almeida Production, 2009, Andrew Scott as Hamlet
Understated, indeed almost casual, delivery of Hamlet’s lines. Gertrude strongly mistrusts her new husband, and correspondingly, her drinking of the poisoned wine in 5.2 is portrayed as a knowing act of defiance. Ophelia, too, seems less passive than she has often been depicted - her initial relationship with Hamlet is evidently far from the innocent and demure image of a chaste maiden, and her madness seems angry and violent rather than purely melancholy, causing her to be restrained in a wheelchair and later slapping Laertes in the face.
Play - David Tennant 2008
Tennant - plays Hamlet as more authentic and controlled. Branagh plays this moment off as far more of a dramatic self-emasculation. Tennant plays it more nonchalantly in his motorway of self-loathing by wearing At shirt with drawn on abs: comedic, modernised lampoon of self.
Play - Benedict Cumberbatch, 2015
Interprets Hamlet’s soliloquies as a “conversation with different synapses in his brain
Play - Mark Rylance as Hamlet, 1989
Mark Rylance’s Hamlet was a very troubled prince, disabled by despair and veering between gloomy introspection and violent outbursts. When he confronted Rebecca Saire in the ‘Get Thee to a Nunnery’ scene, Rylance was explosively brutal, spitting in her face and using the moisture to rub off her makeup. Later, he ended his tempestuous encounter in Gertrude’s bedroom by kissing his mother on the mouth, more like a lover than a dutiful son.
Simon Godwin - play - Paapa Essiedu as Hamlet, 2018
‘genuine sense of discontented youth…creative and razor-sharp’
Ian McKellen as Hamlet, Film , 2024
Nearly 80 years old - A quieter, more meditative Hamlet. “To be or not to be,” originally spoken from a barber’s chair, is now delivered into Horatio’s tape
recorder as if the summation of a lifetime’s experience. In the nunnery scene, McKellen also treats Alis Wyn Davies’s Ophelia with exceptional kindness,
rather than the usual psychotic misogyny. He even dies with a smile on his lips as if aware of the absurdity of existence. It is fair to say that Jonathan
Hyde’s smoothly guilt-ridden Claudius and Steven Berkoff’s militaristic Polonius likewise use the camera to their advantage.
Play - Maxine Peake as Hamlet, 2014
Fast paced performance - a fierce and textured Hamlet who imbues the role with anger, indignation, and purpose.
