Reflections on Hamlet in Stratford, Ontario 2008

The first thing that surprised me was the stage. I expected it to be a traditional Shakespearean thrust stage, but it was a semi-circle that allowed the actors to enter and exit into the audience as well as stage right, stage left or at the back of the stage. This flexibility was taken advantage of throughout the play. It created more interest by allowing several actors to enter the stage at once. The set was fairly pared down, which is consistent with a traditional Shakespearean stage. The trap door in the center of the stage was well utilized as a way to quickly dress the stage. It was also a good way to dig up Yorick’s skull and Ophelia’s grave.

The most visible surprise in this production was the costuming choice. The choice of particularly Scandinavian Edwardian era clothes was a clever and unique approach. The costumes looked as if they were stolen from the set of Ingmar Bergman’s film Fanny and Alexander. But we still got to see some of the beautiful Elizabethan costumes in The Mouse-Trap Play. I really thought it worked because during the play I was completely transported to 1910 Denmark. The details were subtle and well thought out.

I know by talking to others on our trip that the quick pace of the dialog threw some of you off, but I enjoyed the speediness immensely. It increased the humor, especially with Hamlet, and created a high level of action in the play that other productions have seemed to lack. For example, the BBC’s Royal Shakespeare Company version of Hamlet from 1980, which I watched in preparation for the trip, seemed to drag on and move so slowly. I realize now that it was due to the speed of the actor’s speech.

In my previous post, I described how I envisioned Act I scene iv of the Stratford, Ontario version of Hamlet to be performed. Now that I have seen the play, I think in many ways, the scene lived up to my expectations but it can never be exactly like it is in my mind’s eye. For example, the fog was used liberally when King Hamlet’s ghost entered, as I pictured it, but I was surprised that he was dressed in a long regal white cape and a crown. I think his Elizabethan-looking royal garb was a little strange in light of the 1910-era costumes though out the rest of the play. Even when we see King Hamlet’s ghost again in the bedroom scene he is wearing an all white suit (that Tacarra said he stole from John Travolta’s dad in Saturday Night Fever). In the Stratford production, Marcellus was portrayed as a relatively flat character hanging around for little more than scenery but I saw Marcellus as more of a developed character who was visibly afraid yet still a dutiful guard.

I am really impressed and I think it was an excellent production of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet. I say this because over the past few days I have been going over scenes in my mind and reliving the experience. Good live theater lingers and stays with you. I even had a dream about the play. During the billiard scene with Laertes and Claudius (Act IV, scene vii), I was in the front row and got hit in the face with a pool ball. I was bleeding and the actors carried me off through the stage.