Hamlet, Revisioned

Hamlet, starring David Tennant and Patrick Stewart, takes a new perspective on the old, much cherished play. The designers set the re-visioning in a more modern Denmark, using things such as security cameras for major plot point perspectives, but the staging still retains the feel and rhythm of a play. However, the clever Royal Shakespeare Company "RSC" does not touch Shakespeare's words. The original text keeps Hamlet seeming relevant while still retaining the feel of dynastic and medieval pressures. 

David Tennant made, as always, a stunning performance as Hamlet. Patrick Stewart, who played both Claudius and the Ghost of Hamlet the elder, also brought a high-par performance. The staging of the movie adaptation brought out the best in all the actors. The RSC used a simple set: one room, with only a few prop variations, served most of the scenes. As always, all versions of Shakespeare are best reviewed through the lens of the play itself.

The set and shots in this version tell a great deal. The most notable departure is the use of security cameras. In the first scene, the audience finds itself behind the impartial eye of a security recording, observing the guards change the watch and discuss the Ghost. Of course, the perspective changes throughout the play to accord for different types of scenes, but the camera returns several times in highlight. During one of his soliloquies, Hamlet in a fit breaks the security camera in the main court, so that Claudius can no longer spy upon him; in another, Hamlet holds a tape recorder up to his face, which brings the audience, again within the eye of the camera, into intimate space. These changes, new and unexpected, keep the audience on their toes and excited.

The props on so simple a set must bring their import with them. For example, when Polonius spies on Hamlet and Gertrude, he hides behind a great mirror, the "arras." He scuffles his position, and Hamlet fires his gun at the mirror. When the bullet hits the mire, it shatters. Something broke in that scene, literally and figuratively; from then on, the tone of the play changed, for the plot drove not with madness but intensity and death after death. To signify this, the mirror became an almost ever-present prop. In the scene when Ophelia is first seen as mad, we see her reflection distorted in the broken shards. Every face in that mirror twisted and grew and became hazy, just as any view of reality and truth became hazy and distorted to the characters within the play.

If Hamlet were as intelligent as Rosencrantz and Guildenstern when he was sane, madness was to his benefit. Perhaps he never was mad, but only realized how transient and useless life was upon his father's death. His discovery then burned him from the inside out and portrayed itself to those around him as what could be only madness. Much is made in lighting through the motion of the play. Hamlet, whenever he is on set, is in open, brightly-lit sets, almost as if he were an Enlightenment. After he leaves Elsinore, the castle is all black and dark. The supposed mad voice of reason amongst incest and murder was gone. The characters stand in shadows or in corners, whispering to each other and scheming. Polonius' death and the search for his body was in shadow, dark curtains and set colors surrounding. When Ophelia is announced drowned, the set is silent except for whispered lines, with but one or two lights to show halves of the characters. The true madness of guilt and innocence lost then reigned. Hamlet returns to Elsinore, first to the graveyard, and the scene is outside, fresh, and well-lit. 

The question of Hamlet's sanity is begged in every production of the play: was he or wasn't he? From the RSC's set design, I must conclude their Hamlet was sane. Was he really some sort of genius or breathe of fresh air within his world? For though his remarks seem random and nonsensical, the penny drops, and the audience sees he had a grand intent with every word used. He knew how to play every person around him, just as he played the recorder. It is not so with Ophelia. On set, Hamlet tread in bare feet and wore an ironic t-shirt, but Ophelia was bare footed, nearly naked. Portrayal of insanity in this production always included bare feet, but I muse that the less clothing one wears implies the greater lack of sanity within.

The Royal Shakespeare Company's 2009 rendition of Hamlet was a fantastic watch. In every decision, just as Shakespeare in every word written, we can see the care of the script adaptors, set and costume designers, and director. The acting was superb. Of course, who can critique the script? For if a play can last as long as Hamlet with only growing fame, haters are just unappreciative haters.