.:Review:. Hamlet

Hamlet

Performed by the Bell Shakespeare Company

§ The stage was made up of several props, including a piano, a tall white wardrobe, which unfortunately looked a little too obvious on stage and a large grey spiral staircase, which unfortunately was not used as much as it should have been as it was the largest part of the set.

Hamlet (Brendan Cowell as Hamlet)

§ There was a little inbuilt channel where a small amount of water was held and large rectangles on a rustic wall where coffins were placed. As certain characters came on the stage, such as the ghost, water began to trickle down the wall. This created a great symbol the decay, corruption and rotting not only literally as for the bodies which were decaying, but metaphorically for the corruption and decay of the characters such as Hamlet’s deteriorating mental health and the corruption the new King Claudius.

§ The stage was set up as a split-focus stage, this was particularly effective during the scenes in which the ghost was to come out, as it walked up and down through water on the left side of the play, whilst Hamlet conversed with the ghost of his father as he looked out to the audience as if he could see the ghost.

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Also, at the beginning of the play, the actors themselves bought a table and three chairs onto the stage, including a table cloth which was long, white and made of lace. Ophilialia and Hamlet gently placed the lace tablecloth on the table, this created an effective symbol to show the bond between them.

§ On the right of the spiral staircase was a wall made of wood with pieces which were about 4 cm apart from each other so that the characters could peer through and watch others. The room in which was meant to look like the inside of a castle was painted a grey-black colour as to show the claustrophobic feeling that Hamlet was supposed to feel.

§ The makeup used could be recognised as street makeup, there were no special characteristics about this particular style of makeup used.

§ The costumes were an eclectic range of costumes, as in Macbeth and As You Like It, one of the characters, for example, was dressed in pants which were tucked into black army boots with laces up the front of them. This was the same costume used to represent soldiers in Macbeth.

§ Brendan Cowell played Hamlet, he was dressed in clothes relating to his mood. He had a more untidy manner when he was in turmoil, such as when he was ready to kill his Uncle for what he had done, but then did not proceed to do it as his Uncle was repenting himself. However he had a neat manner when he seemed to have particular plans he was going to carry out, such as dressing in a suit when watching for signs of guilt from his Uncle whilst watching the dumb show. Cowell used the space of the stage very well, in his anger he rampaged all over the stage like a character out of control. He also used all the doors as entrances and exits. His voice grew loud in times of turmoil, anger and frustration, and grew soft when he was full sorrow, and his movement accompanied his voice. In times of frustration, he threw himself around the stage, his gestures were exaggerated, explicit and the intent of his gestures were clear to the audience.

§ Props used by Hamlet include a dagger to kill Polonius and a sword to duel and would Laertes. This sword was also used to murder Claudius, however, as Hamlet wounded Claudius with the sword, it hit the wall of the stage. This was very obvious to the audience and created a less-realistic death scene.

§ Claudius, who was played by Colin Moody, was in a suit, and there was no variation in what he wore. However, when he took off the suit jacket, it showed that part of him was exposed, and he felt exposed to Hamlet. An example of this is when Claudius removes his jacket after watching the play which Hamlet conceived. Moody used his space rather well, he strutted from position to position which helped give his character a very manly, bossy attitude. He had small gestures, however these were effective enough to add emphasise meaning to his words. His deep and authorative voice gave him the means to portray himself as King.

§ The ghost, played by Russell Keifel, and this character was interesting as he was dressed in an old army uniform and all the skin which was exposed was covered in what appeared to be blood. His hair was greasy and his clothes looked particularly like he’d just been through war. This helped convey the image that as he did not have time to repent for his sins, he was suffering in hell. He used movement as he slowly walked from one end of the water filled rectangle to the next. He was slow, and looked deathly. His voice had an echo which accompanied it, giving it an eerie overtone. His gestures whilst beckoning Hamlet to follow him were slow but concise. Also, as he walked back and fourth, he clutched the graves. This gave meaning that he was clutching at the graves in which he himself helped create.

§ The queen of Denmark and mother of Hamlet, Gertrude, was played by Heather Mitchell. She was dressed in a long, green, silky dress accompanied by a jewel necklace and earrings, for a majority of the act, her hair was in a very neat arrangement. However, as she grew more tormented with Hamlet’s actions, her hair became unraveled which was a symbol of her own inner life becoming increasingly out of control.

Chris Ryan, Sarah Blasko, Darren Weller and Paul Reichstein as The Players

When she became more frustrated and distraught over Hamlet, her gestures became increasingly out on control and irrational, yet when with Claudius, she remained very proper and glided from one side of the room to the next. Unfortunately, when she choked on the pearl and suffocated, she fell down in such a manner that the audience found it quite funny. This ruined the tension created by Hamlet during this death scene. However, the actual suffocating looked realistic as she vomited what looked to be orange juice all over stage, therefore her death was not very realistic, but had an added hint of naturalistic theatre.

§ Polonious was played by Darren Weller, who I actually found quite funny. However, he was the understudy of Barry Otto, and I have only seen him act once before so it was disappointing that I missed the chance to see him act a second time. Polonious was dressed in a grey suit which was neat and of a modern era. Many of the audience members believed that he was trying too hard to follow in Barry Otto’s footsteps that he made a fool of himself, and also that he acted in almost the same manner when playing his original character, Osric. However, he played a jumpy, clueless character who seemed very unintentionally comical. His gestures could be described as fidgety and jumpy.

§ Ophelia (Laura Brent) is known as the hardest character to play. He costume was long, cream-coloured dress with knee-high white stockings and small, flat shoes. As in the original Hamlet, once learning the death of her father and the true feelings of Hamlet towards her, she goes mentally insane. To portray this, Ophelia was dressed in underwear and a white shirt accompanied by ratty-looking hair and dirt covering most of her body. This was a little difficult to understand, as in the original script of Hamlet, Ophelia is wearing a dress and once she falls into the river, the weight of the dress in the water drags her down and she drowns. In this version of Hamlet, however, she was not wearing a dress, yet she still drowned accidentally. She had a very Australian accent in which she was trying to hide, however it showed some of the time. She moved around the stage using all the space in compliance with the inner confusion she felt over Hamlet’s love for her.

§ The sound designer, Stefan Gregory, chose rather alarming and tension-building music to show parts of tension and turmoil in the relationship between characters and events.

§ Also, this type of music was used when the ghost appeared to build tension between the audience and the actors.

§ The lighting helped convey certain moods, for example, the dark blue lighting toned down the atmosphere and slowed down the pace of the actors, this was usually used during soliloquies, where as the light colours such as orange and yellow were used in conjunction with the times spent in the company of others, for example between dialogue between the characters.

§ The lighting also helped with the climax of the play, which was when Hamlet began to kill everyone, and people began dying of accidents. There was so much happening on stage, Gertrude was suffocating on a pearl, Laertes was poisoned and was dying and Hamlet was in utter turmoil about what to do.

§ However an odd fact in this play was that the gels in the lights were changed manually, and not electronically. As an audience member, you could hear the gels being changed and fingers sliding them off and on, it was quite distracting during soliloquies.

§ The conflict between all the characters was interesting. There were many relationships between characters in which there were conflict, but most of them were based on Hamlet. There was much conflict between Hamlet and the relationship between Gertrude, Claudius, Horatio, Polonius and especially Ophelia, as they had unresolved love issues.

§ This linked with the rhythm of the play, as when conflict arose, the rhythm and pace of the play quickened. The timing between characters was much faster as to help build up tension and show the frustration between the characters. Also, the timing and rhythm of the play were affected by whether or not the characters were performing a soliloquy or conversing with another character. The pace quickened when conversing with another character and slowed down during soliloquies.

Matthew Whittet as Guildenstern and Tim Richards as Rosencrantz

§ There were many parts of Hamlet which were taken out of this performance, this included the dumb show acted by the players. Again, the split-focus stage was used to create an interesting effect. The players sung and tap danced to a beat whilst Claudius became increasingly frustrated and overcome with guilt. Audience members could not quite work out what the player was singing, therefore we do not know whether or not the lyrics had metaphorical meaning to this scene.

§ There was voice used in several parts of the performance. Songs sung by Sarah Blasko were unique and enjoyable to listen to, but the lyrics were not clear enough to hear. Music, as well as Blasko’s singing, were usually used as scene changes along with blue light focusing on the singing and playing of the piano whilst the rest of the stage remained unlit.