Tread carefully
Welcome to the vipers’ nest (aka the Danish royal court)
Question: Is Hamlet a political thriller? A family drama? A murder mystery? A moral dilemma? A ghost story? Or
the blackest of black comedies?
Answer: All of the above. The most iconic play in theatre history can blow your mind and scare your socks off, all at
the same time.
Speed read
Hamlet in a nutshell
Something is rotten in the state of Denmark. But one thing’s for sure, it’s not the corpse of the king that’s causing
the stench. Prince Hamlet’s father is dead. But before the body has even begun to smell, Hamlet’s Uncle Claudius
seizes the crown by marrying Hamlet’s mum. Now that stinks.
Hamlet finds Claudius’ connubials creepy enough, even before his father’s ghost shows up and claims that
Claudius murdered him. Royally riled, the dead king urges young Hamlet to seek revenge.
But that’s easier said than done.
The Danish court is crawling with spies and Hamlet doesn’t know who he can trust. Certainly not himself.
For the young prince has descended into a crisis of confidence, indentured to indecision and overwhelmed by
overthinking. Conscience has made a coward of Hamlet. He is desperate to obey his father and kill Claudius but he
frets that committing murder would make him just as bad as his evil unc.
What’s a guy to do? To kill? Or not to kill? Hamlet’s sure that was the question…
But our hero beats around the bush, pontificating and procrastinating, and wasting an opportunity to waste
Claudius. He goes looking for further proof of his uncle’s guilt, all the while feigning insanity to throw his detractors
off the scent. And while this may fool his friends, foes, and even his sweetheart Ophelia; it’s not enough to stop
the rot. In his quest to find transcendence, Hamlet loses his love and maybe his mind, before making the ultimate
sacrifice.
Great Danes
Hamlet character lowdown
Hamlet The prince of Denmark is a grief stricken uni student who has returned home following his father’s death.
Impetuous one minute, introspective the next, Hamlet is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma.
Gertrude Hamlet’s mother, the queen, has just married Claudius, her brother-in-law. This has stabilised Denmark
politically, but has wrecked Gertrude’s relationship with her son.
Claudius Having killed his brother to take the throne, the new king of Denmark will stop at nothing to cling onto
power. He’s cunning, he’s dangerous, and he’s highly suspicious of Hamlet...
Polonius The king’s advisor and close confidante, Polonius is a political animal at heart. He is capable of great
wisdom, but also great stupidity.
Ophelia The daughter of Polonius is smart, loyal and trusting. And she has a thing for Hamlet.
Laertes A noble but hot-headed young man who is fiercely protective of his sister, Ophelia. Not exactly Hamlet’s
biggest fan.
Horatio Hamlet’s biggest fan. Horatio is prepared to follow his friend to hell and back, which is just as well…
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Two long-time friends of Hamlet who are slightly naïve. Ideal pawns for Claudius
to manipulate.
Mind games
For many actors, Hamlet is the role of a lifetime. A chance to express the gamut of human emotion. And yet
there’s no disputing it can mess with your mind. Hamlet tackles the meaning of life, as well as taking on several
other humdingers around truth, family, love and death. Actors must decide where they stand on these issues.
(This above all: to thine own self be true…)
Playing Hamlet can be incredibly confronting. Actor, David Tennant said when he was approached to be the lead
in the 2008 RSC production: “This was something that I wanted to do and couldn’t say ‘no’ to. But it was – and
remained up until the final performance – utterly terrifying.”
Actor Jude Law said the role is like sharing one’s soul: “You’re not just going to see your preferred actor but
you’re also going to see them perhaps bearing a side of themselves, and revealing a side of themselves, that’s really
intimate.”
Or, as John Bell put it in his book On Shakespeare: “You don’t play the role, you live it. You use it to tell the
audience all about yourself…”
Say what?
Post-show conversation starters to make you look smart
High brow
Hamlet is tortured by questions that go to the heart of society’s moral and spiritual values. If the laws of the
state don’t provide justice, is it acceptable to commit a private act of vengeance? How do we decide between Old
Testament “eye for an eye” revenge, and “turn the other cheek” Christian forgiveness?
Hamlet’s relationship with women is nothing if not complicated. He’s disgusted by his mother marrying his uncle
(theories of an Oedipus complex abound), and his treatment of the devoted Ophelia is reprehensible. Yet female
actors have also played Hamlet on stage to great effect, including Maxine Peake in a recent UK production.
In 1585, William Shakespeare named his only son Hamnet. Tragedy struck when Hamnet died aged 11, possibly from
bubonic plague. Scholars have long speculated about whether the personal tragedy of Hamnet spurred his father
to adapt Hamlet and stage it four years later.
Low brow
If you get the heebie jeebies watching the ghost in this play, then spare a thought for Shakespeare’s original
audiences. Most Elizabethans believed in (and were frightened of) ghosts. For them, the divide between the living
world and the spirit world was wafer thin.
The list of actors who have played Hamlet on stage and screen is formidable. It includes the likes of Laurence
Olivier, Peter O’Toole, Al Pacino, Derek Jacobi, Kevin Kline, Mel Gibson and Kenneth Branagh.
The story of Hamlet can be adapted and reimagined in endless ways. Disney’s The Lion King borrows liberally from
the plot, while Tom Stoppard took two relatively minor characters and produced the postmodern tragicomedy
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. And this year, Australian Children’s Laureate Jackie French published
the novel Ophelia: Queen of Denmark.