Five Questions With...21st Century Bard
Hamlet in Session with Sigmund Freud was performed for the first time in June and marked the launch of a brand new theatre company. I caught up with fellow actor Benjamin Archer and threw him a few quick fire questions...
Talk to me about 21st Century Bard.
21st Century Bard was established with one simple goal, to make Shakespeare’s plays more accessible to a modern audience.
You managed to get Freud and Hamlet together in one room? Explain.
In Freud’s 1910 publication The Interpretation of Dreams he applies his theories of psychoanalysis to an array of Shakespeare’s characters. The conclusions he drew about Hamlet and his Oedipus complex have stuck with the character and the play ever since, so I wanted to explore what would actually happen if the two sat down in session.
Director, actor and writer all rolled into one. What was that like?
It was tremendous fun whilst remarkably challenging. I have a wealth of experience in all three disciplines, but never simultaneously… until now.
Who is Benjamin Archer?
I am a professional actor, acting teacher and PhD student. I am currently researching ways of making Shakespeare more accessible through actor training.
What’s hovering on the horizon?
I am currently developing Hamlet in Session with Sigmund Freud from a thirty-minute play into a full-length production. I intend to stage the newly developed play in 2019.
For more details about the company, or the production, visit:
http://21stcenturybard.co.uk/
@21stCBard
(Image: Klemens Koehring as Freud and Benjamin Archer as Hamlet)