#kingofdenmark

[edgar-sob]

[sudshamlet-blog]

Ian: Claudius

Wow, Hamlet. Okay. I’m sure many people would have felt, as I did, somewhat blasé about Hamlet’s status as ‘the greatest play ever,’ as though it was something that could be offered as a response by the laziest pub-trivia team, but whose worth was determined fixedly and esoterically by bearded, tweed-wrapped scholars of days past.

One of the great joys of being involved in this production has been the impetus to just read Hamlet. To read it through and through, again and again, in its varying published forms and additions. Though I can’t claim to be widely read enough to rank the works of Western literature, Hamlet stands out for me as a wonderfully complete and brilliant work. It’s engaging, beautiful, funny, and full of fodder for debate, for performance and for stagecraft.

Our production has begun with a heavy emphasis on the text – making and justifying choices of language line by line and sometimes word by word to fix a framework for the show, one that will no doubt be hammered, cut and riveted into quite a new shape on the rehearsal room floor. We now have to find ways to make Shakespeare’s work as meaningful to our audiences as possible, sharing all the things we’ve discovered and loved in what definitely could be the best play in the world. No pressure.