Getting to Grips with Shakespeare
To be or not to be
Hamlet
Monday 16th September 2019
As our first project we have been given a scene from a Shakespeare play, mine being Hamlet. I have been partnered with Izzy Gorman, she is to play Hamlet while I play his mother the Queen. These characters were given to us to test ourselves, I am not one to play many female roles and the same goes for Izzy only with male roles. We have been given Act 3 Scene 4, the one where Hamlet confronts his mother about King Claudius.
The story of Hamlet is a complex one but to put it simply it is about betrayal, trust, mental illness, how much the mind can take before snapping and in some ways love.
The late King, King Hamlet’s ghost tells his son Hamlet how his brother Claudius, the new king was the one that killed him while also marrying his wife the Queen who doesn’t seem to question anything. Hamlet swears revenge under his father’s orders.
The situation grows complicated when the revenge is dragged out thanks to Hamlet being contemplative and thoughtful by nature. This soon drives him to insanity, he did not ask for all this to happen nor did he wish to see his father again in spirit form. I believe he wished he’d have never found out and would have been much happier never knowing or at least dealt with it better.
After his first attempt at killing Claudius fails, Hamlet is sent to England by the King as he’s now fearing for his life. Hamlet got a group of travelling actors to perform a scene in front of the King and Queen that involves the death of a king to see if it catches Claudius off guard, it does and in turn he goes to finish the job once and for all. Hamlet stops himself however when seeing the king praying alone just in case his soul is sent to heaven, a place he most certainly doesn’t belong.
The Queen is then confronted by her son in her room, Polonius the chamberlain eavesdropping in on their conversation ends up getting killed off by Hamlet when he believes Polonius is the king listening in.
For his crime Hamlet is sent straight to England but his thought to be friends who accompany him have secret orders to the King of England that Hamlet be put to death. This is Claudius’s doing but his plan fails when Hamlet returns from his journey because his ship was attacked by pirates.
Near the end of the play Hamlet has a fencing match with Laertes, Polonius’s son who wants revenge on the prince after he kills his father and sister Ophelia who drowns in the river from grief and her own insanity when finding out about her father’s death.
Claudius poisons Laertes’s blade in order to kill Hamlet, if all else fails he poisons a goblet to give to Hamlet if he were to win. Hamlet wins the first point but does not drink from the goblet instead Gertrude his mother drinks from it and shortly dies afterwards not before warning Hamlet about Claudius.
Laertes succeeds in wounding Hamlet who doesn’t die straight away. Laertes instead gets hurt by his own sword and before dying admits to Hamlet that it was in fact the king who killed the Queen. Hamlet finally kills Claudius achieving his revenge before giving in to the grip of death himself its all finally over.
Horatio fulfilling Hamlet’s last request tells the man’s story to Fortinbras, a Norwegian prince who arrived in Denmark with his army only to witness the aftermath of it all. Fortirbras orders that Hamlet be carried away in a manner befitting a fallen soldier.
Act 3 Scene 4
Gertrude is in her room getting ready to settle in for the night while Polonius speaks to her about her son, he tells her to be John Blunt with Hamlet, all that he’s done has offended the king and he needs to grow up and stop all this nonsense. Agreeing the Queen gets the chamberlain to leave, he hides, before straightening her composure when Hamlet bursts in like a misbehaved child calling out for their mother.
The two argue for a minute before it turns aggressive almost immediately. Gertrude tries to get her son to see some sense but he’s having none of it, she’s the one that married a murder as well as his father’s brother and she has the right to be angry at him?! No, she’s needs to be put in her place, Hamlet is not the evil one here she is for making such a sickening choice.
Back in the medieval times around the 1300s to 1499s where Hamlet was set, women were seen as lower class citizens compared to men, so that meant they got paid less and had to take up more than one job in order to get paid around the same amount as men. They were taught to obey men from their fathers up to their husbands when they got married.
The statues of a Queen however was different from that of a average everyday working women in the middle ages. They had much more power in the respect that they could make choices in a time where their husband is absent or their son is not of age to make a wise enough decision.
It is clear that throughout their argument Gertrude fears her son and isn’t one who would normally stick up for herself, she is talking on behalf of Claudius not herself. This is clear from the very beginning when she speaks the line,” Hamlet, thou hast thy father much offended.” It does not matter what she feels about the situation it is Claudius that comes first before her own emotions.
Hamlet’s threatening manner causes his mother to scream out for help, her rash and fear struck action ends up getting Polonius killed by her son who doesn’t think twice about killing the man he hoped to be the king hiding behind the tapestry with his sword. When realizing it is not King Claudius, Hamlet sweeps Polonius under the rug, saying how he got what he deserved for prying.
Hamlet despises love and women by this point in the play because he cannot get over the fact that his mother has betrayed her husband by marrying Claudius. This is shown by the quote, “Takes off the rose from the fair forehead of an innocent love and sets a blister there.” He’s implying that the love his mother had for his father was false, tainted otherwise why would she remarry!
Not making it known right away causes Gertrude to question her son, asking what deed could be so awful when he has yet to explain it. Snatching up a picture of the late king as well as Claudius Hamlet forces his mother to look down upon them both praising his father treating him like a god, a man even gods couldn’t live up to. This tells me that Hamlet admired his father as a human being and king.
From elegant to sharp and bitter in a split second the son proceeds to mock, criticize and detest his mother for making the situation worse by moving from one man to another so swiftly. It was not out of love, at her age passion for another was frail almost non-existent, she only did it out of reason to keep her status.
What also makes the whole scene worse is the fact that we find out that the Queen is indeed sleeping with the king and she admits to it telling Hamlet to please stop, guilt clear in her speech as she calls what she’s doing a sin.
As the fight continues the ghost of King Hamlet appears in the room, only his son can see him. Hamlet imminently starts talking to his father making himself look very unstable in front of his own mother. The ghost tells Hamlet to talk to his mother, not scare her anymore as well as reminding him of the revenge.
The ghost’s appearance doesn’t help in anyway, Hamlet tries to get his mother to see what he sees but instead only increases her concern. This begs the question of why can’t Gertrude see the ghost? Does it suggest Gertrude’s innocents or lack thereof any involvement with her late husband’s murder? I believe this to be true being the apparition of King Hamlet tells his son to back off from his mother and carry out his revenge, this telling me that the Queen had no idea about of the cruel acts that took place upon her husband.
Either way the ghost calms Hamlet down, the scene comes to a more rational conversation between mother and son. Announcing that his madness is all an act, Hamlet urges her to forsake Claudius and regain her good conscience also mentioning before he leaves how not to tell the king of his secret; though she is very shaken Gertrude agrees to keep her son’s act a secret before listening to how Hamlet finally takes notice of Polonius’s body again and explains to her how this is god’s way of punishing him, leaving straight after dragging the lifeless corpse out behind him.
By the end, though she tries to make an effort to understand her son and despite his warnings of King Claudius Gertrude still believes that her son is mad.
Monday 23rd September 2019
Progress
I have learnt and performed alongside Izzy the first two pages of our scene, one of the hardest beginnings to start off with. We have blocked the rest and now putting ideas into action. The relationship between Gertrude and her son is questionable at best. In many interpretations of the scene that I have watched, Hamlet is abusive and reckless towards his mother making you feel very uncomfortable and uneasy at first not knowing what to expect next. Andrew Scott and David Tenant are prime examples of this kind of approach to the role because when watching them I didn’t feel sorry for Hamlet as a character right away, only disturbed but as the scene progressed the man became undone showing his true pain and suffering making me feel sorrow and announce that no one really understood what he was going through by himself. As a mother Gertrude should see this but her fear has consumed her and all she sees in front of her is a sick man who needs help, one who has been misguided by the path of faith.
Our pace needs more work, we are still on scripts which are restricting us and leading us to slow down without meaning to. The beginning is good but it could be better in the respect that there could be more movement on Hamlet’s part in cornering his mother at all times not letting her get the upper hand at all.
The characters are there and our teacher Jamie likes my interpretation of Queen Gertrude fearing for her life, panicked and clueless. My natural starting point when creating a character is preferably masculine, serious and to a certain extent authoritarian; therefore this role is challenging for me because it does not have any of the character traits that I normally portray.
I cannot relate to Gertrude being she is a queen and a mother but with the help of actors who have played her I have come to understand what kind of person she is. A women who I believe had no part in the killing of her husband and stayed true to her duty as a Queen, she didn’t marry Claudius out of love but perhaps for the future of her families wellbeing and in order to one day see Hamlet become king. This is not specified within the play but that’s the fun of trying to figure characters out.
Inspiration
Juliet Stevenson: Role of Gertrude in the 2018 adaptation of Hamlet.
Penny Downie: Role of Gertrude in the 2009 remake of Hamlet.
Glenn Close: Role of Gertrude in the 1990 movie of Hamlet.
Friday 27th September 2019
As seen in the videos above Izzy and myself have got the characters and staging ready, the pace needs to be snappier and the audience needs to feel the emotions of the whole scene. They need to feel unnerved by Hamlet’s actions and speech towards his mother as well as feeling almost sorry for him.
We need to get our outfits sorted and make the piece of staging we’re using as a bed look more presentable. We have swapped the sword for a gun because in our version it is more effective, unlike the sword which slowed it all down and made it awkward.
My body language at the beginning clearly shows that I am of high status but it quickly changes to that of a trembling women who doesn’t know what to do with herself considering her own son has her corner on the bed for the majority of the scene. My facial expressions show constant fear, dread and confusion as if I’m fearing for my life.
Monday 30th September 2019
Evaluation
The very first performance we did was out of the two in my opinion in the best, one being I got all my lines and two even though the gun sound in the second made the whole effect of shooting someone real the scene didn’t work out how I wanted it to.
Strengths Within First Performance
Our pace was slick and smooth.
My facial expressions were constantly changing to the emotions that fitted with the circumstance.
Every time I as the Queen would try to speak, Hamlet would knock me right back down again until he had me cornered on the bed.
Izzy’s movement was unpredictable and that made the scene so much better in the sense that I didn’t know what she was going to do next giving me all the more reason to feel nervous not only as the queen but as an actor too.
Some words I originally said incorrect like “Twain,” I said it as “Twine,” when in rehearsals but in the actual shows I corrected myself.
Improvements
I lost the words for a moment when Hamlet tries to get me to see the king my husband but luckily it seemed like i was just overcome my fear and concern. Next time however I made sure to speak it clearly the second time just in case the audience missed the line all together.
I was out of lighting when me and Izzy were on the floor to the right of the stage.
Strengths on Second Performance
Reaction to the gun was real with a hint of fear added in. (Also the cry you hear in the video is not me but another actor playing as Polonius behind the curtain off screen.)
Izzy’s Hamlet was brilliant throughout both performances, she pulled him off really well considering she really struggled with his character in the beginning.
The way Izzy slowly climbs onto the bed and grabs a pillow very subtly for throwing it off the bed was very successful it really worked!
I said a few sentences out of order but i made them work without breaking character and making it obvious.
Izzy slamming her foot onto the bed made for a cool moment.
Improvements
Izzy came on a little too early, Mae (Polonius) was still on stage when she came on and she’s not meant to know she’s there.
I felt like the pace was to rushed like we just wanted to get it done, that’s why the mistakes could be seen more clearly but it was in fact the adrenaline that caused this.
Should have looked more to the audience when freezing in fear at the gun going off so they could see my face clearly.
Sat down to quickly when Izzy comes to talk to me after looking over the corpse.
The paragraph where I try to get Hamlet’s attention was one I struggled with for the most of practice and to see me miss it in our final performance hurts considering I knew it and could have done it but it is what it is.
Overall Shakespeare isn’t my strongest suit but I’ll happily do it again, learn the language and take on the challenge of creating my own version of the characters! It was so much fun working with Izzy, we have come a long way with Shakespeare in the past few short weeks and continue to grow as actors. Next time I would love to try Hamlet!
Helen's Performing Arts Life 