Action!

     As I finished reading the final end of Hamlet, I have to admit that I was somewhat disappointed. It's not because the ending was disappointing, but it was because I wanted to actually be able to see it being acted out. While studying Hamlet in high school we were able to watch both the Mel Gibson and the Kenneth Branagh versions of Hamlet. This helped me to visualize the scene and actually see the action being played through. 

      

      This brings me back to the appeal of the theater. Not only does Shakespeare have amazing personal characters whose speeches can be thoroughly analyzed and still bring up questions as to the human mind and nature, but the fact that it is a play and not a piece of literature is what made it so popular. It is the play with live actors who bring the words to life and help the audience members put themselves into the story. I feel that personally, I am more able to sympathize with difficult situations when the actors are right there, not only saying their lines, but expressing their deeper emotions. Each little gesture can suggest a thousand different things about the character that really brings them to life as a truly three-dimensional character who lives and thinks like you and me.

      I agree with Hamlet when he realizes that words are not enough, but that power comes through theater.

"The play's the thing wherein I'll catch the conscience of the King."

Off to the show!

So last Saturday was the big day. Six hours driving for a three hour long play. Now, the question stands...

Was it worth it?

Definitely!!!

There is truly something about watching a play that adds depth to the words preciously read. While watching it, I found that there were many times I had simply overlooked the vast emotion that was created by the actors. I was able to connect with the characters more emotionally as I was able to hear their distraught voices and see their faces expressing the wide range of utter unhappiness to the purest of joys. I hope that I can bring my reading more to life in the future with this added sense of the actors performing.

The director went for a more serious tone for the play, choosing a dramatic romance instead of the comedy that was discussed earlier. I felt like this was a good choice through looking at the audience. The majority of the audience appeared to be 50+ in age, which meant that the good majority of them had been married for a long time. As opposed to a group of college-aged students, an older audience would find the married relationships to be more serious as most of them have gone through struggles in their own lives with their marriage. I don't believe that they would have been as humored making light of Leontes' concerns regarding his marriage. However, because of this heavy drama, the humor in the characters of the Clown and the Old Shepherd were greatly appreciated as almost a stress-relief to the audience. It was almost as if the Shepherd's    first lines cursing youth's idiocy gave the audience a moment to exhale and realize that the rest of the world was still untouched from the madness of the Sicilian court.

Now, not so analytical...

Another interesting aspect about the play was that it had more of a modern style choice that I personally felt was a genius move. The second half of the play was made more credible (being that it jumped sixteen years into the future) because the styles had changed. The men went from wearing waistcoats with tails to the more modern-cut suits we have today. This idea of showing the passage of time through fashion really impressed me.

           

I don't know about you, but this screamed later in time to me. It was something unexpected, but in a  pleasantly surprising way. 

Major props to the director for this one!