Bev, I think the first time I ever saw Hamlet performed, it was like that. But not that version. I think it was the one with Kevin Kline.
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sarameg - Apr 08, 2009 3:27:25 pm PDT #8781 of 28414
Barb - Apr 08, 2009 3:27:53 pm PDT #8782 of 28414
“Not dead yet!”
It taught me that classic books can be just as exciting and interesting as regular books!
Les Miserable and Don Quixote did that for me.
Hayden - Apr 08, 2009 4:32:51 pm PDT #8783 of 28414
aka "The artist formerly known as Corwood Industries."
I loved Crime & Punishment, too. And Don Quixote.
DebetEsse - Apr 08, 2009 4:43:58 pm PDT #8784 of 28414
Woe to the fucking wicked.
The thing I learned most from Branagh's Hamlet is that "damn, Shakespeare really does go over all the major plot points (and his favorites bits of imagery) a half dozen times." (A point which was re-established for me in MacBeth, which goes something like "maybe we should kill the king" "We're going to kill the king" "I'm going to go kill the king right now" "hey! I just killed the king" "OMG, the king is dead." Of course there are a lot of minor plot points that are much less repeated). Also, I don't think anyone over 30 should play Hamlet (maybe up to 35, but it's a push unless they're pretty youthful). It starts playing more like a midlife crisis than the emo prince of Denmark. I have similar opinions, minus about a decade, for Romeo & Juliet.
I read and loved Les Miserables in Jr Hi, but could not get through Don Quixote. It may have been a bad translation, though.
le nubian - Apr 08, 2009 4:52:00 pm PDT #8785 of 28414
"And to be clear, I am the hell. And the high water."
given the time it was written, wasn't 35 middle age back then? I always thought of Hamlet in his early 20s. Kind of like how Ethan Hawke played him.
DebetEsse - Apr 08, 2009 4:55:41 pm PDT #8786 of 28414
Woe to the fucking wicked.
Yeah. The problem is that it's such a big/prestige part that few young actors have the chops and/or status to get the role.
Sue - Apr 08, 2009 4:56:37 pm PDT #8787 of 28414
hip deep in pie
given the time it was written, wasn't 35 middle age back then? I always thought of Hamlet in his early 20s. Kind of like how Ethan Hawke played him.
Hamlet's age is a debate among scholars, if I remember my dramaturgy class. There was the school of thought for late-teens, 20-ish and then there was an argument that he was older, maybe 30. (Remember Mel Gibson's Hamlet when he look older than his mother?) I can't remember the reasons why anymore.
sj - Apr 08, 2009 5:00:08 pm PDT #8788 of 28414
"There are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea."
I believe there is a reference somewhere in the text that implies Hamlet is 30. However, he has supposedly just come home from school, and it doesn't make sense to many scholars that Hamlet would be still studying at 30. I don't remember all of the specifics anymore.
Fay - Apr 08, 2009 5:19:59 pm PDT #8789 of 28414
"Fuck Western ideologically-motivated gender identification!" Sulu gasped, and came.
It's in the gravedigger scene:
***********
HAMLET
How absolute the knave is! we must speak by the card, or equivocation will undo us. By the Lord, Horatio, these three years I have taken a note of it; the age is grown so picked that the toe of the peasant comes so near the heel of the courtier, he gaffs his kibe. How long hast thou been a grave-maker?
First Clown
Of all the days i' the year, I came to't that day that our last king Hamlet overcame Fortinbras.
HAMLET
How long is that since?
First Clown
Cannot you tell that? every fool can tell that: it was the very day that young Hamlet was born; he that is mad, and sent into England.
HAMLET
Ay, marry, why was he sent into England?
First Clown
Why, because he was mad: he shall recover his wits there; or, if he do not, it's no great matter there.
HAMLET
Why?
First Clown
'Twill, a not be seen in him there; there the men are as mad as he.
HAMLET
How came he mad?
First Clown
Very strangely, they say.
HAMLET
How strangely?
First Clown
Faith, e'en with losing his wits.
HAMLET
Upon what ground?
First Clown
Why, here in Denmark: I have been sexton here, man and boy, thirty years.
***********
I don't have a problem with Hamlet being 30 and scholarly - I mean, it's not like the heir to the throne is SUPPOSED to go to University at the age of 18 and study a 3 or 4 year degree, or something. The guy's a scholar, a Renaissance Man. He's a good swordsman but he's not of a military bent, and he doesn't want to sit around twiddling his thumbs - he's been enjoying getting immersed in academe. (Beats bitching about the nation's architecture and shagging Camilla Parker Bowles while you wait for your parent to shuffle off this mortal coil.)
sj - Apr 08, 2009 5:40:19 pm PDT #8790 of 28414
"There are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea."
I don't have a problem with Hamlet being 30 and scholarly - I mean, it's not like the heir to the throne is SUPPOSED to go to University at the age of 18 and study a 3 or 4 year degree, or something. The guy's a scholar, a Renaissance Man. He's a good swordsman but he's not of a military bent, and he doesn't want to sit around twiddling his thumbs - he's been enjoying getting immersed in academe. (Beats bitching about the nation's architecture and shagging Camilla Parker Bowles while you wait for your parent to shuffle off this mortal coil.)
Thanks for finding the quote! I don't have a problem with it either, I was just trying to explain the age controversy as I remembered it.