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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.)

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.

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.

Same issue you run into with Romeo and Juliet-- they're supposed to be fourteen? At least, Juliet, I remember for sure is. I can't remember if Romeo is the same age or older. But you have to find some youthful looking actors who have the chops to take on the part.

I read and loved Les Miserables in Jr Hi, but could not get through Don Quixote. It may have been a bad translation, though.

With Les Mis, I learned about the power of hope and with Don Quixote, I learned about the power of dreams. The nice thing about both is that I was able to talk about them with my grandma who was a voracious reader. And of course, her copy of Don Quixote was in the original Spanish, so I think I got more out of it because she could explain things that maybe didn't translate as well.

Yeah, Juliet's supposed to be just shy of her 14th birthday.

NURSE: "Even or odd, of all days of the year/Come Lammas Eve at night shall she be fourteen."

(...er, I may be misquoting that one slightly, because it's, fuck, eighteen years since I played the Nurse, but that's the jist.) I think it's fair to assume that Romeo's only a little older.

iirc, the Franco Zefirelli movie had Juliet played by a girl of 16 or so, and she was awesome. But, yeah, it must be a bastard getting sufficiently young actors with the chops for the roles.

Olivia Hussey made a wonderful Juliet, Fay.