Category: Hamlet

Hamlet endures due to its complex characters, psychological depth, and exploration of universal themes such as death, revenge, and the human condition. Its enduring popularity is also attributed to its poetic language, memorable quotes, and its influence on literature, film, and popular culture. Hamlet’s themes and characters continue to be studied and adapted in various forms, making it one of Shakespeare’s most famous and frequently performed plays. Its timeless appeal lies in its ability to speak to audiences across generations, cultures, and languages, and its place as a cornerstone of Western literature.

Browse the text of Hamlet entire play here.

Titus Andronicus : The Sequel (No, Seriously!)

~ duane ~ 1 Comment

We’ve often joked about which Shakespeare plays provide the best take-off point for a sequel.  There’s even a movie called Hamlet 2  which had some interesting ideas, when they got to the actual Shakespeare (think time machine … and sexy, rocking Jesus).

But what about Titus Andronicus?  Room for a sequel there?  A whole bunch of Tony Award winners think so.  Nathan Lane and Andrea Martin are set to headline Taylor Mac’s Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus this spring:

The play takes place just after the conclusion of William Shakespeare’s first tragedy, Titus Andronicus. Set during the fall of the Roman Empire, the years of bloody battles are over, the civil war has ended, and the country has been stolen by madmen. There are casualties everywhere and two very lowly servants (played by Lane and Martin) are charged with cleaning up the bodies.

It already makes me think it’s taking a cue from “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead.”  Which is suitably ironic, because I can’t wait for the first people to make the connection that Nathan Lane played the voice for Pumbaa in Lion King, which is supposed to be Disney’s animated Hamlet, where they represent Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, so in a way, Lane has already played the role!

Oh I will kill you.

Ophelia In The Water

~ duane ~ 1 Comment
Ophelia by Sir John Everett Millais

There’s a certain painting of Ophelia, by  Sir John Everett Millais, that you’ve almost certainly seen.  It’s that gorgeous green one that shows Ophelia in the water (and not much else). I’ve seen it on all kinds of merchandise, in fact. It was seeing it on a t-shirt today that inspired this question.

Here’s a link to the biggest version I could find.

When I saw the smaller merch version I thought, “Wait, who is that near the right edge of the painting? Is somebody there?  That can’t be a fairy, that’s the wrong play!”  So I went in search of a higher resolution image. Turns out it’s just flowers.

But that made me think.  What flowers are they, exactly? When you see the picture in its colorful glory you see just how many flowers there are – the red, yellow and blue with Ophelia in the water, the white in the center, the purple that I thought was a lurking fairy.

Can somebody identify all of these flowers for us? Are they representations of the flowers that Ophelia hands out in Hamlet IV.v?

Ophelia. There’s fennel for you, and columbines. There’s rue for you,
and here’s some for me. We may call it herb of grace o’ Sundays.
O, you must wear your rue with a difference! There’s a daisy. I
would give you some violets, but they wither’d all when my father
died. They say he made a good end.

I am assuming that they are, but then again, maybe not. After all, she’s already gone flower picking and already given them away – so has she gone back out to the river to pick more of the same?  Or something different? Or did the painter even get into that level of detail?

I’d love to appreciate this painting on a whole different level.  Somebody tell me that the different flowers are what I hope they are.

 

 

Bet I Can Predict The Future

~ duane ~ 1 Comment
Which character was he supposed to be?

Finally, finally, my oldest gets to participate in a dedicated Shakespeare course this fall. I don’t have the title in front of me but it’s basically Shakespeare and Modern Film.  Given that my bestest online Shakespeare pal is a dude whose actual name is “Bard Film” I can’t wait until she gets homework.  (“Daddy, can I please do my own homework for once?”  “It’s ok sweetie, Bardfilm and I have got this.”)

Anyway, we had to order textbooks and I see they’ll be studying Othello, Taming of the Shrew and Twelfth Night. Folger editions, for the curious.

Hmmm.  Anybody else seeing a pattern there?

I’m calling it right now – I’m going to have my daughter watch O, 10 Things I Hate About You and She’s The Man before school starts because I’ll bet you anything that’s what they’ll be doing in class. I never thought I’d say this but I’m glad Hamlet’s not among her required texts. If they had her watching Lion King I don’t think I could stand it.

 

 

Shakespeare and Friends

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I admit it, this post is a complete advertisement for my latest merchandise. I think I honestly do a pretty reasonable job of not spamming you folks every time I put up a new t-shirt design, don’t I?  So surely you won’t begrudge me a Friday afternoon commercial.

When I’m working at night, chances are Netflix is on in the background. I’m one of those folks that just likes the noise. I would love to churn through all the new original shows they’re making, but then I have to pay attention to what’s on, rather than letting it just drone in the background. So instead I turn to old series that I  know I like, that have a lot of episodes (that will auto play, you see).  You see where I’m going with this.

The entire ten season run of Friends has graced my television so often I think I’ve memorized all the episodes.  But it wasn’t until recently that the idea hit me … that opening font of theirs is absolutely iconic.  If you do “Skip Intro” you may never even notice it, but when you see it that classic scribble font with the little colored dots you’re definitely thinking, “I recognize that!”

Shakespeare and Friends

I wasn’t even sure Amazon would let these up, so I didn’t go crazy with the “Look! It’s Friends!” keywords.  But that doesn’t mean I can’t tell the real story here.  To get started I made a bunch of versions of Shakespeare’s most iconic characters – Hamlet, Macbeth, Othello, Romeo, Juliet, Mercutio. All are available in both t-shirt and hoodie. The t-shirts are available in men’s, women’s and youth sizes (the hoodies are unisex). All the images below are clickable, where you can see the colors available for each.

What do you think? Did I miss your favorite character?  What do you think looks better, character names or play names? For those first couple it doesn’t matter 🙂 but I soon ran out of 5-7 character single words. 🙂 Should I make Prospero and Malvolio and Viola and some other more lesser known characters?

Let me know your thoughts in the comments!

 

 

 

Your Favorite Hamlet

~ duane ~ 1 Comment
As far as I know, Sir Ian’s version is not available on video.

So at work the other day, my CEO asked which Hamlet was my favorite.  At the time, in context, I assumed that he meant film version, as in, something that other people could then go watch.  Not a live production that, if you missed it, telling somebody that it was your favorite didn’t serve much purpose because they couldn’t go take advantage of that information.

I decided to ask the question on Twitter.  I had no idea I’d get the kind of response.  Taking out the people who pretended not to understand the question (answering with the names of cozy little villages, or “Q1”, etc..), I still got over 20 different Hamlets to choose from.  Not all of them are available on video, but that’s been changing lately with live broadcasts of many.

For the record I’d not even heard several of these names, but was happy to discover them.  Some performances are even on YouTube in full!

One Vote

Papaa Essiedu (Royal Shakespeare Company, 2016)

Oscar Isaac (The Public Theatre, 2017)

Andrew Scott (Almeida Theatre, 2017)

Campbell Scott (2000)

Adrian Lester (2002 directed by Peter Brook)

Tom Hiddleston (2017, as directed by Kenneth Branagh)

Richard Chamberlain (Hallmark Hall of Fame, 1970)

Ruth Negga  (coming in late 2018)

Two Votes

Derek Jacobi (1980)

Mark Rylance (1989).

Coming in Second, with Four Votes

Kenneth Branagh (1996) comes in with 4 votes,

Our Winner, with Six Votes is …

David Tennant (RSC 2009)!

Did you get to vote?  Who is your pick?  For the record, I told me CEO Branagh was my choice because as I said I was limiting myself to film versions I thought he might have a chance of seeing if he wanted to. I wasn’t going to give it to Mel Gibson or Ethan Hawke, the other two that leaped immediately to mind.  At the time I didn’t even think of Tennant, but on reflection I think I’d still keep my choice as Branagh. I found Tennant’s a little too … hyper?  OCD?  Can’t remember the words I used at the time.  But then we start to get into a debate about whether we’re talking about the movie as a whole, or about the character.  It’s probably true that Tennant’s Hamlet character was better than Branagh’s, but I like Branagh’s movie better as a whole.

(No love for Kevin Kline (1990), I notice.  I wonder if people simply never saw it?)