Monday, September 2, 2013

Hamlet Act I

We're doing Hamlet in a series of five Acts. I think it's a way that we can look at the development of the story and characters as we go through it. Here's Act I.

Warning, if you haven't seen Hamlet, or know the story, I'd strongly advise seeing it before doing literally anything else. That may not be too practical because there aren't a lot of theaters performing it at any given time, but it's still nice to dream that someone could see it completely fresh, even today.

We're hoping to have our next episode be a very special edition. I'm keeping it a secret right now, but we're very excited!

2 comments:

  1. Yay - new BardCast! Hamlet is a bit of a whiner, isn't he? I think that's the main reason I dislike the BBC version with Derek "the traitor" Jacobi, he plays Hamlet as this squishy namby-pamby guy. How can a kick-a** Warrior King have such a weenie son? It's one reason to enjoy Mel Gibson's take on the character, he's much more 'butch'.

    Oooo... upcoming Secret Episode...

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    1. How does a butch Dad have a wimpy son: He sends him to college!

      Not to contradict anything you said (but really rather to incorporate it) I think one way to look at Hamlet (in later acts) is that he grew up in this Viking might-makes-right society, went off to college and learned Christian values of forgiveness, and then comes back home and is confronted with this terrible "you should kill your uncle because a ghost told you to", and spends the rest of the play trying (and basically failing) to reconcile two incompatible ways of looking at the world.

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