Historical Contect (Week 5 & Week 6)

WEEK 5 - SHAKESPEARE TODAY

QUESTION: Analyse contemporary Shakespeare productions with reference to live performances you may have seen or clips or footage available online. You should comment on what you notice about them and how they differ from what you know about the original performance conditions of Shakespeare’s work? (Don’t be afraid to point out the obvious).

Consider how these productions are employing all the techniques, technology and resources of modern theatre.

You can use Digital Theatre http://www.digitaltheatre.com a password to access this site is available from the library.

In the contemporary production (2009) of Shakespeare’s ‘How you like it’ at the globe. It was shown that even though their costumes were in the style of the Elizabethan times. The way they portrayed their characters is full of energy and confidence. They grabbed the attention of the younger audience by showing understanding of what they were saying and used physical humour to complement their speech. This differs to a very classical performance as it wouldn’t be so interacted with the audience. Of course, the is the element of this being quite plain and not involving any technology and modern resources, which a normal contemporary play would, however, it gives a sort of balance between classical theatre and contemporary.

In the BLC Theatre (2013) version of Hamlet it is se in the middle of a war and it is a mixture of women and men playing male characters. They use music and early 1900s setting to amplify the theme of war and high class. This also shown in costume. They are all smartly dressed but not in the style of how they would dress in the Elizabethan times. The plays were usually set in Denmark and would be performed with some sort of posh/ sophisticated accent, however, this version is done with American accents. This version of Hamlet is acted with unjustified decisions on what they are feeling in the moment. I think if a production is not looked upon and directed with care they rely on the modern technology and costume to distract the audience from what is going on. Some other version of the production such as the version starring David Tennant as Hamlet, were very modern with the use of music, casual costume and posh setting to highlight his social status, but in terms of the acting he is bold and firm with his choices and isn’t afraid from travelling from craziness to stillness in a matter of seconds, as long as it had some control over it.

On the 3rd April 2017 and watched a contemporary production of Twelfth Night at the National. The staging was very nice because for each scene change the stage would rotate and move to the next set that was smartly packed into a tall triangular prism. This made it very slick and more enjoyable to watch. The actors in the show were dressed quite eloquently to match the status of the characters, but not in the way that matched the Elizabethan times. The acting in this piece was interesting because in some ways I could consider their portrayals of the characters as “over the top” or “typical shakespearean acting” because of the way they over pronounced words and used big gestures to accompany what they were saying. However, in a way this was a great technique because it made the piece very enjoyable to watch. Twelfth Night is a comedic play and the way how the characters were presented added to the comedy and made it more pleasurable for younger audience members like myself to watch.

WEEK 6 – YOUR PRODUCTION

RESEARCH: Research your own Shakespeare play: Hamlet, Richard III, Macbeth, Measure for Measure. What is the play about? When was it first performed? Find a contemporary production of the play you can get an idea of and research it in terms of concept, style, design, casting. Give some attention to your own character and their role in the play.

• Plot: Hamlet is off at university studying when he suddenly heard the news that his Father was dead. He returns back to Denmark in time for his father’s funeral, he mourns him and sees his ghost. The ghost tells him that he was murdered by Claudius and so he decides to put on a play for him. The play explains the murder of the former king and hopes to get quite a negative reaction out of him. If so then he would know that he was the one that murdered his father. Claudius does react badly and demands that Hamlet gets sent away. Hamlet retaliates and murders Polonius (the father of Ophelia) and gets banished for his actions. Ophelia goes mad from her father’s death and kills herself. Hamlet returns back in time for Ophelia’s funeral and attacks Laertes (Ophelia’s brother) claiming he loved her and all of it was his fault. They fence and Laertes wounds Hamlet. Laertes’ sword has poison on it due to Claudius’ plans but Hamlet doesn’t die immediately. Laertes gets impaled by his own sword and before he dies reveals that the death of Hamlet’s mother was because of Claudius. Hamlet stabs Claudius and makes him drink the rest of the poison, then peacefully dies knowing he has got his revenge.
• Hamlet was first performed in July 1602. It was first published in printed form in 1603 and appeared in an enlarged edition in 1604.
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  In the BLC Theatre (2013) version of Hamlet it is se in the middle of a war and it is a mixture of women and men playing male characters. They use music and early 1900s setting to amplify the theme of war and high class. This also shown in costume. They are all smartly dressed but not in the style of how they would dress in the Elizabethan times. The plays were usually set in Denmark and would be performed with some sort of posh/ sophisticated accent, however, this version is done with American accents. This version of Hamlet is acted with unjustified decisions on what they are feeling in the moment. I think if a production is not looked upon and directed with care they rely on the modern technology and costume to distract the audience from what is going on. Some other version of the production such as the version starring David Tennant as Hamlet, were very modern with the use of music, casual costume and posh setting to highlight his social status, but in terms of the acting he is bold and firm with his choices and isn’t afraid from travelling from craziness to stillness in a matter of seconds, as long as it had some control over it.
• Another contemporary production I saw was the Almeida Theatre version of Hamlet starring Andrew Scott as Hamlet. Out of all the Shakespeare productions I have watched this one is the one I would consider as the most modern because its heavy use of technology. Unlike the National theatre, the Almeida theatre used sound tracks, projectors and, computers, microphones and cameras to make the scenes more interesting and relatable to our audience. It was beneficial in ways that it helped scenes do splits, so if one person is performing on the stage, you would be able to see another person performing on the screen. Looking at the set and costume it was very modern because it had a couch and lamps- a very simple set but it gave a very cosy and a modern day house vibe to the piece which really made me enjoy it more. Even though the costumes were meant to show high class they managed to dress in a way that made it look quite casual. From watching how the characters were portrayed in this production compared to our interpretation, you can definitely see that the Almeida theatre cast have taken the Hamlet world in a much more lighter way, however, the darkness in most of the characters was still there but would be later shown in the more serious scenes. In a way the comedy from the characters added to their madness that was slowly building up within them. Whereas in our production there is not really much comedy or emotional depth to the characters; a character would be played in a certain way depending on the circumstances of that particular moment. So our production could really be inspired by this version of Hamlet because of the characters way of reacting to such a dark and heart breaking topic.
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  Ophelia is known to be a young
  
  lady who is very affectionate towards Hamlet. So when he rejects her it triggers the stress and worry within her that turns her mad afterwards.