2,389 posts
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Post by peggs on Sept 3, 2021 22:30:03 GMT
The turning to drink is now pretty standard, explains why she objects to being told not to drink by Claudius at the end. I have certainly seen that done though I think i've seen several Gertrude's give the impression that they know it's poisoned and drink it to prove it.
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Post by crabtree on Sept 4, 2021 9:36:13 GMT
whenever I watch Hamlet, as I probably have about thirty times, I am always taken up with the characters' personal catastrophes that I always forget to listen to the political situation and the advancing armies. Anyone care to elaborate on what is going on outside the walls of Elsinore, and just who and why the armies are advancing. Thanks. it's the same with antony and cleopatra - too many chaps chatting, bring on cleo.
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Post by Jan on Sept 4, 2021 11:42:18 GMT
whenever I watch Hamlet, as I probably have about thirty times, I am always taken up with the characters' personal catastrophes that I always forget to listen to the political situation and the advancing armies. Anyone care to elaborate on what is going on outside the walls of Elsinore, and just who and why the armies are advancing. Thanks. it's the same with antony and cleopatra - too many chaps chatting, bring on cleo. There was a director once, I forget who, who wanted to stage Hamlet with all the solioquies cut out so it became very much a fast-moving "public" political play. Usually the opposite happens.
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2,813 posts
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Post by couldileaveyou on Sept 4, 2021 11:51:02 GMT
whenever I watch Hamlet, as I probably have about thirty times, I am always taken up with the characters' personal catastrophes that I always forget to listen to the political situation and the advancing armies. Anyone care to elaborate on what is going on outside the walls of Elsinore, and just who and why the armies are advancing. Thanks. it's the same with antony and cleopatra - too many chaps chatting, bring on cleo. Hamlet Sr had killed Fortinbras Sr in combat and claimed some Norwegian lands for Denmark. Now Fortinbras Jr wants them back. But at the beginning the Danes think that Fortinbras is gathering troops only to invade Poland and realize later on that Denmark is his true aim. I guess the point is that Fortinbras, like Laertes, is another "double" for Hamlet, someone with whom he can compare his effort to avenge his father and find it lacking. But yeah pretty much since the Romanticism most productions tend to cut or reduce the political aspects of the play in order to highlight the psychological ones.
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Post by crabtree on Sept 4, 2021 13:57:15 GMT
Thank you for the above _ i'd not seen the paternal echoes there, but heck the plays works so well as a claustrophobic family drama writ large.
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Post by Jan on Sept 4, 2021 16:27:33 GMT
The Branagh film of Hamlet is the full text I think. There are “political” scenes in it I never remember seeing on stage.
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Post by oxfordsimon on Sept 4, 2021 16:36:42 GMT
I saw a full text production nearly 30 years ago. Stephen Dillane was Hamlet, Gwen Taylor was Gertrude and Donald Sinden was Polonius.
I seem to recall the interval came after 2.5 hours. We then returned for a further 2 hours.
Other than Dillane getting naked at one point as a sign of his descent into madness, very little of the production has stuck in my memory.
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5,593 posts
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Post by lynette on Sept 4, 2021 17:16:36 GMT
I hate it when they leave out Fortinbras. If ever our Will was being political it is in Hamlet. Good rulers see to the safety of their subjects and do not put their own lust or whatever before that. Sucking up, maybe but def political. So is Fortinbras a better son/Prince than Hamlet? Discuss. Or not.
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521 posts
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Post by danielwhit on Sept 11, 2021 21:43:14 GMT
The turning to drink is now pretty standard, explains why she objects to being told not to drink by Claudius at the end. But I must say I've never seen a Claudius who could give less of a toss than this one as to whether his wife killed herself or not...
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