Enjoy this creative staging of Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” created by Margery Leit for her her IB English class.
HAMLET Staging
Set Design: The theatre is a small theatre that could seat about 150 and it is theatre in the round style. The actors perform on a raised platform with the audience surrounding the actors and there are aisles that the actors use throughout the performance. The platform that the actors perform on is about two feet in height and there are small steps leading up to it from each aisle at each of the corners. The play has minimal set to it with few objects added and taken on for scenes. During this scene there is a small bench in the center of the stage. The bench is simple and understated and it’s a shorter bench. Besides the actors, the bench center stage is the only set piece that is on stage for this scene. Below is a general diagram about what the stage would look like during my scene and the corners are number in order to make the stage directions more clear.
Lighting: In this scene the lighting will have a transition. Lights come from all sides so that the actors are well lit from all perspectives of the audience. The lights have a slight amber cast to them as well as dimmer than the other scenes throughout the show, in order to show the darkness that is constantly surrounding them.
Costume Design:
HAMLET: wears a bright red tunic and black pants, slight gold accents around the neck collar of his tunic, white socks, and black shoes. Around HAMLET’s waist he has a belt which a small and sharp dagger is hanging off of and that dagger is there throughout the entire show
HORATIO: wears muted colors, brown pants with high white socks and black shoes. Very Elizabethan England style clothing. Around his waist is a belt that has a long sword hanging off of it, and the sword is relatively dull, meaning that it is more for show than for stabbing anyone.
Script: ACT I, SCENE II, LINES 194 – 209
{At the start of the scene HORATIO is standing at corner 1 facing inwards towards HAMLET who is standing offcenter in between corner 3 and 4 looking outwards at the audience with his arms behind his back and his fingers interlocked}
HORATIO
I saw him once. {pause, remembering the king and speaking carefully in order to not upset HAMLET further} He was a goodly king.
HAMLET {with immense pride, saying out towards the audience}
He was a man. Take him for all in all, {shifting to a more somber tone, looking down at the dagger around his waist}
I shall not look upon his like again.
HORATIO {plainly, and matter of fact} {walking towards HAMLET}
My lord, I think I saw him yesternight.
HAMLET {lifting his head and turning to look at HORATIO} Saw who?
HORATIO
My lord, the King your father.
HAMLET {increasingly more intrigued and taking one step towards HORATIO} The King my father?
HORATIO {proud to be providing new information}
Season your admiration for a while
With an attent ear, till I may deliver {stepping towards HAMLET}
Upon the witness of these gentlemen
This marvel to you.
HAMLET {eagerly moving towards HORATIO and speaking loudly} For God’s love, let me hear!
HORATIO {walking with poise from corner 1 to corner 4}
Two nights together had these gentlemen, {recalling what had occured}
Marcellus and Barnardo, on their watch,
In the dead waste and middle of the night,
Been thus encountered: a figure {pause, turning to look directly at HAMLET and with a gesture toward HAMLET } like your father
Analysis: My staging of the play fits the broader sense of Hamlet as a show because of the focus I put into the relationship between the audience and the actors. The theatre style is theatre in the round. This is important because it gives the actors the feeling that there is nowhere to escape. The actors are forced to constantly be vulnerable throughout the show, leaving no room for secrets. This also contributes to Hamlet’s madness as the show progresses because he is starting to feel increasingly more trapped in his life which is why Hamlet often looks outwards towards the audience when he is talking, avoiding eye contact with the other actors. The stage is also situated higher than the audience, in order to signify the upper class status of the royal family. Throughout the show the aisles through the audience are used by the actors during scenes. The actors who would perform some of their lines in the aisles would be the lower class characters so any character who is of lower status than Hamlet would enter the scene speaking in the aisles so Hamlet could assert his power over them before they were invited to join him on stage. The bench in the center is also used by Hamlet to stand on throughout the show when he wants to make someone feel even lower in status than they already are. The theatre is also small in order to create an intimate setting with the audience, truly drawing the audience in and having them experience the action first hand.
In this excerpt from Act I Scene II, Hamlet begins to feel the true effects of what it is like to no longer have a father, becoming more depressed. At this point in the scene Hamlet is feeling more hopeful remembering what a great father he had and when Horatio tells Hamlet that he saw him, Hamlet is eager to see his father again so puts aside all disbelief and listens intently to Horatio. Hamlet’s reactions must be big in this scene because throughout the play the audience watched Hamlet lose his mind, and the audience must be able to see the build up of everything that makes Hamlet crazy. Mentioned in my costume design above, Hamlet always has a short and sharp dagger at his waist. This prop is important because Hamlet is aware that he has this on him at all times, giving him the opportunity to kill anyone (including himself) at anytime. Throughout the show the audience must see Hamlet, in his moments of true frustration, look towards his dagger and notice that he could use it but must restrain himself, making him even more mad. Horatio also has a sword that is long yet dull because it shows how at his status level he is still unable to achieve much and the sword was given to him for show, not purpose.