Still a couple of months away from the beginning of rehearsals; probably at least a month away from the first design meetings even. At this point in the process, I’m reading the script and refamiliarizing myself with the story, the plot, the scenes, and the characters. At the same time, I’m thinking about the questions that I need to answer in order to start making the big choices about the production.
The first big choices that I’ll have to make are how to cut the script and what the fundamental design concept will be. Both of these depend on my understanding of the play itself — which means an articulation of the central action of the play along with the play’s central theme or message. Each of these are choices as well; different productions of Hamlet can choose to articulate the main action in different ways, and can focus on different themes. But they need to be rooted in a strong understanding of the text.
To make these choices, I need to read the play several times, take lots of notes, read analysis and criticism from a wide variety of sources, and look at what other directors have done with the play. I’ll be posting about all of these over the next few weeks.
A few things that I’m thinking about as I read the play this week:
-The big question: why doesn’t Hamlet just kill Claudius right after the ghost tells him to? (Much more on this in a later post.)
-What is Hamlet really trying to get the other characters to do in each scene? Might there be a way to understand Hamlet’s true superobjective as being separate from revenge, so that the hesitation in the revenge arc is due to Hamlet’s attempt to achieve something else? (More on this later as well.)
-What does Hamlet learn by the end of the play? How does Hamlet change?
Lots more on all of this to come. I’m still in rehearsals for Julius Caesar until March; regular posts will begin then.
