Shakespeare Electronic Conference, Vol. 6, No. 0585.  Wednesday, 26 July 1995.
 
(1)     From:   Stephanie Hughes <
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        Date:   Tuesday, 25 Jul 1995 20:23:00 -0400 (EDT)
        Subj:   Re: SHK 6.0581  Re: "To be or not to be" Speech
 
(2)     From:   Michael Yogev <
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        Date:   Wednesday, 26 Jul 95 09:28:13 IST
        Subj:   Re: SHK 6.0581  Re: "To be or not to be" Speech
 
 
(1)----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Stephanie Hughes <
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Date:           Tuesday, 25 Jul 1995 20:23:00 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: 6.0581  Re: "To be or not to be" Speech
Comment:        Re: SHK 6.0581  Re: "To be or not to be" Speech
 
Piers Lewis and Richard Kennedy;
 
Yes!!!
 
Stephanie Hughes
 
(2)----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Michael Yogev <
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Date:           Wednesday, 26 Jul 95 09:28:13 IST
Subject: 6.0581  Re: "To be or not to be" Speech
Comment:        Re: SHK 6.0581  Re: "To be or not to be" Speech
 
Just a brief response to Piers Lewis's characterization of Hamlet as the most
inner-directed character in Shakespeare's plays.  Along with the Romantic
critical assessments of his character as the quintessence of individual
consciousness (and of dust), I used to share Mr. Lewis's sense of Hamlet as the
epitome of introspective humanity--until 1979, that is, when I had the good
fortune to see a barebones production of the play by Stephen Berkoff and a
small company he brought to Haifa.  Berkoff as Hamlet was a sardonically and
cynically self-conscious ACTOR, above all, delivering his lines in the "To be
or not to be" soliloquy with a range of accents from classic Olivier to Jimmy
Cagney.  The performance rustled my critical feathers, scandalized a number of
spectators who left quite early on, and altogether productively unsettled my
sense of what a who Hamlet may be.