The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 15.0263  Friday, 30 January 2004

From:           L. Swilley <
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Date:           Thursday, 29 Jan 2004 09:09:07 -0600
Subject: 15.0239 Horrid Hamlet
Comment:        Re: SHK 15.0239 Horrid Hamlet

Abigail Quart writes,

 >Last Thursday night I attended an alumni event at Columbia University, a
 >School of the Arts production of Hamlet ...Meanwhile, stage left, a bunch
 >of people were doing ....I have no idea what they were doing. Odd
 >gestures. But it turns out they were all the Ghost. All of them.
 >
 >That was when I looked at my program and discovered there were not only
 >multiple ghosts, but seven Hamlets (four of them female), nine Ophelias
 >(three of them male), two Gertrudes, two Laertes (one female), but only
 >one Polonius, one Horatio, one Claudius, and one Fortinbras...

Such an interpretation was used in a production of the play at Baylor
University in the '50's or '60's.  However there were not so many
"dimensions" of each character - only two, I seem to remember, for
Hamlet.  An unfortunate decision was to give one of the Hamlets a
decidedly Texas twang (or allow him to use his own) - although nothing
in the rest of the production suggested a purpose for such an accent.

           [L. Swilley]

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