WEEK THREE

Today we performed an improvised run through of the entire play. This was with our scripts in our hands as we hadn't learnt the lines yet so the piece was very make shift.

With this rehearsal I figured out a few things for my character. I need to figure out Hamlets physical demeanor. I need to work out how Hamlet would stand in a room full of people as opposed to on his own.

Hamlet is a very different person when on his own than when with others. With others he is  physically stilted in a way that screams 'get away from me' or that he is exceptionally cautious of other individuals. His relationship with every other character is all distrusting except the ghost of his father.

Relationships:

King Hamlets Ghost: During scene two he has a whirlwind of emotion rushing through him. His memories of his childhood flood back to him as the physical embodiment of his grief stands before him.  Throughout the entire play I will use Jake (King Hamlet) as my reference for grief.

Laertes: I never truly trusted Laertes. Hamlet always knew he was easily deceived. When Hamlet confronts Laertes about playing a pipe, it is in effort of physically intimidating him, knowing full well he cannot play.

Polonius: Hamlet seems Polonius as rather annoying and a bit of an inconvenience. He is a bit of idiotic person in his view. When Polonius meets Hamlet in scene 11, Hamlet takes great delight in teasing him about a cloud, knowing fully that he would go along with it because he is the Prince of Denmark. This is particularly brutal and embarrassing as he decides  to do it in front of Polonius' son.

Claudius: Hamlet feels absolute hate towards Claudius. That and pity. Pity in the fact that how can someone become such a beast and lose all humanity. Most of all he feels a sense of vengeance.

With Characters I don't Act With

Ophelia: I love Ophelia with all my heart despite mistreating her. She is the one thing Hamlet never truly meant to hurt. Her death destroys Hamlet and pushes him over the edge - the final straw.

Gertrude: I loved her once, maybe there is  a slight hint at me still loving her but I'm so rife with anger that she's almost dead to me. I can't stand what she did and it causes me to act in a rather nonhuman, animalistic way.

Gravediggers: The gravediggers will the be the physical personification of death. Throughout the play, when I notice them, Hamlet will feel very on edge. But towards the end, I become gradually more comfortable with their presence.

PLEASE CLICK 'OLDER POSTS' BELOW TO GO ONTO SECOND PAGE OF WORK

Host Of Heaven Iambic

O all you host of heaven! O earth! What else? 11 beats
And shall I couple hell? Oh, fie! Hold, my heart, 11 beats

And you, my sinews, grow not instant old, 10 beats

But bear me stiffly up. Remember thee! 10 beats

Ay, thou poor ghost, whiles memory holds a seat  11

In this distracted globe. Remember thee! 11

Yea, from the table of my memory 10

I’ll wipe away all trivial fond records, 11

All saws of books, all forms, all pressures past 10

That youth and observation copied there, 10

And thy commandment all alone shall live 10

Within the book and volume of my brain, 10

Unmixed with baser matter. Yes, by heaven! 11

O most pernicious woman! 7

O villain, villain, smiling, damnèd villain! 11

My tables!—Meet it is I set it down 10

That one may smile, and smile, and be a villain. 11

At least I’m sure it may be so in Denmark. 11 (writes)

So, uncle, there you are. Now to my word. 10
It is adieu! Remember me. 8
I have sworn't. 3

Analysis of Too Too Solid Flesh Soliloquy 

O, that this too too solid flesh would melt.10 BEATS

 Thaw and resolve itself into a dew! 10 BEATS

Or that the Everlasting had not fix’d 10 BEATS 

his canon ‘gainst self-slaughter! O God! God! 11 BEATS

- the reference to God signifies time passing and death. He's speaking to the heavens.
-17 BEATS HIGHLIGHTS THAT THIS LINES NEEDS TO BE EMPHASISED AND STRESSED (ITS IMPORTANT)

How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable, 11 BEATS  

Seem to me all the uses of this world! 10 BEATS

Hamlet is distressed. emotional and thinks the world is pointles. How can the world be so shit? What the point. This is Hamlets declaration of giving up.

Fie on’t! oh fie! ’tis an unweeded garden, 12 BEATS 

That grows to seed; things rank and gross in nature  11 BEATS

possess it merely. That it should come to this! 11 BEATS 

But two months dead: nay, not so much, not two: 10 BEATS 

So excellent a king; that was, to this, 10 BEATS

Hyperion to a satyr; so loving to my mother 15 BEATS 

- Hamlet views his father as Godlike. This is an indicates that Hamlets relationship with his father must have been very strong.

that he might not beteem the winds of heaven 11 BEATS

visit her face too roughly. Heaven and earth! 11 BEATS 

- Again another Godly reference.

Must I remember? why, she would hang on him, 11 BEATS

As if increase of appetite had grown 10 BEATS

by what it fed on: and yet, within a month– 11 BEATS 

Let me not think on’t–Frailty, thy name is woman!– 12 BEATS 

- Hamlet's view on women isn't positive. Perhaps his view suddenly changed since Gertrudes actions?

A little month, or ere those shoes were old  10 BEATS

With which she follow’d my poor father’s body, 10 BEATS

Like Niobe, all tears:–why she, even she–  10 BEATS

O, God! a beast, that wants discourse of reason, 11 BEATS

Would have mourn’d longer–married with my uncle, 11 BEATS 

My father’s brother, but no more like my father 10 BEATS

Than I to Hercules: within a month: 10 BEATS

Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears. 10  BEATS

Had left the flushing in her galled eyes, 10 BEATS

She married. O, most wicked speed, to post 10 BEATS

With such dexterity to incestuous sheets! 12 BEATS

It is not nor it cannot come to good: 10 BEATS

But break, my heart; for I must hold my tongue. 10 BEATS

English Translation ( BY ME)

"Oh how I wish my body, my vessel, would just melt into water and vanish away into nothing but the air."
"But God, the lord and immortal, never forbid killing oneself."

"Miserable! The world is an overgrown garden to which has withered and died, and left to become stale and gross."

"Everything in this world is flat, stale and useless. Whats the point?"
"That it should come to all this! He's been two dead only two months! Not even that!"
"My father, was such an excellent king. We've gone from my father, a god to m uncle, an adulterous beast."
"He was so caring to my mother that he would't let anything hurt her not even the winds of heaven."
"Why, mother clung to my father as if she ever grew tired of him. But how? Oh within a month?!"
"Do I have to remember this again!? Women are weak minded."
"Do I have to remember this again!? Women are weak minded."
"A little month, since the funeral! Her shoes weren't even old before she ran to my uncle!"
"Like the tragedy of Niobe, she was all tears! Oh God! A beast without the ability to speak or reason would have mourned longer than her! She married my uncle!"
"My fathers brother. But he is no more like my dad than I am to the Zeus' son Hercules, who was strong and noble."
"Before her tears were gone she married my uncle."
"Christ, how eager she was to leap to bed with my uncle, my very own blood."
"It is not nor it cannot come to any good. As much as I still grieve, I mustn't say a word."

WEEK TWO

Solid Flesh Soliloquy Rehearsal 

Today we rehearsed the introduction scene, otherwise known as the funeral of King Hamlet, into the following scenes. Because of my absence I was in the dark about the blocking. I was told to sit at the very back of the stage facing the wall, here I would be watching a projection of my fathers home videos. For me, this was a bold choice as it showed Hamlets really emotionally fragile, youthful side, as opposed to straight teenage angst. 

Hamlet as a character, in our adaptation, is full of anger and hatred, but beneath that there is just a fragile and emotionally brittle child wanting his father and to be loved. Sometimes all someone needs is to love and be loved. And that's all he wants, but as the revelation of Claudius' actions unfold, Hamlet is forcibly thrust into vengeance. He can't mourn truly until Claudius has been killed. That,for Hamlet, is closure. 

Coupling this with the fact that I have been staged to a projector, it's a poignant image, as it flirts with the idea of death looming over the play like a vale. The image of a grieving son reminiscing on his past in the presence of his fathers funeral, yet not looking at the ceremony, is heartbreaking. Thus causing the audience to feel just as much grief for Hamlet as he has. 

For this show, I really wanted to dabble in method acting. Since my grandfather has passed away a month and a bit ago, he will be my stimulus for King Hamlets death. On top of this, my girlfriend and I are taking a break from each other, this will be my stimulus for Ophelia. I will use Stanislavsky's method of sense memory to be able to get into character. When at my grandfathers funeral, I stopped to take a mental picture and think about how I was feeling as I carried his coffin into the crematorium, so that I may trigger this feeling again when live I stage. On top of this, I have chosen to use my own personal home baby videos instead of the original planned, so that for the first 10 minutes of the play I am staring a my granddads face, as well as my brother and the rest of my family. 

Poster I created for Hamlet in my spare time

During my rehearsal of Too Too Solid Flesh, I performed the soliloquy to a microphone whilst wearing sunglasses, just like Kurt Cobain would wear. Kurt was also known for his self recorded demo tapes of him playing around with a reverb pedal he bought. This was a similarity I drew from Stuarts decision of the microphone. Kurt, as a angry and self hating teenager, monologing o himself in his bedroom.

Similar style to which my Hamlet will look.

Kurt monologing into a recorder in his bedroom, taken from the Montage of Heck documentary.