Bell Shakespeare Online Resources
HAMLET – ONLINE RESOURCES
CONTENTS
ABOUT BELL SHAKESPEARE2
CREATIVE TEAM3
SYNOPSIS4
BACKGROUND TO THE PLAY5
KEY CHARACTERS7
THEMATIC CONCERNS10
INTERVIEW WITH DIRECTOR DAMIEN RYAN
13
ABOUT THE DESIGN15
PRE-PERFORMANCE ACTIVITIES22
POST-PERFORMANCE ACTIVITIES36
FURTHER RESOURCES43
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ONLINE RESOURCES HAMLET
© Bell Shakespeare 2015, unless otherwise indicated.
Contributor: Anna Kamaralli
Provided all acknowledgements are retained, this material may be used,
reproduced and communicated free of charge for non-commercial
educational purposes within Australian and overseas schools.
ABOUT BELL SHAKESPEARE
2015 is a very exciting year for Bell Shakespeare—it’s our 25th anniversary!
Founded in 1990 and beginning life in a circus tent, Bell Shakespeare has grown into Australia’s national
touring theatre company playing to over 80,000 school students every year in theatre complexes and school
auditoria all over the country. Add to that another 75,000 online and you’ll see that our outreach is unrivalled.
So how are we celebrating our 25th birthday? With a stunning line-up of popular Shakespeare plays.
The year begins with the lyrical romantic comedy As You like It directed by Peter Evans and featuring John
Bell in the role of Jaques. This will play in Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra.
Hamlet is our big national tour of some thirty venues. It will be directed by Damien Ryan, whose Henry V
in 2014 was such a resounding triumph. In the title role we have Josh McConville, one of the most dynamic
performers of his generation.
The Tempest, one of Shakespeare’s last plays, will perform in Sydney. John Bell will direct this magical,
mystical fable with a superlative cast of actors, headed by Brian Lipson as Prospero.
Our dedicated youth production in 2015 will be Romeo And Juliet, performed by our 2015 Players under the
direction of James Evans, whose Macbeth in 2014 was such a success with school audiences. As with Macbeth,
this will be a 90-minute, no-interval adaptation and will perform at Sydney Opera House and Arts Centre
Melbourne. It is sure to sell out fast, so we urge you to book early!
The Players will also take to the road with their Actors At Work productions, touring the country with the
dark depths of Macbeth: Undone and the hilarious heights of Midsummer Madness. Both shows are tried and
true favourites with students.
We’re also excited to launch our new online resource with ABC Splash, Shakespeare Unbound. These 12 scenes
from six of Shakespeare’s most famous plays are paired with commentaries from the director and cast, and
will prove invaluable for students and teachers alike, allowing unfettered access to Shakespeare’s works
performed by Australia’s best-known theatre actors.
Alongside these productions we’ll once again offer Student Masterclasses, Artist in Residence, the Regional
Teacher Scholarship and teacher Professional Learning.
We wish you a happy and fulfilling year of Shakespeare in the year ahead.
John Bell AO and Peter Evans
Artistic Directors
Bell Shakespeare highly values its partnerships with all the organisations that support our education
programmes including the Department of Education and Training; BHP Billiton; Foxtel; Australia Council for
the Arts; Arts New South Wales; Arts South Australia; Bill & Patricia Ritchie Foundation, Collier Charitable
Fund; Crown Resorts Foundation; E B Myer Charity Fund; Gandel Philanthropy; Ian Potter Foundation; James
N Kirby Foundation; Limb Family Foundation; Packer Family Foundation; Playing Australia; Scully Fund; Vincent
Fairfax Family Foundation; Weir Anderson Foundation; Wesfarmers Arts.
Bell Shakespeare Learning Initiatives 2012 to 2015 are supported by the Australian Government Department
of Education and Training.
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ONLINE RESOURCES HAMLET
© Bell Shakespeare 2015, unless otherwise indicated.
Contributor: Anna Kamaralli
Provided all acknowledgements are retained, this material may be used,
reproduced and communicated free of charge for non-commercial
educational purposes within Australian and overseas schools.
CAST
HAMLETJosh McConville
OPHELIAMatilda Ridgway
CLAUDIUS / GHOSTSean O’Shea
GERTRUDEDoris Younane
HORATIOIvan Donato
LAERTES / FRANCISCO / GUILDENSTERN
Michael Wahr
POLONIUS / GRAVEDIGGER / NORWEGIAN CAPTAIN
Philip Dodd
POLONIUS / GRAVEDIGGER (Sydney Season only)
David Whitney
REYNALDO / ROSENCRANTZ / PRIEST / OSRIC
Robin Goldsworthy
MARCELLUS / VOLTEMAND / PLAYER QUEEN /
NORWEGIAN SOLDIERJulia Ohannessian
BERNARDO / CORNELIA / PLAYER KING / FORTINBRAS
Catherine Terracini
CREATIVES
DIRECTORDamien Ryan
DESIGNERAlicia Clements
LIGHTING DESIGNERMatt Cox
COMPOSER & SOUND DESIGNER
Steve Francis
FIGHT DIRECTORNigel Poulton
ASSISTANT DIRECTORNigel Poulton
CREW
COMPANY STAGE MANAGERKelly Ukena
DEPUTY STAGE MANAGERBridget Samuel
ASSISTANT STAGE MANAGERGrace Nye-Butler
HEAD ELECTRICIANRussell Stewart
HEAD MECHANISTAlan Logan
HEAD OF AUDIOBede Schofield
HEAD OF COSTUMEJude Loxley
DESIGN ASSISTANTElizabeth Gadsby
COSTUME ASSISTANTKatrina McFarlane
COSTUME CUTTERMel Liertz
TOURING COSTUME ASSISTANT
Amanda Carr
SET BUILT BYMNR Constructions
LIGHTING EQUIPMENT SUPPLIED BY
Chameleon Touring Systems
AUDIO EQUIPMENT SUPPLIED BY
NATIONAL TOURING FREIGHT BY
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ATS Logistics
ONLINE RESOURCES HAMLET
© Bell Shakespeare 2015, unless otherwise indicated.
Contributor: Anna Kamaralli
Provided all acknowledgements are retained, this material may be used,
reproduced and communicated free of charge for non-commercial
educational purposes within Australian and overseas schools.
SYNOPSIS
Act I
The ghost of the dead King of Denmark, Old Hamlet, appears to watchmen on the castle walls at midnight, but
will not speak to the terrified guards. The scene changes to the Royal Court of Denmark, and the new King,
Claudius, explains that he has replaced his recently deceased brother and also married the widowed Queen,
Gertrude. Word arrives that Fortinbras, nephew of the aged King of Norway, is making plans to wage war to
avenge his father, who lost land to Denmark. We are introduced to Hamlet, who is reproached by his uncle and
mother for continuing to mourn his dead father. We also meet the king’s adviser, Polonius, and his children,
Laertes and Ophelia.
Horatio leads Hamlet to encounter the ghost, who reveals to him that he was murdered by his brother.
Hamlet’s father’s ghost charges Hamlet with avenging him.
Act II
Ophelia tells her father that Hamlet’s behaviour has become strange. Claudius and Gertrude send Hamlet’s
old friends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to talk to him, to see if they can find out what is wrong. Hamlet
cannot resist teasing Polonius, who concludes that he is mad.
A group of travelling players arrives and Hamlet asks them to perform for the court a play of his choosing, The
Murder of Gonzago, and include an extra speech that he will write.
Act III
Claudius and Polonius order Ophelia to walk where Hamlet must see and speak to her, while they hide and
listen. Hamlet arrives, musing on life and death (“To be or not to be”). Ophelia tells Hamlet that she wishes to
return to him the love tokens he has given her. He is aggressive and hurtful in response, especially when he
suspects she is lying to him about her father’s presence. She comes to believe that he really has gone mad.
Hamlet has the players perform a play about the murder of a king, to see Claudius’ reaction. He feels that the
look on his uncle’s face is the confirmation of guilt he was looking for.
Hamlet catches Claudius at prayer, with his guard down, but decides not to kill him then, because he doesn’t
want his soul to go to heaven. Hamlet confronts Gertrude in her private rooms. When he hears Polonius behind
a curtain he kills him without checking to see who it is. The Ghost returns to remind Hamlet that he has been
tasked with avenging his father’s murder, and he is losing his resolve. Hamlet begs his mother to separate
herself from Claudius.
Act IV
Gertrude confesses to her husband what Hamlet has done. Claudius, after determining where Polonius’s body
has been stashed, sends Hamlet to England, with a secret request that he be killed on arrival.
Meanwhile, Fortinbras is marching on Denmark, and Hamlet stops to wonder at the effort people will make to
gain so little (“How all occasions do inform against me”).
Laertes returns to the Danish court, vowing vengeance on Hamlet. Ophelia goes mad and drowns. Word comes
that Hamlet has returned to Denmark. Laertes and Claudius make plans for Laertes to kill Hamlet with a
poisoned sword during a duel.
Act V
Hamlet and Horatio encounter a pair of gravediggers (“Alas, poor Yorick”), and find out about Ophelia’s death.
Hamlet and Laertes fight over Ophelia’s grave. Hamlet discloses to Horatio how he came to return from his
voyage to England, after being set upon by pirates, and tricking Rosencrantz and Guildenstern into bearing a
substitute letter demanding their own execution.
Hamlet and Laertes duel. Hamlet appears to be winning, but Laertes deceitfully injures him with the poisoned
sword, before a swap of swords results in his own wounding with the venom. Gertrude drinks the drink
Claudius poisoned for Hamlet. The dying Laertes reveals the plot to Hamlet, who kills Claudius. Hamlet dies in
the arms of Horatio, who he tasks with telling his story.
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ONLINE RESOURCES HAMLET
© Bell Shakespeare 2015, unless otherwise indicated.
Contributor: Anna Kamaralli
Provided all acknowledgements are retained, this material may be used,
reproduced and communicated free of charge for non-commercial
educational purposes within Australian and overseas schools.
BACKGROUND TO THE PLAY
The origins of the story of Hamlet lie in the historic records of Saxony. The 12th-century Saxon historian
Saxo Grammaticus first wrote down the history of Prince Amleth avenging his murdered father by killing his
usurping uncle, but the story would be best known to Elizabethans in French, via François de Belleforest’s
Histoires Tragiques, published in 1570. In the source material the young Amleth pretends to be mad so
his uncle will not see him as a threat. He is biding his time and growing to manhood, in order to have the
opportunity to take revenge. By keeping the feigned madness but removing its straightforward motive,
Shakespeare makes the examination of the question of sanity much more intriguing.
Revenge Tragedy was an enormously popular genre in the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods. Its basic
structure required a murder that happened before the play commences, which the protagonist, the victim’s
father, son or lover, is compelled to avenge.
The Essais of the French philosopher Michel de Montaigne are a likely influence on Hamlet’s speeches about
mortality, conscience and the purposes of existence. This book was gaining influence amongst the educated
classes during this period, when philosophy was replacing theology as the major intellectual pursuit.
Also influential would have been the tension in Britain between Catholic and Protestant beliefs surrounding
death. The end of Elizabeth’s long, Protestant reign, and the prospect of a successor more sympathetic to
Catholic values may have created just the right conditions for a theatrical examination of the many ways
people can respond to mortality.
The ideal of the Renaissance Prince would have been familiar to Shakespeare’s audience. They would expect
him to be both a poet and a soldier, to be cultivated in manners, capable in rhetoric, and skilled in fencing. It is
this ideal that Ophelia refers to when she speaks of “The courtier’s, soldier’s, scholar’s, eye, tongue, sword”
(Act 3, Scene 1) that Hamlet possessed.
Hamlet was probably first performed in 1600 or 1601, when Shakespeare’s company had only recently
transferred to the Globe Theatre. It was registered for publication in 1602. The first publication of Hamlet
was in 1603, and is usually referred to as the ‘Bad Quarto’. A quarto was a small, cheaply and quickly
assembled book. The Bad Quarto seems to have been the work of an actor remembering as much as he
could. He was probably playing Marcellus, because those are the lines he got right! In 1604 the Second
Quarto was printed, quite clearly coming from Shakespeare’s company to ensure they made some money
from an authorised version. The version published in the 1623 First Folio shows significant differences that
have prompted many fascinating considerations of how a playtext will change over the course of its life in a
company’s repertoire.
Shakespeare was very fond of re-working existing material into new form, and his Hamlet is probably the
supreme example of this. It is known that there was a play called Hamlet that was popular in the 1580s
and 90s, 10 years or more before Shakespeare wrote his. We no longer have a copy of this play, which is
often referred to as the Ur-Hamlet. It is not known for certain whether it was Shakespeare’s company, the
Chamberlain’s Men, or the other major company at the time, the Admiral’s Men, who performed the earlier
version, but it seems most likely that Shakespeare re-wrote another company’s story to give his own troupe
the opportunity to cash in on a rival’s success and show how they could do it better.
Shakespeare’s son, who died at the age of 11, some years before Hamlet was written, was named Hamnet,
after his godfather, Hamnet Sadler.
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ONLINE RESOURCES HAMLET
© Bell Shakespeare 2015, unless otherwise indicated.
Contributor: Anna Kamaralli
Provided all acknowledgements are retained, this material may be used,
reproduced and communicated free of charge for non-commercial
educational purposes within Australian and overseas schools.
HAMLET ON FILM
The very first Hamlet on film was the celebrated 19th-century actress Sarah Bernhardt, in a piece only a few
minutes long designed to show the possibilities of film.
It is not surprising that there have been many great actors and directors who have wanted to adapt this play
to film. Here are some of the more prominent:
1920 Asta Nielsen directed by Svend Gade and Heinz Schall (silent)
1947 Laurence Olivier (actor/director)
1964 Innokenti Smoktunovsky directed by Grigori Kozintsev (in Russian)
1990 Mel Gibson directed by Franco Zeffirelli
1997 Kenneth Branagh (actor/director)
2000 Ethan Hawke directed by Michael Almereyda
2009 David Tennant directed by Gregory Doran
Also, a few of the many stage and screen adaptations and variations:
1977 Hamletmachine – German expressionist deconstruction by Heiner Müller
1990 Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead – what if your whole life is governed by people more important
that you?
1993 The Lion King – with less tragedy, but even more procrastination
1994 Ophelia Thinks Harder – a feminist play by New Zealander Jean Betts
1995 In the Bleak Midwinter – a British film about putting on a production of Hamlet
2000Slings and Arrows – a Canadian television series about a Shakespeare Festival
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ONLINE RESOURCES HAMLET
© Bell Shakespeare 2015, unless otherwise indicated.
Contributor: Anna Kamaralli
Provided all acknowledgements are retained, this material may be used,
reproduced and communicated free of charge for non-commercial
educational purposes within Australian and overseas schools.
KEY CHARACTERS
Hamlet
“The time is out of joint: O cursed spite,
That ever I was born to set it right!” (Act 1, Scene 5)
Hamlet fulfils the archetypical roles of Renaissance Prince and revenging protagonist with such
distinctiveness and complexity that centuries of individuals have felt as if he is speaking directly to, or even
about them. This in spite of the fact that, within the confines of the play, we never get to meet the person we
might think of as the real Hamlet. That is, when the play begins his personality is already marred by grief and
repressed anger, so the audience never has the opportunity to see who he was when he was full of hope for his
life.
According to director Damien Ryan, “In many ways, Hamlet is the story of a young man we never get to know.
When we meet him, his natural personality has already been eclipsed by circumstance and he will only plummet
further into disillusionment as the play continues.”
Watching Hamlet is observing the emergence of the modern, fully intellectually and emotionally engaged
human being. His identity as a student of Germany’s Wittenberg University is carefully defined by Shakespeare
early in the play, laying the ground for the depth of his philosophical contemplation as the saga unfolds.
Wittenberg was the seat of ‘humanist’ thought. The ‘humanist’ is optimistic that human understanding has
endless scope and that the power of thought can be developed toward a full understanding of the purpose
of life. Hamlet expands beyond the received wisdom of the humanist, however. He vigorously debates ethics,
metaphysics and human behaviours throughout the play but it can be argued that he grows to reject
humanism. He replaces his search for wisdom and insight with the thought that life in fact has no purpose, and
an acceptance that death cannot be understood, only experienced. Jonathan Bate writes, “That end is also a
beginning: the birth of a new man dedicated to the proposition that the opposite of reason is not madness but
true feeling.” (RSC Complete Works p. 1,919) His great contradictions, such as his paralysis in revenging his
father as opposed to his wild rashness at the ‘wrong’ moments, are what give the play its eternal appeal. He
sets out to prove the word of a ghost – that in itself reveals a great deal about the problem of being Hamlet.
Claudius / Old Hamlet
“O, my offence is rank it smells to heaven.” (Act 3, Scene 3)
A pair of brothers as antagonists is a recurring theme in Shakespeare. One of the very few things we know
for certain in this play is that Claudius did do what his brother’s ghost accuses him of, because he confesses
to it in soliloquy. He is no brutish, clumsy villain, however, but a sharp-minded match for Hamlet, with enough
political skills and personal charm to keep everyone else around him on side.
Before he is even aware that anything was amiss in his father’s death, Hamlet is shown to be feeling his loss
profoundly. However, when Hamlet makes his comparison between the two brothers and declares his father
“Hyperion to a satyr” (Act 3, Scene 4) we have no objective measure to tell us whether he is seeing things
as they are, or whether he is projecting his own perspective to create their supposed difference. Parents in
this play give no thought to the burdens they place on their children. The dictates of the Ghost are as cruel
as they are inevitable within a culture that required respect and obedience from children above anything
else. Hamlet’s father gives him very explicit instructions, with no concern for the cost to his son’s own life of
following them.
7
ONLINE RESOURCES HAMLET
© Bell Shakespeare 2015, unless otherwise indicated.
Contributor: Anna Kamaralli
Provided all acknowledgements are retained, this material may be used,
reproduced and communicated free of charge for non-commercial
educational purposes within Australian and overseas schools.
Gertrude
“O Hamlet, thou hast cleft my heart in twain.” (Act 3, Scene 1)
Hamlet’s obsession with his mother’s behaviour is the thing that threatens to overwhelm his ability to follow
his father’s instructions. The audience is given hardly any opportunity to hear how she understands her own
situation, but can see how she affects the people around her. She knows how to conduct herself graciously
and eloquently in court situations, which would be expected from a woman who had been Queen for many
years, but it is only in the ‘closet’ scene that she expresses anything directly emotional about her life, when
she responds to his upbraiding, “Thou turn’st mine eyes into my very soul; / And there I see such black and
grained spots / As will not leave their tinct” (Act 3, Scene 4). It is clear that she loves her son very dearly, but
not whether or not she takes his word that he is only “mad in craft”. It is certain that Claudius really does love
her, but not whether she guesses that the poison that kills her came from him. There are no answers in the
text to our most compelling questions about this character, and it is therefore up to each production to find
Gertrude in performance.
Polonius
“Truly in my youth I suffered much extremity for love” (Act 2, Scene 2)
The second family in this play has Polonius as its patriarch. In production he varies from a doddering fool to
a wily and conscienceless politician. It is difficult to construct a stable reading of this character, who talks
too much nonsense for a wise man, but says too many wise things for a fool. He cannot keep up with Hamlet’s
razor wit, and is left playing the foil and being mocked whenever the two encounter. His determination to
control Ophelia absolutely, and willingness to use her, does not endear him to the modern audience. When
Hamlet murders him in Act 3 it is the pivot point of the play. Up until that point there may have been some
way for Hamlet to navigate his burden and emerge again, but from this point the only way is down, even if
Hamlet himself does not appear to register the gravity of what he has done. Certainly Hamlet doesn’t seem
to care that he has killed Polonius, while Ophelia cares unbearably. Claudius swears to Laertes that his father
was dear to him, but still colludes in burying him hastily and secretively, thus Polonius remains until the last a
person who is both dismissed and valued.
Laertes / Fortinbras / Pyrrhus
“Let come what comes; only I’ll be revenged
Most thoroughly for my father.” (Act 4, Scene 5)
Hamlet is but one of four avenging sons in this play. In contrast to Hamlet’s intensely private planning, the
other three, even Laertes, have armies at their backs. Laertes successfully breaches Claudius’ court and with
huge popular support has the capacity to achieve outright revolution. Claudius’ diplomatic entreaties barely
manage to calm him before Ophelia’s entrance serves to “dry up [his] brains” (Act 4, Scene 5). Her death
stalls Laertes’ wave of revenge and his deep affection for his sister is movingly portrayed in his attempts to
communicate with her: “O rose of May, dear maid, kind sister, sweet Ophelia” (Act 4, Scene 5). Productions
often give scant attention to Fortinbras, busy offstage throughout reclaiming the land his father lost, and
even less to Pyrrhus, who exists only in the First Player’s recitation, but each of these characters functions as
a mirror refracting Hamlet’s situation.
Damien Ryan: “Shakespeare uses Claudius to demonstrate the different capacities for revenge in the play’s
two young heroes. Hamlet could not cut a man’s throat in the church. Laertes can do so without hesitation.
Hamlet can instinctively recognise when someone is playing games with him. Laertes, consumed by emotional
fury, is easily manipulated by the King to kill Hamlet against his conscience and his natural instinct for honour.”
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ONLINE RESOURCES HAMLET
© Bell Shakespeare 2015, unless otherwise indicated.
Contributor: Anna Kamaralli
Provided all acknowledgements are retained, this material may be used,
reproduced and communicated free of charge for non-commercial
educational purposes within Australian and overseas schools.
Ophelia
“There’s rosemary, that’s for remembrance” (Act 4, Scene 4)
One of the few things that can be said with certainty about Ophelia is that she does not say enough. Readers
and audiences are always left wanting more insight into her own perspective on what is happening around
her and to her. She has one soliloquy in which she sticks closely to the topic most pressing, sharing a reaction
to the distressing behaviour she has just witnessed in Hamlet. This gives something of a key to the way she
functions throughout the play: she is perpetually called upon to act as witness to the actions of others, more
than she ever gets to act on her own behalf. She gives her father the letters and poems that witness Hamlet’s
love, then delivers two speeches that witness his gradual breakdown. Later she is the designated witness
to her father. Laertes complains about the secrecy that has surrounded their father’s death, “his obscure
funeral / No trophy, sword, nor hatchment o’er his bones, / No noble rite nor formal ostentation” (Act 4, Scene
4). But Ophelia openly distributes funereal flowers and says, “I would give you some violets, but they withered
all when my father died”, finding a way around the silence in order to bear witness, but only at the cost of her
own sanity (Act 4, Scene 5). At one level, Ophelia is less Hamlet’s shadow than his own truer mirror. Hamlet
suspects his father was murdered, and by someone close to him, Ophelia knows hers was. Hamlet pretends
to go mad, Ophelia really does. Hamlet considers suicide, Ophelia may have actually gone and done it. One
question that cannot be resolved is when is Hamlet telling the truth about Ophelia? When he says he loved her,
or when he says he didn’t?
Horatio
“I am more an antique Roman than a Dane” (Act 5, Scene 2)
Horatio provides a different kind of mirror to Hamlet, not to show the audience a reflected version of the
protagonist, but to give Hamlet the chance to look at himself honestly. Hamlet confides in Horatio as he does
no one else.
Damien Ryan: “Horatio’s attitude to Hamlet reflects ours undergoing a subtly complex series of changes. His
dialogue with the audience is highly personal without an actual soliloquy. We gauge so much through Horatio’s
silent observation and delicate intrusion into events.”
His importance to the shape of the play sharpens in the final moments, when Hamlet tasks him with remaining
alive to see that his truth is told:
Absent thee from felicity awhile,
And in this harsh world draw thy breath in pain,
To tell my story. (Act 5, Scene 2)
Hamlet gives Horatio the permission to grieve and to speak of his grief that everyone has been denied up until
this point. Horatio ultimately becomes the custodian of Hamlet’s story.
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
“As the indifferent children of the earth.” (Act 2, Scene 2)
This hapless pair are more sinned against than sinning. Hamlet feels deceived by their willingness to report on
him to Claudius and Gertrude, but as they have been given no cause to suspect villainy on the part of the King,
they have no reason to view what they are doing as other than being helpful to their friend’s (very reasonably)
concerned family. Thanks to Tom Stoppard’s play they have become almost a symbol of the ordinary people
whose lives are swept up into the fates of people the world regards as more important.
Damien Ryan: “They approach a man in a deep depression, considered mad, and within moments he is speaking
of Elsinore as a prison and of “bad dreams”. They know nothing of murder or ghosts or revenge. Hamlet asks
if they have been sent for and they falter. Why? They do not wish their friend to think they are only here under
orders. It is a beautifully and absurdly constructed tragedy of misunderstanding. Hamlet expected solidarity
from them, to side with him and dob in the King. But they, quite rightly, think the King is kind and caring and
that Hamlet is losing it.”
9
ONLINE RESOURCES HAMLET
© Bell Shakespeare 2015, unless otherwise indicated.
Contributor: Anna Kamaralli
Provided all acknowledgements are retained, this material may be used,
reproduced and communicated free of charge for non-commercial
educational purposes within Australian and overseas schools.
THEMATIC CONCERNS OF HAMLET
Revenge and filial obligation
The model of a revenge tragedy was Thomas Kyd’s A Spanish Tragedy, or Hieronimo is Mad Again. Wildly
popular when it came out, it set the tone for a whole genre, several elements of which appear in Shakespeare’s
masterpiece. The genre involves the destiny of a hero being mapped out by his need to ruthlessly destroy a
formidable opponent, who has wronged his family in some violent way. The central tragic theme of cleansing
or purifying a society still functioned in these plays but it is through the fatal violence of the hero and his own
demise that a society achieves renewal. Shakespeare’s play, as usual, sets itself apart by utilising but twisting
the tragic revenge genre into a more interesting shape. A play that purports to be the story of a young man,
enjoined by his father’s ghost to kill his uncle for the hideous crimes of murder and incest, is overwhelmed by a
fascination with the morality of women, the roles of mothers, sisters and lovers, and the complexity of desire.
Before he knows anything about his father’s spirit, Hamlet already feels a futile urge to revenge or lash out
against what he feels is an emotional crime – his mother’s remarriage. It could be argued that his meeting with
the Ghost simply gives him a clear mandate to pursue his real target, Gertrude’s betrayal.
Hamlet swears that he will erase all thoughts from his mind other than revenge of a father, but the very next
words out of his mouth are, “O most pernicious woman” (Act 1, Scene 5). He can’t help himself. Shakespeare’s
twisting of the male revenge tradition comes to a head in Act 3, when at The Mousetrap play, designed
specifically to “catch the conscience of the King” (Act 2, Scene 2), Hamlet can’t help but focus his venom on
his mother and girlfriend: “Madam, how like you this play”, “look you how cheerfully my mother looks and my
father died within’s two hours”, “’Tis brief, my lord” “As woman’s love” (Act 3, Scene 2). The play-within-a-play
itself risks not even getting to the poison-in-the-ear moment because Hamlet insists on a long re-enactment
of his mother’s hypocritical vows of love. When Hamlet does decide that he has seen proof of Claudius’s guilt,
he fuels himself with vivid revenger’s words of “the witching time of night…now could I drink hot blood and do
such bloody business as the day would quake to look on” (Act 3, Scene 2). Yet, when he stabs his rapier through
the arras and kills his long-sought prey, he doesn’t look to see his victim, instead turning to his mother
desperate to know how she feels about the murder: “A bloody deed? Almost as bad, good mother, as kill a king
and marry with his brother” (Act 3, Scene 4).
Damien Ryan: “Shakespeare writes the traditional revenge tragedy too. It stars Laertes and runs over
two acts, with cameos from another revenger, Fortinbras. Laertes is the classic revenger. In Old Hamlet,
Shakespeare deliberately creates a medieval father giving his ‘modern’ philosopher son a task too
thoughtlessly simple and primitive for him to carry out. The father and son, the armoured soldier and the
student in desperate conversation on the misty battlements is one of the theatre’s great images.”
Women and sex
Upon realising that he has killed the wrong man, Hamlet does not run out to kill Claudius, but sits down and
plays marriage-and-sex therapist with his mother. The Ghost himself even has to re-enter, after swearing
Hamlet would not see him again, to check if his son is still in the same play – the one about revenging a murder.
Hamlet is so obsessed with the potential for female betrayal that at every crucial juncture in the play this
is what dominates his speech and threatens to derail the plot of revenge. His obsession with the feminine
is fuelled by Ophelia’s rejection of him and refusal to speak with him anymore. Her brutal journey from that
moment lies in her unwittingly placing herself in a mental category Hamlet has devised for women – subtle,
devious, deceptive, sexually voracious and dishonest. The staggering display of misogyny in Hamlet’s brutality
to Ophelia is enough to inspire her genuine madness. For Hamlet’s poisoned mind, an honest woman has two
possible destinies: the convent or the whorehouse. Although he means ‘nunnery’ literally when he attacks
Ophelia, the word was also used in jest to mean ‘brothel’ and perhaps, at times in his rant, he is almost
unaware which one he means.
Damien Ryan: “Shakespeare fuels the ‘delay’ with moral confusion and sets to work on revolutionising the
tragic form, transforming a play that should be about violent revenge into a play about a man confronting a
feminine abyss he does not understand or trust. His focus is his mother and his girlfriend. Even after he thinks
he stabs the King he is more interested in Gertrude’s reaction than in checking who he killed. Shakespeare
uses basic plot points about kings and murders and revenges and madness as the skeleton for a play that is
really about women, sexuality, debts of love and fidelity.”
10
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Contributor: Anna Kamaralli
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reproduced and communicated free of charge for non-commercial
educational purposes within Australian and overseas schools.
Grief
All cultures have established rituals around grieving for a dead loved one, though some are more elaborate
or more strongly adhered to than others. At the time Shakespeare was writing there were competing beliefs
among Catholics and Protestants about the appropriate way to respond to a death. The Catholic church’s
monetary exploitation of the bereaved had resulted in a restriction on any ostentation surrounding grieving,
which grew into a repression of grief itself. Within this play none of the children are allowed to express the
grief they feel to the extent they need, such that Ophelia finally achieves what she craves in improvised rituals
created out of her insanity.
Madness
Hamlet claims that “I essentially am not in madness, / But mad in craft” (Act 3, Scene 4) to his mother,
but later asks Laertes to believe his madness was genuine when he apologises, “If Hamlet from himself be
ta’en away... His madness is poor Hamlet’s enemy” (Act 5, Scene 2). It is a crucial feature of this play that it
is impossible to be sure when madness is real and when put on as a mask. Madness was understood in this
period to mean the dividing of a person’s true self, hence the expression ‘beside himself’ and later the term
schizophrenia (‘splitting’). Claudius describes Ophelia as “Divided from herself and her fair judgment, / Without
the which we are pictures, or mere beasts” (Act 4, Scene 5). Shakespeare made the most of his understanding
that the marginalised of all kinds (lunatics, clowns, bastards, actors and women) are the ones destined to take
on the mantle of the truth-speaker that those at the centre cannot afford to wear. Ophelia can say things
while mad that she never could otherwise.
Doubles, Divisions and Reflections
In the medieval period, when plays were usually simple morality dramas, a common theatrical device was
psychomachia. This was when the protagonist, named something like ‘Everyman’, has a devil at one elbow
luring him towards evil, and an angel on the other side persuading him to good. The increased philosophical
sophistication of the Renaissance, and the innovation of Shakespeare, takes that struggle and relocates
it internally, within a character. This possibility of a divided self was an enormous step forward for the
representation of human experience in drama.
There are very few certain statements that can be made about what is going on in Hamlet. Is the Ghost really
Hamlet’s father, and to be trusted, or is it, as Hamlet fears, a demon whose goal is his soul’s destruction? Is
Gertrude aware of the possibility her husband was murdered? Does Hamlet really go mad, or is he feigning at
all times? Even the switching of the poisoned blade in the final duel could be accidental or something Hamlet
does on purpose. The famous unburdening of Hamlet’s soul in “To be, or not to be” could be sincere, or could
be a performance he gives for the hidden Claudius and Polonius. Almost every way to take what happens in
Hamlet could also be taken in a mirrored way. Each point and each perspective also has its reflection.
Hamlet himself has many mirrors: Laertes, Fortinbras and Ophelia all reflect his experiences back to him in
some way. The mirror motif is so strong that Gregory Doran used it as his central image when he directed
David Tennant in the role. Doubles come in simpler forms, too: there are two kingly brothers, represented in
a pair of portraits, two gravediggers, two indistinguishable schoolfriends. Even at the level of language Hamlet
is packed full of doubles in the form of puns (two meanings in one word) and hendiadys (two nouns joined with a
conjunction).
11
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educational purposes within Australian and overseas schools.
Masks and Acting
Role-playing and artifice is constant through the play. Hamlet is aware almost immediately that he, an
intellectual ‘humanist’, has been cast in the role of a medieval revenger, a role he feels unfit to play – “O cursed
spite, that ever I was born to set it right” (Act 1, Scene 5). It is perhaps no surprise then that he chooses to
alter his ‘mask’ and “put an antic disposition on” (Act 1, Scene 5) as he prepares to commit regicide.
Claudius wears a mask, the artifice of the caring uncle and generous king – “that one may smile and smile and
be a villain”, (Act 1, Scene 5). Polonius’ instinct for espionage offers another example of a man subsumed by his
role-playing to the detriment of his family relationships. Polonius’ theatrical obsession with being centre stage
in the political crisis in Denmark sees him suffer the same fate in life as he did on stage, when playing Julius
Caesar at University, being stabbed to death. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, incapable of the sophisticated
roles they are forced to play, die futile and preventable deaths. Hamlet hates a bad actor as much as a good
liar. He even finds reason to doubt the performance of the Ghost, potentially a devil in disguise sent to betray
him in the costume of his father.
Hamlet’s attitude to the women’s role-playing represents the play’s major thematic conflict. Gertrude’s
face, protected even from the “winds of heaven” by Hamlet’s father (Act 1, Scene 2), was masked in flooding
tears and sorrow at his funeral, tears that Hamlet believed in and sympathised very deeply with. Likewise the
court costumed in “customary suits of solemn black” and the “forced breath” of grief (Act 1, Scene 2) initially
convinced Hamlet of its depth of feeling. Hence the immensity of his sense of betrayal when the “funeral baked
meats did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables”(Act 1, Scene 2). Hamlet, sickened by such pretence and
prizing emotional truth over all things, expresses true grief, “I have that within which passeth show, these but
the trappings and the suits of woe” (Act 1, Scene 2), and begins an increasingly purposeful and violent war on
lies and artifice. People who lie to or deceive Hamlet end badly.
Ophelia, ‘acting’ on behalf of her father, with a prayer book and his letters and gifts as her props, convinces
Hamlet that their love is illusory. Hamlet unleashes a personal fury at her along with a universal fury at the
pretence and masking employed by women. The “painting” of their faces – “God hath given you one face and
you make yourself another” (Act 3, Scene 1) – is, for Hamlet, emblematic of a deeper deception in the hearts
of women, an impenetrable and instinctive capacity for lies and artifice. Part of Hamlet’s simple joy in seeing
Yorick’s skull is the knowledge that one day, inevitably, regardless of painting on make-up “an inch thick”, “to
this favour she must come. Make her laugh at that.” (Act 5, Scene 1)
12
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INTERVIEW WITH DIRECTOR DAMIEN RYAN
Multi-dimensional Hamlet
I would love to have an audience able to stand back from the play and recognise as much dimension as they
possibly can. I don’t want to foreground any particular concerns over others. The play is often made into a
domestic drama, and I think is does lose something from that. It can be wonderfully moving, of course, but
when you take away the cold war aspect of the play, by that I mean the building of armaments between two
neighbouring countries and the overarching tragic arc of that, once you remove that it becomes about a
whinging boy and his mother’s sex life. Hamlet also needs to be the consciousness of a brilliant man existing in
both a domestic and a political landscape at the same time.
The debts of parents, the burdens of children
The burden of children living up to the footprints that fathers, particularly, place on them. If there are pillars
that sustain the story they are both the sins of the father and the debts of parents. You have four revenging
sons in this story, Hamlet, Laertes, Fortinbras and Pyrrhus, and Pyrrhus is a metaphor for the whole thing.
The revenger who could
The players arrive at court and Hamlet says instantly to him, give me that speech about that revenging son
who came into Troy, killed Priam and avenged his father, Achilles, give me that story, about the revenger who
could. The only line in the whole piece of text where he breaks the rhythm of the blank verse is when he says
that even Pyrrhus at the moment of truth paused and stopped and did nothing. And that line sits like a vast
vacuum in Hamlet’s mind. All four revenging sons are forced to wait at the moment of truth, and be unable
to carry out the task: Fortinbras waits thirty years, Laertes is stopped in his tracks by Claudius, and it all
backfires for him, and Hamlet, of course keeps procrastinating, if you want to call it that.
The need for grieving
The play is also a comment on grief. I’m convinced that Shakespeare is attacking the notion of the Protestant
restriction on grief. He is writing a play in which all the children lose their parents, none of the children are
permitted to grieve, the grief is something that is bottled up and comes to poison these children and their
parents. This is sustained throughout the play, and it’s counterpointed in the many references to tears in a
mother’s eyes. What has shocked him is that his mother wept unending tears at his father’s funeral, he would
never have loved his mother more than when he saw the sheer fidelity of her grief at his father’s funeral, and
then six weeks later she’s bedding the uncle. That image of a woman weeping uncontrollably has completely
poisoned Hamlet’s trust in fidelity in faith in love, he harps on it again and again, the tears in a woman’s eyes.
The whole first court scene is about a boy being told to take off the black clothing, remove the inky cloak, to
move forward, and he sustains the story of all these young kids not being permitted to grieve their parents.
Ophelia’s madness is the poison of deep grief, she has nowhere to place her grief. They are in part a girl’s
instinctive ritualisation of her father’s death, a funeral that never happens, the singing of songs, the eulogising,
the ritual, handing out flowers that have a series of meanings. She says herself by the end of the scene: we’re
wasting our tears, no one in this court is listening.
Women
This is the thing that defines the play and makes it different to the Revenge Tragedy genre within which he’s
writing. A Revenge Tragedy at that time was a very male domain, a thriller starring Liam Neeson, a story in
which a man has committed a crime. It’s an action-packed story, the language is very visceral, lacking in that
terrible atmosphere of uncertainty that holds this play together and makes it so ambiguous. Shakespeare
revolutionises that genre by going, no I’m actually going to write a play where that’s what the hero should be
doing, but he is tangentially obsessed with the female crime. He is less concerned at every key point in the play
with what his uncle did than what his mother is doing. It’s an obsession with the mystery of that female sexual
equation.
Ophelia cannot walk on the stage without mention of her capacity to conceive. The story is about this
Bermuda triangle of the effect that these two women have on the men around them. In an almost biblical sense
the opening image is of a man in his apple orchard killed by a serpent, where part of the temptation is the
woman. All of Hamlet’s major psychotic episodes and major moments of total loss of composure are about the
13
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women not about the men. The ghost has said his final goodbyes, then he has to come back one more time, and
why? Because Hamlet is in his mother’s room giving her 25 minutes of marriage counselling. The ghost has to
come back and say “Hamlet, you’re in the wrong play, please get back in the Liam Neeson drama.”
Masks
That’s what makes an audience feel so close to Horatio, even though he has very little text, we feel so close
to him because everyone else wears a mask. When Hamlet apologises to Laertes I find that moment quite
harrowing, but I love an audience not just worshiping the hero, I love the ambiguity of how he makes people
feel when he’s very divisive. So I think that moment is entirely manipulative. How he really felt about Laertes
was expressed when he was with Horatio, but once the King is back in the room he is again replacing the veil,
placing the mask on.
Masks are a big thing in this play. Hamlet recognises that you can wear that mask of goodness. He believes his
mother’s tears were a mask, he talks about Claudius who can smile and smile and be a villain. More than once
he talks about Ophelia’s mask, which is makeup. At three key moments in the play he mentions her ‘painting’.
He sustains poetic motifs relentlessly through a story, and the high point of that notion is that masks are a
part of a play that is about the theatre, that relies upon the theatre to tell his story.
Hamlet conceives of himself as an actor, he even speechifies to professional actors about what good acting is.
He sees everything in theatrical terms. When he meets the players, the Player gives a speech and ends up in
tears, which are the mask of the professional liar. He is an actor who can’t find the motivation, can’t find the
right feeling at the right time to carry out the performance that’s required of him.
The most interesting thing about the fifth act of Hamlet the lead character has almost no agency in the
drama. It’s palpable in a rehearsal room, where actors are looking for actions to play. Hamlet is either least
himself or most himself, depending on what you think Hamlet is. He’s got no plan. Thankfully Laertes supplies
the weaponry and the poison, all that comes from other people. The play is reaching its nexus and he had
nothing to do with it!
Telling the story
This is one of the great stories. In terms of the plot, it’s a thriller, it’s a ghost story, it’s incredibly funny, it’s
incredibly dramatic. Yes, we have to highlight certain aspects, but I would love to get out of the way a bit and
put people in front of something that’s not trying to comment on choices or a particular director’s bent too
much, but just tell the story, so that it’s actor-centric, it’s character-centric, that we believe in the world, and
let them understand it.
14
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Contributor: Anna Kamaralli
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ABOUT THE DESIGN
From Designer Alicia Clements: The set consists of an ornate series of iron and glass doors - part palace
wall, part fortress gates – through which we see various snapshots of palace life. With the large set piece
dividing the space in two we have the chance to play with the duality of characters’ public versus private
personas, revealing intimate, and sometimes sinister, moments behind the glass façade while contradicting
scenes play out in front of it.
The costuming is drawn from the present day and aims to capture a truthful essence of the modern Danish
monarchy. We are able to inject colour into this dark, cold world with the rich hues of wealthy clothing, such as
burgundy, aubergine, emerald, peacock blue and gold.
From Director Damien Ryan: What I’m trying to do is create a landscape that preserves the essential
functions of the Globe theatre, a discovery space, a space where things can be revealed, and on the sides other
doorways that flank that to continue the sense of action.
The play is so focused on this place called Elsinore. He centres it on this great hall in Elsinore, and most other
things are described to us. So we see this huge window, this giant palatial window, an edifice moving off as
if this is kilometres long, a Versailles-like window. It has a lot of doors and apertures in it, and that has the
capacity to be translucent or opaque perhaps. At times you can see a soldier patrolling outside, through
the window. We might see Gertrude’s bed behind her rooms, the royal bed of Denmark. This ability to reveal
indoor and outdoor space is important, as is the voyeurism and the surveillance, so there’ll be a lot of listening
devices, so this is a cold place that is being watched.
Those are the motifs I want to bring out: grief, generational things, that metatheatrical idea in masks, and this
notion of voyeurism and surveillance, indoor/outdoor. I want to give an audience a sense of Elsinore, because I
think Shakespeare works quite hard to show us that.
15
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reproduced and communicated free of charge for non-commercial
educational purposes within Australian and overseas schools.
HA
MLET
HAMLET
ACT
1.5 :Can
Can
wear
ame across
outfitalla scenes
cross with
a ll scenes
with
one or
two
dditions (coat, b ag etc).
ACTI.2
I.2 -- 1.5:
wear
samesoutfit
one or two
additions
(coat,
bagaetc).
Dress
e d in
bl ac k.
S ounstructured
ft, u nstructured
gaperhaps
rments,
perha
ps slightly rumpled/unironed.
Dressed
in black.
Soft,
garments,
slightly
rumpled/unironed.
HHAMLET
AMLET
ACACT
T 2.1
AC T3.1:
3.1In: “madness”.
I n “ ma dnUnkempt
ess ”. Uand
n kem
pt an d m
is m atch
ed cloth in g or bedwear, possi bl y
2.1-- ACT
mismatched
clothing
or bedwear,
wepossibly
a r i n g hwearing
i s fat hhis
e r fathers
s s l i p pslippers.
ers .
J o sJosh
h M McConville
cConville
J o sJosh
h M McConville
cConville
16
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Contributor: Anna Kamaralli
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reproduced and communicated free of charge for non-commercial
educational purposes within Australian and overseas schools.
CLAUDIUS
CLAUDIUS
SSean
e a n O’Shea
O’Shea
GE RT R U D E
GERTRUDE
Doris
D o r i sYounane
Yo u n a n e
AC1.2:
T 1In
. 2:a day
I n suit
a d or
ayprevious
s u i t or“wedding”
previouclothing.
s “weddin g” cloth in g.
ACT
AC2.2
T 2.
2 - 3.1:
AC3-piece
T 3.1 : day
3- piece
dayblack.
s u it. Avoid black.
ACT
- ACT
suit. Avoid
AC4.5:
T 4Elements
. 5 : El e me
n t soutfit
o f th
e ou
m ay be ch an ged.
ACT
of the
may
be tfit
changed.
AC T 1 . 5 : I n b e d , n i g h t wear. OPT I ON #1 - A s ilk an d lace s lip, can poss ibly be worn unde r
ACT
nightwear.
#1 - A silk and lace slip, can possibly be worn under her other costumes.
h e1.5:
r oInt hbed,
e r co
st u me sOPTION
.
ACT
3.4
same
robe.
AC
T -34.1:
. 4 Nightwear
- 4 .1 : N i g- h
t we as
a r previous
- s a m e bedroom
a s p revscene
i o u s but
b e dwith
ro oamsilk
s ce
n e b u t w i t h a s i l k ro b e.
17
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Contributor: Anna Kamaralli
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reproduced and communicated free of charge for non-commercial
educational purposes within Australian and overseas schools.
GE RT R U DE
GERTRUDE
Doris
D o r i sYounane
Yo u n a n e
OPHELIA
OPHELIA
M a t Matilda
h i l d a RRidgway
idgeway
AC
T 3.
2: Eve
n i n- gsemi-formal.
we ar - s em
i- form
I n jection of colou r.
ACT
3.2:
Evening
wear
Injection
of al.
colour.
M AMAIN
I N COSTU
M E Semi-formal
: S e mi - fo rm
al daywear.
Sm
artanbu
t with
an artistic s en s ibility. Acceptabl e to
COSTUME:
daywear.
Smart but
with
artistic
sensibility.
b eAcceptable
s e e n at co
u r tseen
.
to be
at court.
18
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reproduced and communicated free of charge for non-commercial
educational purposes within Australian and overseas schools.
OP
HE L I A
OPHELIA
M a t Matilda
h i l d a RRidgway
idgeway
P OLON I U S
POLONIUS
Philip
P h i l iDodd
p Dodd
ACT
4.3:
Ma dness.
Ha i r unkempt,
possibly
Costume
TBCor- apossibly
a
ACT 4.3:
Madness.
Hair unkempt,
or possiblyor
wet.
Costume wet.
TBC - possibly
pyjamas
gown frompyjamas
Gertrude’sor
wardrobe.
gown
Gertrude’s
wa rdrobe.
ACT I.2 from
- 1.5: Can
wear same outfit
across all scenes with one or two additions (coat, bag etc).
e aIntelligence
d o f I n tefor
l l i gClaudius.
e n ce for
C lau
diu s . throughout.
Sam e costu m e th rou gh ou t.
HeadHof
Same
costume
19
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reproduced and communicated free of charge for non-commercial
educational purposes within Australian and overseas schools.
LLAERTES
AERTES
MMichael
i c h a e l Wahr
Wahr
AC T 1 . 2 - 1 . 3 & 4 . 5 : S m art day cloth es w ith a w in ter coat th at can be added in 1 .3.
ACT 1.2 - 1.3 & 4.5: Smart day clothes with a winter coat that can be added in 1.3.
FORT
I N B R AS
FORTINBRAS
C a Catherine
t h e r i n e TTerracini
erracini
ACT
1.2:
with
full decoration
video
AC
T Formal
1 . 2 : Founiform
r m a l uni
form
wi th ful l(possibly
d e corati
on taped).
( p oss i b l y v i d e o tap e d ) .
ACT
4.4:
Field
AC
T 4
. 4 : beret
F i e l dand
b eboots.
re t and b oots .
20
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educational purposes within Australian and overseas schools.
F RFRANCISCO
A N CI S C O && BBERNARDO
E R N A R DO
Michael
Catherine
M i Wahr
c h a e l& W
a h r & T BTerracini
C
GGRAVEDIGGERS
R AV E D I G G E RS
Philip
P hDodd
i l i p D&oRobin
d d & Goldsworthy
TBC
ACT
1 : 1:
Watch
gu ardsDressed
. D ress
ed
for
cold weath
ACT
Watch guards.
for
cold
weather
- heavy er - he avy
coats
anand
d boots
Cerem on
ial weapon s .
coats
boots. .Ceremonial
weapons.
ACACT
T 5 .15.1:
: Hard
H ardworkers,
workers
, possinibly
in waders
an Muddy.
d overalls . Mu ddy.
possibly
waders
and overalls.
21
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PRE-PERFORMANCE ACTIVITY 1
“Who’s there?”
CHARACTER POSTERS
Deciding how to take Hamlet as a character can consume as much time as you are willing to give it. It helps to
take some of that time and give it to the many other fascinating individuals who enrich his world. The best way
to get to know them is through their words. The next best is to support those words with vivid images.
Make one big poster for each important character, with their name in the middle.
Students find things to paste around the name to give the most complete picture of that character. This can
include:
• quotes from the play of lines said by the character
• quotes from the play of lines said about the character
• pictures of the character in previous productions
• pictures of actors, or simply torn from magazines, of people who look how you imagine the character
should. Who is your ideal Hamlet? Does Ophelia look more like Jennifer Lawrence, or more like Jessica
Mauboy? How old is Gertrude? Could Rozencrantz and/or Guildenstern be played by women?
• costume ideas
• scraps of fabric or decorations they might wear
• the students’ own drawings of the characters
• song lyrics that suit what the character goes through
• what is this character’s fate in the play? Can you create images related to staging how they die (except
Horatio!)?
Be imaginative. Do the people in the Danish Court wear Renaissance costume or sharp, modern suits? Or do
they belong to another time and place altogether? Do they have swords or some other kind of weaponry? How
do we tell the King from the servants?
ONLY when you have completed everyone else should you go on to make a poster for Hamlet himself.
22
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educational purposes within Australian and overseas schools.
PRE-PERFORMANCE ACTIVITY 2
“Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder”
INVESTIGATING REVENGE TRAGEDY
‘Revenge Tragedy’ was its own genre in the theatre of Shakespeare’s day. It had some strict rules, including
that the revenger must also die at the end, as only God has the right to punish.
This is a three part project. You can do just part one, one and two, or all three if you are feeling ambitious. It
can work as an individual project or in groups of four.
Part 1: Research
Find out everything you can about revenge tragedy. This could include, but is not limited to:
• When was it popular?
• Who wrote them, besides Shakespeare?
• Did Shakespeare write any other revenge tragedies?
• What did the plot usually involve?
• What were some of the ways that characters died in some of these?
Part 2: Creative Writing
Write your own abbreviated version of a revenge tragedy. If you feel like taking it seriously, then do so, but an
exaggerated or parody version is fine, too. You will need to make clear:
• who has been wronged, and how
• who the avenger is planning to kill
• how he or she meets his or her own sticky end, having accomplished this task
Start by drawing a character chart, with a summary of everybody’s name and function.
Allow your characters to talk directly to the audience to explain how they are reacting to events. Or you can
give the key characters a friend to confide in. Be explicit about the means of revenge: poison, dagger or an
elaborate and ingenious trap?
Part 3: Production
Each group of four could try staging their play
OR
The class could vote on one script, and then all perform it together
OR
Simply do some set and costume designs to accompany an imaginary production.
23
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DRAMA CURRICULUM (Activities 1 & 2)
Year Strand
1
Making
Codes Explanation
Explore feelings, ideas, facial expressions, gesture and
2.2
movement
Work with others to create imagined situations
2.3
2.5
Responding 2.9
4.1
Making
4.2
3-4
4.4
Responding 4.9
6.1
Making
5-6
6.2
6.3
Responding 6.9
Share role play, co-operate and follow cues for moving
in and out of the space
Describe experiences of places or contexts in which
drama happens
Create roles and relationships, experimenting with
facial expression
Create dramatic action and place using body,
movement, language and voice, varying movement and
stillness
Offer, accept and negotiate situations in spontaneous
improvisation
Identify features of drama from different times and
places
Imagine and create roles and relationships, convey
character
Create mood and atmosphere through the use of
body, movement, language and voice
Offer, accept and extend situations
Identify and describe their drama in relation to
different performance styles and contexts
24
ONLINE RESOURCES HAMLET
© Bell Shakespeare 2015, unless otherwise indicated.
Contributor: Anna Kamaralli
Provided all acknowledgements are retained, this material may be used,
reproduced and communicated free of charge for non-commercial
educational purposes within Australian and overseas schools.
ENGLISH CURRICULUM (Activities 1, 2 & 3)
Year Strand
Language
Literature
1
Literacy
Codes
ACELA1452
Explore nouns, adjectives and details such as when,
where and how
ACELA1453
Explore images in narrative and informative texts
ACELT1581
Discuss how authors create characters using
language and images
ACELT1582
Discuss characters and events in a range of literary
texts
ACELT1584
Discuss features of plot, character and setting
ACELY1656
Speaking clearly and with appropriate volume;
interacting confidently and appropriately with peers,
teachers, visitors and community members
ACLEY1655
Respond to texts drawn from a range of experiences
ACELY1788
Use interaction skills
ACELY1657
Make short presentations
ACELY1660
Use comprehension strategies to build literal and
inferred meaning
ACELA1468
Understand that nouns represent people, place,
concrete objects
ACELA1470
Interpreting new terminology drawing on prior
knowledge
ACELT1589
Compare opinions about characters, events and
settings
ACELY1666
Listen for specific purposes and information
ACELY1789
Use interaction skills
ACELY1667
Rehearse and deliver short presentations
ACELA1483
Learn extended and technical vocabulary
ACELT1596
Draw connections between personal experiences and
the worlds of texts
ACELT1599
Discuss how language is used to describe settings in
texts
ACELY1676
Participate in collaborative discussions
ACELY1679
Reading aloud with fluency and intonation
ACELY1792
Use interaction skills
ACELY1677
Plan and deliver short presentations
Language
2
Literature
Literacy
Language
Literature
3
Literacy
Explanation
25
ONLINE RESOURCES HAMLET
© Bell Shakespeare 2015, unless otherwise indicated.
Contributor: Anna Kamaralli
Provided all acknowledgements are retained, this material may be used,
reproduced and communicated free of charge for non-commercial
educational purposes within Australian and overseas schools.
Language
Literature
4
Literacy
ACELA1498
Incorporate new vocabulary
ACELT1602
Comment on how different authors have established
setting and period
ACELT1603
Discuss literary experiences with others
ACELT1605
Discuss how authors make stories exciting, moving
and absorbing
ACELY1686
Identify and explain language features of texts from
previous times
ACELY1692
Use comprehension strategies to build literal and
inferred meaning
ACELY1689
Plan and deliver short presentations
ACELA1500
Understand that the pronunciation, spelling and
meanings of words have histories and change over
time
ACELA1508
Observing how descriptive details can be built up
around a noun or an adjective
ACELT1608
Identify aspects of literary texts that convey details
and information
ACELY1699
Clarify understanding of content as it unfolds
ACELY1796
Use interaction skills
ACELY1700
Plan, rehearse and deliver short presentations
ACELY1702
Reading a wide range of imaginative texts
ACELY1703
Use comprehension strategies to analyse information
ACELA1523
Understand how ideas can be expanded and
sharpened through careful choice of words
ACELT1613
Make connections between students’ own
experiences and those of characters and events
represented in texts drawn from different historical
contexts
ACELY1816
Use interaction skills, varying conventions of spoken
interactions such as voice volume, tone, pitch and
pace
ACELY1710
Plan, rehearse and deliver presentations
ACELY1709
Participate in and contribute to discussions
ACELY1713
Use comprehension strategies to interpret and
analyse information and ideas
Language
5
Literature
Literacy
Language
Literature
6
Literacy
26
ONLINE RESOURCES HAMLET
© Bell Shakespeare 2015, unless otherwise indicated.
Contributor: Anna Kamaralli
Provided all acknowledgements are retained, this material may be used,
reproduced and communicated free of charge for non-commercial
educational purposes within Australian and overseas schools.
PRE-PERFORMANCE ACTIVITY 3
“A document in madness”
MADNESS, GRIEF AND SYMBOLISM
Take a close look at Ophelia’s speech as she hands out flowers to the court:
Ophelia: There’s rosemary, that’s for remembrance; pray, love, remember: and there is pansies, that’s
for thoughts.
Laertes: A document in madness, thoughts and remembrance fitted.
Ophelia: There’s fennel for you, and columbines: there’s rue for you; and here’s some for me: we may call
it herb-grace o’ Sundays: O you must wear your rue with a difference. There’s a daisy: I would give you
some violets, but they withered all when my father died: they say he made a good end.
Ophelia is performing remembrance rituals that she, in her state of madness, has invented to serve her need
to grieve for her father, and also for the loss of her potential future life with Hamlet.
Mourning traditions often involve:
• songs
• flowers
• reciting prescribed phrases
• burning incense or offerings, or placing items in a running stream
• symbolic physical gestures, ranging from as simple as making the sign of the cross, to the complexity of
traditional dances
Create an artwork that would help Ophelia with her mourning rituals. This could be:
• a work of visual art (painting, drawing, sculpture, etc.) that incorporates the flowers she names
• a song (threnody or lament), written to an existing tune, or to one of your own invention
• a physical movement piece or dance
• or you could imagine a new religion and write out the traditions that a daughter must fulfil to
commemorate her father, including recitations and ritual activities
27
ONLINE RESOURCES HAMLET
© Bell Shakespeare 2015, unless otherwise indicated.
Contributor: Anna Kamaralli
Provided all acknowledgements are retained, this material may be used,
reproduced and communicated free of charge for non-commercial
educational purposes within Australian and overseas schools.
VISUAL ARTS CURRICULUM (Activity 3)
Year Strand
F-2
Making
Making
3-4
Making
5-6
Codes
Explanation
2.1
Recognising that drawing, painting, objects and
spaces represent and express imagination and
emotions.
Playing with combing images, shapes, patterns and
spaces.
2.2
Using a range of traditional and digital media,
materials and processes, exploring the elements of
art, craft and design in an imaginative way.
2.3
Talking about their own visual arts works describing
subject matter and ideas and naming features
Beginning to acknowledge their own intentions when
taking on the role of artist to make arts works.
2.4
Creating original art works and describing their
subject matter, ideas and the features they use.
4.1
Exploring images, objects, ideas and spaces
representing themselves and other in a variety of
situations.
4.2
Combing the qualities of media and material to
explore effects.
4.3
Making choices about the forms and techniques
used to best represent the qualities of their subject
matter.
4.5
Talking and writing about their visual art work
focusing on the details, intention and the techniques
used.
6.1
Exploring subject matter of personal and social
interest from particular viewpoints including issues,
activities and events in place, spaces, people, objects
and the imaginary world.
6.2
Using different artistic concept, for example colour,
tone, light, scale and abstract, in the interpretation of
subject matter.
6.3
Investigating a range of art-making techniques to
explore and develop skills, including traditional and
digital technologies.
6.4
Justifying and refining decision when responding to a
creative challenge.
6.5
Manipulating visual and spatial ideas for different
audiences focusing on the details, intentions and
techniques.
28
ONLINE RESOURCES HAMLET
© Bell Shakespeare 2015, unless otherwise indicated.
Contributor: Anna Kamaralli
Provided all acknowledgements are retained, this material may be used,
reproduced and communicated free of charge for non-commercial
educational purposes within Australian and overseas schools.
PRE-PERFORMANCE ACTIVITY 4
“Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to you,
trippingly on the tongue.”
INTRODUCING CUE SCRIPTS
It may be hard to believe, but when Shakespeare wrote Hamlet the actors were never given a copy of the
whole play. Every actor would only get his own lines, plus the last few words of the person speaking before – his
‘cue’. These portions written up for each character were called ‘parts’ by Shakespeare’s contemporaries, and
then later ‘cue scripts’.
Imagine not knowing who was going to speak next, or whether someone was going to try to grab you or fight
you! You would have to listen very carefully, and be ready to speak or move at any moment.
Divide the class into pairs. Distribute the cue scripts provided here (there is a choice of two scenes, Hamlet/
Gertrude or Claudius/Gertrude).
Everybody should spend some time looking at their script individually. Students should NOT discuss their part
with those taking the other role, and if they have copies of the play in class they should NOT be allowed to
look at these either. You might like to put all the Hamlets together, all the Gertrudes together, etc. to discuss
meaning and possible action, but separate study is fine, too. Students should mark in anything they notice
about what the lines are telling them to do, or which words seem important.
With no practice run, have the groups stage the scene for the rest of the class.
Afterwards, discuss how people found their tasks, and how the audience responded. For example, was is
harder to be Hamlet, with most of the talking, or Gertrude with the need to pay attention and jump in at the
right moment? Did performers remember to “suit the action to the word”? Did any strong character traits
emerge?
29
ONLINE RESOURCES HAMLET
© Bell Shakespeare 2015, unless otherwise indicated.
Contributor: Anna Kamaralli
Provided all acknowledgements are retained, this material may be used,
reproduced and communicated free of charge for non-commercial
educational purposes within Australian and overseas schools.
Hamlet Act 3 scene 4Hamlet
_ _ _ _ _ deed is this!
Hamlet:
A bloody deed! Almost as bad, good mother,
As kill a king and marry with his brother.
_____As kill a king!
Hamlet:
Ay, lady, ‘twas my word.
Thou wretched, rash, intruding fool, farewell!
I took thee for thy better: take thy fortune.
Leave wringing of your hands: peace! sit you down,
And let me wring your heart: for so I shall,
If it be made of penetrable stuff;
If damned custom have not braz’d it so
That it is proof and bulwark against sense.
_ _ _ _ _ so rude against me?
Hamlet:
Such an act
That blurs the grace and blush of modesty;
Calls virtue hypocrite; takes off the rose
From the fair forehead of an innocent love,
And sets a blister there; makes marriage-vows
As false as dicers’ oaths: O, such a deed
As from the body of contraction plucks
The very soul, and sweet religion makes
A rhapsody of words: heaven’s face doth glow;
Yea, this solidity and compound mass,
With tristful visage, as against the doom,
Is thought-sick at the act.
_ _ _ _ _ in the index?
30
ONLINE RESOURCES HAMLET
© Bell Shakespeare 2015, unless otherwise indicated.
Contributor: Anna Kamaralli
Provided all acknowledgements are retained, this material may be used,
reproduced and communicated free of charge for non-commercial
educational purposes within Australian and overseas schools.
_ _ _ _ _ in the index?
Hamlet:
Look here upon this picture, and on this,-The counterfeit presentment of two brothers.
See what a grace was seated on this brow;
Where every god did seem to set his seal,
To give the world assurance of a man;
This was your husband.--Look you now what follows:
Here is your husband, like a milldew’d ear
Blasting his wholesome brother. Have you eyes?
Eyes without feeling, feeling without sight,
Ears without hands or eyes, smelling sans all,
Or but a sickly part of one true sense
Could not so mope.
O shame! where is thy blush? Rebellious hell,
If thou canst mutiny in a matron’s bones,
To flaming youth, let virtue be as wax,
And melt in her own fire: proclaim no shame
When the compulsive ardour gives the charge,
Since frost itself as actively doth burn,
And reason panders will.
_ _ _ _ _ not leave their tinct.
Hamlet:
Nay, but to live
In the rank sweat of an enseamèd bed,
Stew’d in corruption, honeying and making love
Over the nasty sty,-_ _ _ _ _ No more, sweet Hamlet.
Hamlet:
A murderer and a villain;
A slave that is not twentieth part the tithe
Of your precedent lord; a vice of kings;
A cutpurse of the empire and the rule,
That from a shelf the precious diadem stole
And put it in his pocket!
_____ No more.
31
ONLINE RESOURCES HAMLET
© Bell Shakespeare 2015, unless otherwise indicated.
Contributor: Anna Kamaralli
Provided all acknowledgements are retained, this material may be used,
reproduced and communicated free of charge for non-commercial
educational purposes within Australian and overseas schools.
Hamlet Act 3 scene 4
Gertrude [Start]
Queen:
O, what a rash and bloody deed is this!
_____ with his brother.
Queen:
As kill a king!
_____bulwark against sense.
Queen:
What have I done, that thou dar’st wag thy tongue
In noise so rude against me?
_____sick at the act.
Queen:
Ah me, what act,
That roars so loud, and thunders in the index?
_____ reason panders will.
Queen:
O Hamlet, speak no more:
Thou turn’st mine eyes into my very soul;
And there I see such black and grained spots
As will not leave their tinct.
_____Over the nasty sty,-Queen:
O, speak to me no more;
These words like daggers enter in mine ears;
No more, sweet Hamlet.
_____ in his pocket!
Queen:
No more.
32
ONLINE RESOURCES HAMLET
© Bell Shakespeare 2015, unless otherwise indicated.
Contributor: Anna Kamaralli
Provided all acknowledgements are retained, this material may be used,
reproduced and communicated free of charge for non-commercial
educational purposes within Australian and overseas schools.
Hamlet Act 4 scene 1
Claudius [Start]
King Claudius:
There’s matter in these sighs, these profound heaves:
You must translate: ‘tis fit we understand them.
Where is your son?
_____ seen to-night!
King Claudius
What, Gertrude? How does Hamlet?
_____ good old man.
King Claudius:
O heavy deed!
It had been so with us, had we been there:
His liberty is full of threats to all;
To you yourself, to us, to every one.
Alas, how shall this bloody deed be answer’d?
It will be laid to us, whose providence
Should have kept short, restrain’d and out of haunt,
This mad young man: but so much was our love,
We would not understand what was most fit;
But, like the owner of a foul disease,
To keep it from divulging, let it feed
Even on the pith of Life. Where is he gone?
_____ what is done.
King Claudius:
O Gertrude, come away!
The sun no sooner shall the mountains touch,
But we will ship him hence: and this vile deed
We must, with all our majesty and skill,
Both countenance and excuse.
33
ONLINE RESOURCES HAMLET
© Bell Shakespeare 2015, unless otherwise indicated.
Contributor: Anna Kamaralli
Provided all acknowledgements are retained, this material may be used,
reproduced and communicated free of charge for non-commercial
educational purposes within Australian and overseas schools.
Hamlet Act 4 scene 1Gertrude
_____ is your son?
Queen Gertrude:
Ah, my good lord, what have I seen to-night!
_____ How does Hamlet?
Queen Gertrude:
Mad as the sea and wind, when both contend
Which is the mightier: in his lawless fit,
Behind the arras hearing something stir,
Whips out his rapier, cries, ‘A rat, a rat!’
And, in this brainish apprehension, kills
The unseen good old man.
_____ is he gone?
Queen Gertrude:
To draw apart the body he hath kill’d:
O’er whom his very madness, like some ore
Among a mineral of metals base,
Shows itself pure; he weeps for what is done.
34
ONLINE RESOURCES HAMLET
© Bell Shakespeare 2015, unless otherwise indicated.
Contributor: Anna Kamaralli
Provided all acknowledgements are retained, this material may be used,
reproduced and communicated free of charge for non-commercial
educational purposes within Australian and overseas schools.
DRAMA CURRICULUM (Activity 4)
Year Strand
Making
1
Responding
Making
Codes
2.2
Explore feelings, ideas, facial expressions, gesture
and movement
2.3
Work with others to create imagined situations
2.5
Share role play, co-operate and follow cues for moving
in and out of the space
2.9
Describe experiences of places or contexts in which
drama happens
4.1
Create roles and relationships, experimenting with
facial expression
4.2
Create dramatic action and place using body,
movement, language and voice, varying movement and
stillness
4.4
Offer, accept and negotiate situations in spontaneous
improvisation
4.9
Identify features of drama from different times and
places
6.1
Imagine and create roles and relationships, convey
character
6.2
Create mood and atmosphere through the use of
body, movement, language and voice
6.3
Offer, accept and extend situations
6.9
Identify and describe their drama in relation to
different performance styles and contexts
3-4
Responding
Making
5-6
Responding
Explanation
35
ONLINE RESOURCES HAMLET
© Bell Shakespeare 2015, unless otherwise indicated.
Contributor: Anna Kamaralli
Provided all acknowledgements are retained, this material may be used,
reproduced and communicated free of charge for non-commercial
educational purposes within Australian and overseas schools.
POST-PERFORMANCE ACTIVITY 1
“I’ll mark the play”
RESPONDING TO A PERFORMANCE
Hamlet is many kinds of play at once: a revenge-driven action drama, a psychological family drama, a political
drama, and at times a black comedy.
Now that you have seen the Bell Shakespeare performance, see if you can identify which elements of the
production supported which aspects of the text. Consider not only the performers but the set and costume
design, the sound, the lighting and so on. Try to respond to what you saw, not what you expected to see.
Give your impressions of the performance according to the following breakdown. Write one or two paragraphs
on each.
The action thriller:
• What were the moments of greatest tension? How was that tension created and supported?
• When violent incidents occurred, how were they staged?
• Where did the pacing vary in line delivery or physical activity?
The family intrigue:
• What did costume tell you about the people being represented?
• Which characters had personality traits you could identify clearly? How were these made manifest?
• When two characters had affection for each other, how was it shown?
• When there was conflict, how was it represented? What was the physical interaction between the
actors?
• When were the times you believed in the emotion a character was experiencing? What made this
convincing?
The political drama:
• What indicators did you pick up from looking at the stage about what kind of world Elsinore is?
• How did you know whether we are supposed to have a positive or negative response to a character?
• How far were you aware of activity outside the royal court of Elsinore?
• What was the moment of greatest impact? What kind of effect did it have on you? What staging
elements elicited this response?
36
ONLINE RESOURCES HAMLET
© Bell Shakespeare 2015, unless otherwise indicated.
Contributor: Anna Kamaralli
Provided all acknowledgements are retained, this material may be used,
reproduced and communicated free of charge for non-commercial
educational purposes within Australian and overseas schools.
POST-PERFORMANCE ACTIVITY 2
“I know not ‘seems’”
TEXTUAL ANALYSIS AND METATHEATRE
Hamlet as a play is concerned with the elements that make up a piece of theatre. The play constantly refers
back to its status as a play, and to its actors as actors. This is a technique known as ‘metatheatre’. This motif
helps to expose the play’s interest in deception, masks and the performance of identity. This idea comes up
over and over again in Shakespeare, and may relate to career as an actor with the King’s Men, alongside his
playwriting.
The following passage is one of the many instances in Hamlet that are metatheatrical. Hamlet is explaining to
Gertrude and Claudius that he does not ‘seem’ to be mourning his father’s death, but that this is how he truly
feels:
Seems, madam! nay it is; I know not ‘seems.’
’Tis not alone my inky cloak, good mother,
Nor customary suits of solemn black,
Nor windy suspiration of forced breath,
No, nor the fruitful river in the eye,
Nor the dejected ’haviour of the visage,
Together with all forms, moods, shapes of grief,
That can denote me truly: these indeed seem,
For they are actions that a man might play:
But I have that within which passeth show;
These but the trappings and the suits of woe. (Act 1, Scene 2, Lines 76-86)
Students should take the time to read the passage above, then complete the tasks below, referring back to
the text:
1. Look up any unfamiliar words so you are confident of their meaning.
2. What does Hamlet mean when he says ‘seems’?
3. Highlight the final word of each line, then read over them. What do these words suggest will be the
important themes of the play?
4. What elements of theatre does Hamlet allude to in his speech?
5. From this speech, how do you suppose early modern actors performed grief?
6. What is the conflict between perceived and real emotion in this passage?
7. Go through the play and note every point where someone is ‘seeming’. Compare your list with the rest of
the class. How many different kinds of seeming did you identify?
37
ONLINE RESOURCES HAMLET
© Bell Shakespeare 2015, unless otherwise indicated.
Contributor: Anna Kamaralli
Provided all acknowledgements are retained, this material may be used,
reproduced and communicated free of charge for non-commercial
educational purposes within Australian and overseas schools.
POST-PERFORMANCE ACTIVITY 3
“The courtier’s soldier’s scholar’s eye, tongue, sword”
TEXT, CONTEXT, COUNTERTEXT
The TEXT is the words of the play.
The CONTEXT is research around the play that relates to either when it is set or when it was written.
For example, the generic tradition of ‘revenge tragedy’, the history of Amleth, the different Catholic and
Protestant rules about mourning a dead family member, or the practices of travelling troupes of players.
COUNTERTEXT refers to items you find to enrich or inspire your vision of what the play should be like in
performance. Pictures, scraps of fabric, music, colours - anything that connects your imagination to the text,
or helps you explain how you see the play.
Look at Act 3 Scene 1 Lines 89 - 131, conventionally known as the ‘nunnery’ scene.
TEXT: In pairs read through the scene. Then together • Look up any archaic or unfamiliar words.
• Mark with a / whenever there is a change in thought or a new idea.
• Circle any instances of figurative language. Underline any words with multiple meanings.
• Argue about what is upsetting Hamlet and how far his behaviour is justified.
CONTEXT: In Ophelia’s short soliloquy at the end of the scene she laments that she has seen the breakdown
of an ideal Renaissance prince. Hamlet has spent much of the scene attacking Ophelia for failures of virtue he
perceives in her, as representative of all women.
Research the abilities and qualities that an admirable nobleman was supposed to possess. OR
Research what virtues were prized in women in the Elizabethan period.
COUNTERTEXT: Create a mood board that indicates the costumes you think Hamlet and Ophelia should be
wearing for this scene. You can do a costume design if you like, but you can also simply use items that give the
right feel for how they would look at this point. Consider colour, texture, drape, ability to move, temperature,
and also period, if you have a strong feeling about a particular time setting for the play. Present using a
Pinterest board, or using software tools like Powerpoint, Photoshop or Illustrator, or you can do a hardcopy
version with a folder, ring binder or board.
38
ONLINE RESOURCES HAMLET
© Bell Shakespeare 2015, unless otherwise indicated.
Contributor: Anna Kamaralli
Provided all acknowledgements are retained, this material may be used,
reproduced and communicated free of charge for non-commercial
educational purposes within Australian and overseas schools.
ENGLISH NATIONAL CURRICULUM (Activities 1, 2 & 3)
Year
Strand
Codes
Explanation
ACELA1452
Explore nouns, adjectives and details such as
when, where and how
ACELA1453
Explore images in narrative and informative
texts
ACELT1581
Discuss how authors create characters using
language and images
ACELT1582
Discuss characters and events in a range of
literary texts
ACELT1584
Discuss features of plot, character and setting
ACELY1656
Speaking clearly and with appropriate volume;
interacting confidently and appropriately
with peers, teachers, visitors and community
members
ACLEY1655
Respond to texts drawn from a range of
experiences
ACELY1788
Use interaction skills
ACELY1657
Make short presentations
ACELY1660
Use comprehension strategies to build literal
and inferred meaning
ACELA1468
Understand that nouns represent people,
place, concrete objects
ACELA1470
Interpreting new terminology drawing on prior
knowledge
ACELT1589
Compare opinions about characters, events
and settings
ACELY1666
Listen for specific purposes and information
ACELY1789
Use interaction skills
ACELY1667
Rehearse and deliver short presentations
ACELA1483
Learn extended and technical vocabulary
ACELT1596
Draw connections between personal
experiences and the worlds of texts
ACELT1599
Discuss how language is used to describe
settings in texts
ACELY1676
Participate in collaborative discussions
ACELY1679
Reading aloud with fluency and intonation
ACELY1792
Use interaction skills
ACELY1677
Plan and deliver short presentations
Language
Literature
1
Literacy
Language
2
Literature
Literacy
Language
Literature
3
Literacy
39
ONLINE RESOURCES HAMLET
© Bell Shakespeare 2015, unless otherwise indicated.
Contributor: Anna Kamaralli
Provided all acknowledgements are retained, this material may be used,
reproduced and communicated free of charge for non-commercial
educational purposes within Australian and overseas schools.
Language
Literature
4
Literacy
ACELA1498
Incorporate new vocabulary
ACELT1602
Comment on how different authors have
established setting and period
ACELT1603
Discuss literary experiences with others
ACELT1605
Discuss how authors make stories exciting,
moving and absorbing
ACELY1686
Identify and explain language features of texts
from previous times
ACELY1692
Use comprehension strategies to build literal
and inferred meaning
ACELY1689
Plan and deliver short presentations
ACELA1500
Understand that the pronunciation, spelling
and meanings of words have histories and
change over time
ACELA1508
Observing how descriptive details can be built
up around a noun or an adjective
ACELT1608
Identify aspects of literary texts that convey
details and information
ACELY1699
Clarify understanding of content as it unfolds
ACELY1796
Use interaction skills
ACELY1700
Plan, rehearse and deliver short presentations
ACELY1702
Reading a wide range of imaginative texts
ACELY1703
Use comprehension strategies to analyse
information
ACELA1523
Understand how ideas can be expanded and
sharpened through careful choice of words
ACELT1613
Make connections between students’ own
experiences and those of characters and
events represented in texts drawn from
different historical contexts
ACELY1816
Use interaction skills, varying conventions
of spoken interactions such as voice volume,
tone, pitch and pace
ACELY1710
Plan, rehearse and deliver presentations
ACELY1709
Participate in and contribute to discussions
ACELY1713
Use comprehension strategies to interpret
and analyse information and ideas
Language
5
Literature
Literacy
Language
Literature
6
Literacy
40
ONLINE RESOURCES HAMLET
© Bell Shakespeare 2015, unless otherwise indicated.
Contributor: Anna Kamaralli
Provided all acknowledgements are retained, this material may be used,
reproduced and communicated free of charge for non-commercial
educational purposes within Australian and overseas schools.
POST-PERFORMANCE ACTIVITY 4
“These are actions that a man might play”
INVESTIGATING THE NATURE OF THE SOLILOQUY
A soliloquy is a solo speech addressed to no one but the speaker and/or the audience.
Performing a soliloquy requires making some very specific and tricky decisions.
Hamlet is anchored by a series of soliloquies from its protagonist, each of which has become enormously
famous. Few plays give a character this much opportunity to connect directly with the audience, or work
through their private thoughts in so much detail.
Choose one of the following speeches:
O that this too, too solid flesh would melt... (Act 1, Scene 2)
O what a rogue and peasant slave am I... (Act 2, Scene 2) [this is the longest]
To be or not to be... (Act 3, Scene 1)
’Tis now the very witching time of night... (Act 3, Scene 2) [this one is the shortest]
Now might I do it pat, now he is praying (Act 3, Scene 3)
How all occasions to inform against me... (Act 4, Scene 3)
For your chosen speech, write down:
• What is the character’s situation at the specific point of this speech? Where is he, who has he been
speaking to? Has any event of note just happened? Where does he go next?
• What is the central argument of the speech? Every soliloquy is a debate at some level. What questions is
Hamlet thinking through? What differing options does he present?
• Mark in with a line / whenever you can identify a new thought or change of idea.
Lift out 8–12 lines to present as a performance piece in class:
• Choose your extract because you have identified those lines as making a point about the human
condition that you find compelling.
• Articulate this point in your own words.
• Say the speech while walking, and change direction at every point you marked /
• Pretend you are arguing with yourself or the audience. Try to persuade your opponent to agree with
your point.
• Don’t be afraid to try it out in many different ways, but you must do it out loud. Soliloquies need to be
spoken.
41
ONLINE RESOURCES HAMLET
© Bell Shakespeare 2015, unless otherwise indicated.
Contributor: Anna Kamaralli
Provided all acknowledgements are retained, this material may be used,
reproduced and communicated free of charge for non-commercial
educational purposes within Australian and overseas schools.
DRAMA CURRICULUM (Activity 4)
Year Strand
Making
1
Responding
Making
Codes Explanation
2.2
Explore feelings, ideas, facial expressions, gesture
and movement
2.3
Work with others to create imagined situations
2.5
Share role play, co-operate and follow cues for moving
in and out of the space
2.9
Describe experiences of places or contexts in which
drama happens
4.1
Create roles and relationships, experimenting with
facial expression
4.2
Create dramatic action and place using body,
movement, language and voice, varying movement and
stillness
4.4
Offer, accept and negotiate situations in spontaneous
improvisation
4.9
Identify features of drama from different times and
places
6.1
Imagine and create roles and relationships, convey
character
6.2
Create mood and atmosphere through the use of
body, movement, language and voice
6.3
Offer, accept and extend situations
6.9
Identify and describe their drama in relation to
different performance styles and contexts
3-4
Responding
Making
5-6
Responding
42
ONLINE RESOURCES HAMLET
© Bell Shakespeare 2015, unless otherwise indicated.
Contributor: Anna Kamaralli
Provided all acknowledgements are retained, this material may be used,
reproduced and communicated free of charge for non-commercial
educational purposes within Australian and overseas schools.
FURTHER RESOURCES
The best version of Hamlet for school students to use is the Cambridge School edition:
Andrews, Richard. (Ed.), Cambridge School Shakespeare Hamlet (2009, Cambridge University Press)
However, the Oxford, RSC and Arden are also excellent. If you wish to look closely at the differences between
the Quartos and the Folio version, the Arden is best, but its commentary is very dense. The RSC edition is
clearly laid out for acting.
Books with good exercises for teachers to use to introduce Shakespeare:
Bayley, P., An A-B-C Of Shakespeare (1985, Longman Group)
Gibson, Rex, Stepping Into Shakespeare (2000, Cambridge University Press)
Gibson, Rex, Discovering Shakespeare’s Language (1998, Cambridge University Press)
Winston, Joe and Miles Tandy, Beginning Shakespeare (2012, Routledge)
Books with enriching information about Hamlet:
Croall, Jonathan, Hamlet Observed: the National Theatre at Work (2001, NT Publications)
Greenblatt, Stephen, Will in the World (2005, Pimlico)
Pennington, Michael. Hamlet, A User’s Guide (1996, Nick Hern Books)
Rosenberg, Marvin, The Masks of Hamlet (1992, Associated University Presses)
Shapiro, James, 1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare (2005, Faber & Faber)
The Players of Shakespeare series (1988 - 2003, Cambridge) includes the following actors discussing their
work on specific roles:
1 Michael Pennington on Hamlet, Tony Church on Polonius
2 Frances Barber on Ophelia
3 Philip Franks on Hamlet
5 Simon Russell Beale on Hamlet
General information:
Crystal, David & Ben Crystal, Shakespeare’s Words: A Glossary & Language Companion, (2002, Penguin
Books)
Dunton-Downer, Leslie & Alan Riding, Essential Shakespeare Handbook (2013, Dorling Kindersley)
Fantasia, Louis, Instant Shakespeare (2002, Ivan R. Dee)
Wells, Stanley, Is It True What They Say About Shakespeare? (2007, Long Barn Books)
43
ONLINE RESOURCES HAMLET
© Bell Shakespeare 2015, unless otherwise indicated.
Contributor: Anna Kamaralli
Provided all acknowledgements are retained, this material may be used,
reproduced and communicated free of charge for non-commercial
educational purposes within Australian and overseas schools.
Some websites (besides ours!) with great resources:
A full online version of the text (useful for search and cut/paste functions):
http://shakespeare.mit.edu/hamlet/full.html
Shakespeare’s Globe in London, which has a very comprehensive Education section:
http://www.shakespearesglobe.com/education/teachers/teaching-resources
The Royal Shakespeare Company, which has plot summaries and records of previous productions:
http://www.rsc.org.uk/education/
The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, which has some fun blogs and other bits and pieces:
http://www.shakespeare.org.uk/explore-shakespeare/students-and-enthusiasts.html
Shakespeare Online is a commercial site, but the information is reliable:
http://www.shakespeare-online.com
The Touchstone database is very UK-focused, but has some amazing images from a huge number of
productions of all Shakespeare’s plays:
http://www.touchstone.bham.ac.uk
Production related links:
Films of Hamlet are listed in the Background to the Play section of this pack.
Shakespeare Unbound is a video series made up of 12 scenes from six of Shakespeare’s most famous plays,
including Hamlet, paired with 12 commentaries from the director and cast that unpack the meaning of the
work in a way that is relevant for Australian students.
http://splash.abc.net.au/digibook/-/c/1403896/5
Next is a five minute animation showing the complete works of Shakespeare:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGUYenMRkcI
One of the episodes of the BBC’s Shakespeare Uncovered series
features David Tennant discussing playing Hamlet:
http://www.pbslearningmedia.org/collection/shakespeare-uncovered/
Slings and Arrows theme, “Cheer Up Hamlet”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvmMt_xG1tI
44
ONLINE RESOURCES HAMLET
© Bell Shakespeare 2015, unless otherwise indicated.
Contributor: Anna Kamaralli
Provided all acknowledgements are retained, this material may be used,
reproduced and communicated free of charge for non-commercial
educational purposes within Australian and overseas schools.
45
ONLINE RESOURCES HAMLET
© Bell Shakespeare 2015, unless otherwise indicated.
Contributor: Anna Kamaralli
Provided all acknowledgements are retained, this material may be used,
reproduced and communicated free of charge for non-commercial
educational purposes within Australian and overseas schools.