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[theofficialpresidentofmars]

“Gertrude was a woman living in the Middle Ages who had to be careful with her decisions and the politics associated with them and even if she did truly love Claudius and marry him for love she shouldn’t be branded an awful whore considering how little autonomy she had” and “Even though her actions were more nuanced than simply being a lustful woman her invalidation of her own son’s emotions was very much a part of his downfall and Hamlet should not be seen as whiny or overly dramatic for being emotionally neglected by his own mother” are two ideas that can very much coexist

[theofficialpresidentofmars]

“you make my heart beat in iambic pentameter.”

no you don’t understand shakespeare literally writes to the beat of your heart

that’s why shakespearean actors will sometimes pound their chests in time to the words during readings

that’s why you use fluctuations in the rhythm to track your character’s emotional state - any irregularities in the scansion are like the character’s heart stuttering or jumping or skipping a beat

that’s why when characters share the rhythm - switching off in the middle of a foot - those characters inevitably have an extraordinarily intimate connection

shakespeare fucking writes viscerally, he is literally in your body, and that, my friend, that is why the best shakespearean actors don’t posture and emote

you have to be fucking alive and passionate and electric - it can’t be intellectual, in the end, it has to be about connection and the sweating, cheering, jeering, bleeding masses you’re performing to, because make no mistake, shakespeare may go to lofty heights, but he only works if you’re just as grounded in the earth. he has to be in your body. he has to be in your body.

holy motherfucking shit i love shakespeare so much, get him in your bones, breathe him in, stomp and rage and pine, dadum dadum dadum dadum dadum, it is literally to the beat of your heart

[theofficialpresidentofmars]

Cowboy western version of Hamlet by Baz Luhrmann when???

[theofficialpresidentofmars]

people who act like shipping unhealthy pairings makes you a bad person is so funny to me as someone whose main special interest is shakespeare’s hamlet. sorry good sir no healthy relationships to be found here. can I interest you in some tragically doomed queers who understand each other the most but also can never truly but hang onto each other like drowning rats instead

[theofficialpresidentofmars]

what if hamlet characters had twitter and also there wasn’t any tragedy part 5: gertrude emerges

first/past/next

[theofficialpresidentofmars]

[theofficialpresidentofmars]

i do think claudius is a much more interesting character than we give him credit for because he’s so close to being repentant. at the beginning of the play he’s talking about how sharply polonius’ comments lash his conscience. at the very beginning! this is an aside! to us! it is not for anyone but the audience to hear! then after hamlet’s play his reaction is anger, horror. because he’s almost caught. almost caught because somehow hamlet’s plot works, somehow claudius feels so guilty that even seeing the play makes him sick to his stomach. but what is crazy about this is that his line of thinking is, maybe I should get caught. he almost tells the truth. how do we not talk more about claudius’ prayer?? he’s desperate! he doesn’t know if he can be forgiven! if there’s enough snow in the heavens to wash him clear! he’s tormented! but what can he do now? he’s the king and he’s married and he’s gone so far and how can he change now? is he too far gone? would he have to give up the very things for which he murdered his own brother? the question is too hard and too unpleasant and so he does the easy thing and gives up. and he goes and tries to kill hamlet twice and his wife drinks poison in front of him and he says nothing. he’s made his choice. but for a moment the play almost changes

[theofficialpresidentofmars]

what if hamlet characters had twitter and also there wasn’t any tragedy part 8: this is not how succession works in any country i am lying

first/past/next

[theofficialpresidentofmars]

what if hamlet characters had twitter and also there wasn’t any tragedy part 7: the intern

first/past/next

[theofficialpresidentofmars]

hamlet cannot cook btw. hes rich when did he learn. anyways

[theofficialpresidentofmars]

toying around with a swap au version of Hamlet. haven't really worked out the details, but imagining it'd be a Hamlet-Ophelia centric swap of parts: Ophelia (and Laertes is probably in on it to) tearing her life apart in her quest to revenge her dead parent with Hamlet as the cast aside lover, heartbroken and trying to seek out the truth in her love.

When Hamlet's father is killed, he spirals much faster, for two main reasons.

one: this time he knows that it was murder from the moment he finds out, and

two: not only was his father murdered and his corpse desecrated, but the one responsible was none other than the one he thought he loved.

Needless to say, it's no surprise when Horatio finds him on the roof.

Hamlet pales and trembles in the cold, wild eyes fixed on seeming vacancy: the prince's hair seems to stand on its very ends. He's ill-dressed for the conditions, and he looks ghastly, to say the least.

Horatio's heart could weep at the sight of him. He'd seemingly gone mad ever since the death of his father, and Horatio was finding it harder and harder to place his friend by the day. His appearance disheveled, his mirth dissipated, his discussions once scholarly and philosophical in nature now distracted ramblings with a morbid tendency to fixate on death. Lord knows where he'd found an actual skull from, and why he'd decided to bring it into the castle, all covered in muck and mud like a buried thing.

Now the rain and wind whip around his face and clothing, thin, white, and practically transparent in its wetness. Hamlet had startled at Horatio's arrival, but now he points. He points at the empty air in front of him.

He sees a ghost, he says. He sees his father, he says.

Horatio tries to convince him that it's only in his mind's eye, but his friend is too far gone. There's a wild desperation in his eyes, matched only by a sadness that seems to stretch into some neverending abyss.

Horatio has a bad feeling about this.

Hamlet begins to move, saying the ghost beckons him to follow, it won't talk to him in the presence of others. Horatio tells him that's it's a bad idea, and that he may find himself led somewhere dangerous, and he should really come back with him inside.

The prince doesn't listen, and begins to run, across the castle roof, towards some figment of the imagination, away from Horatio.

He's nearing an edge when Horatio catches him, tackling him to the ground. The two scuffle as Horatio pleads, begs him not to go. The wind is loud and the rain stings, and the fight continues until Horatio suddenly finds his throat on the other end of a blade; the prince has drawn his sword upon him.

He'll make a ghost of anyone that lets him, he threatens.

And Horatio's never seen this look in his friend's eyes, a pure, unfiltered hatred directed towards him, he's never been on the other end of his anger. He's frozen in complete shock, and Hamlet seizes the opportunity, turning and sprinting.

The prince chases the ghost, and follows it off the edge.

By the time Horatio sits up, all that lies before him is the night, the rain, and the empty castle roof. Only a thin railing separates him from a lethal drop, and if he wanted to, he could be over it in mere seconds. He can't move, he can barely think, and somehow he can't even bring himself to feel anything at all. It's not real to him, not yet. All he can think about is how he'll be the one to relay the news.

What does he do now?

What does he tell them?

The Prince of Denmark has fallen from great height, following his father's ghost into an early grave.

[theofficialpresidentofmars]

been thinking about a less serious totally campy 2000-2010s teen movie adaptation of Hamlet in my spare time (female lead Hamlet and not word-for-word... bite me) after listening to Nirvana's Nevermind on repeat and it was all coming together up until Act 3 Scene 2: The Mousetrap.

Now this one's an interesting one, as seeing as there aren't many travelling actor troupes around these days, often modern takes tend to modernise this performance, with Ethan Hawke's Hamlet utilising the art of indie film and perhaps my all-time favourite take on it, Ryan North's To Be Or Not To Be A Choosable Adventure Book that has Claudius play a Choose Your Own Adventure book within the Choose Your Own Adventure book (spoiler alert- he chooses the kill-your-brother path). In this way I am a fan of when the play-within-a-play is changed to suit the medium of adaptation, but I wasn't really feeling a movie for the characterisation vibes I was going for.

Until I had possibly the greatest idea ever. While travelling theatre troupes that perform edited renditions of well known plays just out and about are less common, there's another and often more mobile theatre form, close to my heart, that could be utilised to fit this scene well: comedy improv.

Hamlet, hearing word her old theatre group is back in town, inviting her mother and uncle along to an improv night, with a secret plan to reveal her uncle's guilt through the art of theatresports.

It'll probably go either one of two ways: she pulls aside her old teammate, asks for a favour- she knows that it's improv, and the whole point is that it's Not planned ahead, but if just this once she could get a certain scene to play out in front of her parents. and while reluctant, they agree, and on the night, announce a game of New Choice, asking Hamlet to be their caller.

It goes a little something like this:

'I shall now pour the deadly poison down his throat-'

'New Choice!'

'Into his eyes-'

'New Choice!'

'Into his ears!'

'Wow, that's crazy. Poisoned by his own brother. Would be a real shame if he were to go and marry his wife now, wouldn't it be, Claudius?'

Alternatively, instead of asking to rig a game (which is a cardinal sin anyway), Hamlet asks if she can join them for a special round, like old times. She offers to write for a game of Typewriter. Her teammate agrees, then jokingly implies that she's grown rusty, asking if she remembers the most important rule of improv. Rolling her eyes, of course she remembers to yes-and, she says.

She does not yes-and.

She flat out refuses the first two offers from the audience on the ask of 'interesting relationship between two people' until her plant Horatio eventually pipes up with 'wife and brother-in-law', she prefaces her scene with a lengthy disclaimer that it may cover some morbid topics but they shouldn't bother anyone (unless they have something to hide), and proceeds to run the scene with an iron fist, shutting down any offers that don't suit her purpose. Her teammate is making plans to chew her out afterwards when she shuts down their fifth offer to do ANYTHING but keep talking about how great a wife they are and how much they're not going to cheat etc etc. Eventually they get somewhere, and someone's getting poisoned, but then a bell rings and they get the '30 seconds, wrap it up' (about time, the pacing's gone to shit). but instead of wrapping it up in any manner that might salvage the scene, Hamlet takes it as an invitation to suddenly start typing quicker than normal, like she HAS to get all these words out before her time is up, and is ignoring everyone to go on this tangent about the king's death and how the brother takes the throne and she's just started to talk about how he marries the late king's wife (bit weird innit) when her uncle stands up and storms out of the room.

Anyway it would just be fun, methinks.

[theofficialpresidentofmars]

alright this is my contribution to the hamlet fandom

[theofficialpresidentofmars]

[theofficialpresidentofmars]

Hamlet (1996)

Director: Kenneth Branagh

Cinematographer: Alex Thomson

[theofficialpresidentofmars]

no because listen. one of the major themes of hamlet is that the characters have to do the opposite of what they think will complete them, what could tie them to survival. horatio is convinced he can do anything as long as he isn’t alone (he ends the play pulled from the body of the one he loves most. he is not allowed to follow.) ophelia could do anything as long as she’s loved (she looks into hamlet’s cold face and knows the truth. unwanted and unworthy daughter. scream so they can’t make you shut your mouth.) hamlet could do anything if he could just figure out how to be okay on his own (he refuses to hold on to horatio in life, so he clings to him in dying and death. you tried to fight loneliness with chosen isolation. you created the poison and refused to drink the antidote. you were meant for laughter, but not like this.)

[theofficialpresidentofmars]