LESSON THREE. 26|09|12. - ‘Hamlet’

We started off talking about how in the GCSE classes we’ve been helping out in have been looking at Hamlet by Shakespeare and how Hamlet has to make a choice between living of the thought of his uncle murdering his father, and then avenging his father and killing his uncle. But there were lots of other factors such as Ophelia, his mother, his mental state (seeing spirits etc). 

We had to create a piece of movement that showed a Hamlet, and all the contributing factors as we moved from one end of the room to the other. A ‘gobo’ of a window projected onto the wall, and on one side there was was a lighter lit side to show him not killing his uncle, and the on the other red lit side to show his more demonic thoughts. We were told to move round one after the other, we always had to have some sort of contact when we reached our next froze position and we had to include two lifts. We all took on a character anonymously accept for Hamlet, who was Jake. I decided to be the mother. So I was scared as I loved the uncle (Matt) and I didn’t want him to be harmed. We did all of this at a medium pace and was all silence with music in the background. Then, we were told to recreate it at a quick pace, keeping all the same rules, contact and one after another. I will attach a video of a run through of this piece. Here are some pictures  some of the freeze frames. 

Here, I am pushing Jake (Hamlet) away from Matt (Uncle). Chris and Emily demonstrating one of the lifts and Kelly and Ciara being spirits that are telling Hamlet to go through with it. 

I really like Matt’s face on the one above, because it shows how as Hamlet is getting close to the red lit side, the uncle is becoming more afraid. I also like Kelly’s because it’s so focused and the position shows the fluidity of the performance.

 

I love the shadows on the wall and this they create a good effort. This was the second lift, and I think we incorporated it really well by the way Hamlet is finally avenging his father by ‘overcoming’ his uncle. The way I’m forward facing the uncle shows how I was more on the uncles side than Hamlets.