Though this be madness, yet there is method in't

Act V plays out in around thirty two minutes (if you exclude the well-deserved applause at the end of the production). The music announcing the infamous gravediggers scene has a Calypso feel which sets an appropriately lighthearted, joyful even, and certainly irreverent tone - reinforced by the Gravedigger's ad lib of 'ya bastard' directed towards Yorick's skull. Hamlet's more measured response in contrast demonstrates his fascination with the physical processes of death and beyond. Ophelia's body, wrapped in a shroud, is carried in by Laertes. He lays her down tenderly by the grave and weeps over her form - echoing Ophelia's own lament for her father in the previous act. To the evident distress of all around, Laertes leaps right down into the grave as though he cannot bear to be physically separated from her. His action provokes what turns into an unseemly graveside brawl with Hamlet. Claudius hatches his plan for Hamlet's end with Laertes after...

Ophelia makes Polonius 'present' in the absence of a body This is the shortest act of the production at just 28 minutes, but is full of pace and action. The stage is filled with ever-changing movement. Increasingly sinister and ominous music between scenes contributes to the building sense of threat, and the movement to different locations seems almost seamless; as though we are running through the castle with the characters. There are instructions, letters, machinations, plotting. Hamlet's arrest by a guard is very physical: he is thrown to the floor in a half-nelson submission hold. His insolent foot tapping and movement, and loose-limbed rebellious mocking of Claudius get the audience on side and there is much laughter - but his reactions seem those of a man who has run out of options and has nothing left to lose. Everything about Essiedu's appearance and manner is subversive; down to his shabby clothing and turned-up trousers - in such contrast to the costume...

One of the unexpected benefits of lockdown has been the proliferation of free-to-air theatrical performances. The RSC's 2016 production with Paapa Essiedu as Hamlet has been shown on BBC iPlayer as part of their Culture in Quarantine access, and now forms part of our study. Act One runs for 41 minutes. The glimpse of Wittenberg student life emphasises the kind of world that Hamlet has 'lost', in addition to the loss of his father, as he arrives home. It also reminds the audience of his youth, and the celebratory moment of having a diploma conferred contrasts effectively with the grief later in Act One; the snapshot effect is also a signifier of change: a moment lost forever. Beyond this, the production has been described as the ' most traditional of interpretations '. For the first 'ghost' scene (though no ghost appears), the low, blue-black lighting means the actors are almost imperceptible at times - certainly difficult to pick out in the stage gloo...

Today we reach our dramatic, and tragic conclusion. The final scene begins with Hamlet explaining to Horatio how he has altered the letter from Claudius condemning him to death - and substituting the names Rosencrantz and Guildenstern instead. They are interrupted by Osric, a courtier, who issues the challenge for a duel with Laertes - in order to settle a bet for the king. It probably didn't look like this. Moments later, after Hamlet issues an apology to Laertes, explaining that he acted in madness and without 'purpos'd evil' (V.ii.237), the duel begins. It can be seen as another example of a play within a play, a performance staged for a court audience as well as the theatrical one. Laertes selecting the poisoned foil and Claudius preparing the poisoned drink with a deadly jewel, 'Hamlet, this pearl is thine' (V.ii.284) as planned. Hamlet, unaware of the plot against him, wins the first points - and Gertrude drinks to his health from the poiso...

Here we are in the final act of Hamlet , and one of the most iconic scenes of the play - the bit with the skull! Clue: Not Hamlet. Two gravediggers are going about their business of digging a grave (that we immediately find out will be the final resting place of Ophelia) and making a few lighthearted observations as they do so. Though the graveyard setting foreshadows the tragedy that is about to beset Hamlet and the court, there is now a moment's pause in the chaotic hurtling towards a bitter end. It's probably worth a few words on 'comic relief' in Shakespearean tragedy. The stage direction gives us 'Enter two clowns'. Although 'clowns' in Shakespeare's time would have referred to simple country folk (in this instance two manual workers doing their job, not connected with the court),something of the modern meaning is inherent in their comic purpose at this moment in the drama. Somehow they achieve comedic banter from the burial of the dea...

The final scene of Act IV sees  Claudius and Laertes concoct a murderous double-poisoning plot against Hamlet, and the Queen brings news of Ophelia's death. Before the scene begins it seems that the King has been telling Laertes his version of Polonius' death, along with his belief that he, Claudius, was his next target. Claudius gives a couple of reasons for not already having taken more extreme measures against Hamlet: firstly to please Gertrude, and then through a second reference to Hamlet's popularity with the people, the 'great love the general gender bear him' (IV.vii.18). But there is emphasis on action, and that action springs from Laertes, 'my revenge will come' (IV.vii.29); 'devise it so/That I might be the organ (IV.vii.68-69) from Laertes, and Claudius, in the business of egging him on, 'That we would do/We should do when we would' (IV.vii.117-118). Unlike Hamlet of course, who didn't avenge his father's death by k...

Continuing the frenzied pace of this act, we meet the Queen and Horatio with a 'Gentleman' in mid conversation about Ophelia's grief-stricken state of mind and 'distract' behaviour. (Hamlet himself doesn't appear in the next three scenes.) Gertrude determines 'I will not speak with her' (IV.v.1) but is persuaded to 'Let her come in' (IV.iv.16) just fifteen lines later - after the indirect threat to Hamlet that Ophelia 'may strew/Dangerous conjectures in ill-breeding minds' (IV.v.14-15). There is evidently sufficient sense in the things that Ophelia says to cause trouble for the King. (It is worth remembering that the the handling of Polonius' death is causing political tensions and adding to the civil unrest.) Ophelia enacts being mad with grief, and matches the description that she 'Speaks much of her father' (IV.v.4), but does so mostly through song. She leaves just prior to the arrival of a livid Laertes, so...

Schools closed on Friday afternoon due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Our task of remote education now begins in earnest. We study one of the world’s most famous plays - when theatres around the world have been shut down to prevent the spread of the virus. We live in extraordinary times. Like Horatio at the appearance of Hamlet’s ghost during the opening scene of the drama, ‘it harrows me with fear and wonder’ (I.i.47). It is perhaps inevitable then, as I re-read the text, that images to do with infection surface and resonate more powerfully than they have ever done before; while we collectively experience ‘some strange eruption to our state’ (I.i.72). Even Hamlet’s ‘windy suspiration of forc’d breath’ (I.ii.79)  in his opening exchange with the queen now seems to rattle as an early symptom of coronavirus rather than the more usual interpretation as a criticism of the appearance of grief. And don't get me started on Laertes counselling of Ophelia, that ‘in the morn...