HAMLET
BY
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
(in rehearsal)
by
donald freed
© November, 2007 by
Donald Freed. Literary Representation:
PATRICIA RAE, email:
PATTYRAEF1@AOL.COM
This Hamlet project
is dedicated to the inspiring and inspired Artistic Director of York Theatre
Royal, Damian Cruden. And to the entire Company at York, beginning with Carol
Morrill, who made my Playwright-in-Residency in their great theatre such an
adventure and joy.
And to Nick Rusling,
Professor Mary Luckhurst, Edward Pearce and Alistair Stead, scholars and
friends for their rare generosity and enthusiasm.
Donald Freed
Harrogate, England
August 2007
DONALD FREED
*Donald Freed has been
awarded the 2006 PEN DRAMA PRIZE for his Devil’s Advocate.
Donald Freed’s plays,
prizes, books and films include: Inquest (directed by Alan Schneider); Secret
Honor (directed by Robert Altman); Circe & Bravo (with Faye
Dunaway, directed by Harold Pinter); The Quartered Man; Alfred and Victoria
(A Life); Veterans Day (with Jack Lemmon and Michael Gambon); The White
Crow; Eichmann in Jerusalem.
Three Rockefeller
Awards; two Louis B. Mayer Awards; Unicorn Prize; Gold Medal Award; Berlin
Critics Award; NEA Award for "Distinguished Writing", Hollywood
Critics Award; Jonathan R. Reynolds Prize.
Agony in New Haven;
Executive Action (novel and film with Dalton Trumbo and Mark Lane); The
Glasshouse Tapes; The Spymaster (Book of the Month); In Search of Common Ground
(with Erik Erikson, Kai Erikson, Huey P. Newton); The Existentialism of Alberto
Moravia (with Joan Ross); Death in Washington: The Murder of Orlando Letelier.
New books, plays and
films include: Is He Still Dead? (with Julie Harris as Nora Joyce); Love
and Shadows (from the novel by Isabel Allende); Sokrates Must Die (with
Edward Asner); The Einstein Plan (with James Cromwell); a novel, Every
Third House.
Donald Freed is on
leave from the University of Southern California; he is Playwright in Residence
at York Theatre Royal, and Artist in Residence at the Workshop Theatre,
University of Leeds, U.K..
Donald Freed is a
writer of blazing imagination, courage, and insight. His work is a unique and
fearless marriage of politics and art."
Harold Pinter
"Donald Freed is
the most political and pertinent of all American playwrights."
Studs Terkel
MISE–EN–SCENE
The "in
rehearsal" of this production is a concept aimed at deepening the
interpretation and the experience of Shakespeare’s masterpiece. The concept is
not meant as a conceit or a device nor yet another bright idea or substitute
for, arguably, the greatest single work of art in the history of civilisation.
This Rehearsal/Run-through is simply a record of a search – as are all serious
rehearsals – for a way out of the Prison that is Denmark, and a comprehension
of the ghosts and bad dreams that haunt the Prince’s all too human heart and
tragic imagination.
The intention in this
reconstruction of the timeless work is to reveal the congruence of the politics
in the play and the politics of the play and thus, at one stroke,
to pierce their double censorship.
An interval is
indicated between Acts 2 and 3 of Shakespeare’s Hamlet.
THE CAST
Multiple role playing
by each actor, except for Hamlet, is in the spirit of the Rehearsal approach to
the old Revenge saga that Shakespeare inherited.
This plan is flexible.
One is suggested below.
Actor 1: Bernardo; Young Gravedigger; Laertes;
Guildenstern; Actor
Actor 2: Francisco; Reynaldo; Rosencrantz; Actor; Asst.
Stage Manager
Actor 3: The Director; King Claudius; the Ghost; the
Old Actor or
First Player
Actor 4: The Stage Manager; Queen Gertrude; Ophelia
Actor 5: Polonius; Old Gravedigger
Actor 6: Horatio; Actor; Courtier
Actor 7: Hamlet
III
THE STAGE
The entire stage is
black: floor; platforms and steps; curtains; masking flats and returns.
The Director’s/Stage
Management table is Down Stage, out of the action. Also in the Down Stage areas
are the tea table and chairs for actors to use when they are not rehearsing or
waiting to enter.
There is no furniture
as such, only rectangular black "elements". These elements, singly or
together, are used for seats, thrones, beds, graves, etc…
There should be at
least three platforms of differing size and height.
Swords and daggers
should be wooden staves or old rehearsal instruments. All props should be
improvised or incomplete.
Costumes range from
street clothes to rehearsal skirts for the women. There can be a scattering of
"period" coats, hats, cloaks, etc. from the Wardrobe Department.
The Technical Booth or
Space should be open during the rehearsal; sound and light adjustments take
place "live" during the run-through.
IV
PROLOGUE
House lights are up.
Stage empty; TECHNICIAN on a ladder, adjusting a lamp. Worklight on stage produces
deep shadows. Somewhere a radio is broadcasting news on the hour, then an old
Dixieland instrumental.
STAGE MANAGER enters
and begins to make tea. ACTORS drift in from the wings and down the aisles,
through the auditorium.
The DIRECTOR enters,
confers with Stage Manager, greets actors, fixes cup of tea…. After an
interval, the Director blows his whistle and assembles the Company to begin
their physical and vocal warm-ups.
DIRECTOR
…stretch, stretch – 5,
6, 7, 8 … Head and neck … And shoulders up, high, and down slowly, and leave
your chest high, and again; chest stationary, and again … And, bend from the
waist, knees loose, and 5, 6, 7, 8, and again …
The Director moves
among the Company to find and eliminate tensions in the Actors.
…Alright. Breathe.
Yawn: and Ha - Ya, Ya, Ya … suppressed yawn – Ya - Ya – jaw down and forward.
Ya – Ya – Ya (loud yawns).
Director and Company
move through the Voice and Diction drills.
DIRECTOR
The tongue, the teeth,
the lips – the tongue, the teeth, the lips – tongue low and relaxed, and
vibrate the tongue and lips … good.
… Drum – Bell – Tin –
Nine – Gong:
Don’t strain, Drummmm
– and pull from the belt – pull, pull, and one final pull from the diaphragm,
and release, and push out, and, again … And
"A drum, a drum,
Macbeth doth commmm – " (laughter ) Sorry, wrong play – Now,
Belllll, "And shallll I couplllle Hellll?" …
Now, nine – nine –
nine – nine – "It is I, Hamlet the Dannnne?"
Don’t strain –
"Bloody, Bawdy Villain / treacherous, lecherous, kinnndless villainnn –
O,Vengeannnnce!" … "V" and "Z": "Seemmzzz, madam,
nay it ‘tizz, I know not seemmmzzz." And, "I did lovvvve you
once." And, "The madness wherein now he ravvvzzzz"; again …
And pull from the
diaphragm – and release – and push out, that’s it.
The Director monitors
each Actor’s production. Hands on, smoothing tensions away. A mobile phone
sounds. All freeze – until the culprit dashes to silence the villain.
DIRECTOR
… Consonants: F, T, P,
K, D – quicker, slower – "speak the speech I pray you … trippingly
on the tongue", and, "the time iz out ov
joint , O cursed spite that ever I waz born
to set it right." … "Now could I drink hot
blood." Again. Again. DrinK hoT blooD! 100%
today, my friends, every word and every syllable of every word. Thankyou!
They all applaud each
other.
DIRECTOR
Good. Relax … the
drill today is to stop and start wherever we’ve had problems at turning points
and moments of truth. And tomorrow, of course, is a tech/dress rehearsal. We’ll
have some lights and sound today, but what’s paramount is that you remember
that "Denmark is a prison". The world of this play – outside and
inside – is a prison. And every character in this world – our world – has one
aim and one aim only and that is to "escape". But each of you can
only escape in your own way. (pointing) Yours is drink; yours is power,
of course; Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, denial and treachery; Ophelia,
illusion, daydreams, madness; Horatio, loyalty – I’m not talking words, I’m
talking "intention": obsession, compulsion, starvation – prison
– madhouse – torture chamber – actual prison…
The Director sits, and
draws the Company around him.
DIRECTOR (cont..)
"Anagnorisis"…
STAGE MANAGER
He’s an old Greek. (they
all smile)
DIRECTOR (cont..)
The Truth of this
production, of this HAMLET, of this rehearsal – today, now: Hamlet wants
to go back to Wittenberg. Wittenberg is the future. He needs
to go. But Denmark forces him to stay. His Mother begs him, his Uncle, the
King, forbids it, and, then, the god-damned Ghost comes clanking up in full
armour from Hell, itself, to chain him to Elsinore – to Revenge, and to
History… So the Prince has no "Future" except continual murder and
vengeance. His future in Art and the Life of the Mind at Wittenberg is foreclosed.
He is sentenced to life in prison here in this Castle. And, so, in total
despair and nausea, he retreats into "madness".
The Director rubs his
scalp
DIRECTOR (cont.)
Then, comes the
miracle of the play: in his madness – feigned and real – the Prince re-discovers,
remembers a sensation, a taste from long ago, from Yorick’s lips, of the
only true escape – the taste of freedom. And that is "the Yorick
Axis" of this production. In other words, what we have here is a new play!
Director toasts
Company with a cup of tea.
DIRECTOR (cont..)
Hamlet’s drive for
Freedom through his "antic disposition", his playwriting and acting,
his defection to the Pirates, his loyalty and love for Horatio and the
soldiers, his worship of the Actors and their art and, above all, his final
reverence for the Old Gravedigger, before whom, at last, the Prince lays down
his arms. That’s the key, the key scene, the clock that strikes 13, in the
graveyard, casting doubt on everything that’s gone before … so hang onto your
intentions, today, like a lifeline, a burning thread, for you to follow out of
the Power Politics and the hell-hole of your Prison … There’s one way out. One
way out of all prisons. You can dig your way out. The Old Gravedigger and his
Apprentice – in this production, his son – they know the way. But no-one
else in the play, in the prison, has the courage to follow these so-called
"Clowns" down into that labyrinth of Freedom; no-one, that is, except
the Prince, himself.
He puts his arm around
the Actor playing Hamlet
DIRECTOR (cont.)
His body’s his prison.
"Hamlet" and the "Prince of Denmark" are locked up in the
same body. Doubleness. Claustrophobia… The others, all and each in their own
way, commit suicide as their way out. Only Hamlet and his "people" –
descended from Yorick, the god disguised as the King’s Jester – only Yorick’s
tribe, the Soldiers, the Actors, the Pirates, the Gravediggers: Hamlet’s
people, Yorick’s tribe – they, and only they, have the taste of Freedom in
their mouths, and know, at least dimly, for what it is they hunger … Thankyou,
and as Bob Altman used to say, "Have fun!" – and he meant it
seriously.
The Director and
Company mingle, touch, relate: a kind of family.
DIRECTOR (cont..)
…Alright, so have fun.
We’ll go straight through the problems and the turning points, and even the
"Moments of Truth" (laughter), as far as we can – there may be
a few cuts.
STAGE MANAGER
Can we cut the rat? (general
hilarity)
DIRECTOR
Very funny, very funny
– you make me believe that "Denmark is a Prison" – and I’ll consider
cutting the rat. (Company reaction) Alright? Let’s go.
STAGE MANAGER
Places, please. First
Act beginners.
The Company leave the
stage for their places. The Director speaks to the light/sound booth.
DIRECTOR
…Ladies and gentlemen,
do your best, technically, just rough it in. We won’t stop, use worklights if
you have to. (to the Stage Manager) I’ll be right back, take the house
lights out and start the Chant on a one minute count.
The Director exits.
The Stage Manager cues the GREGORIAN CHANTS tape, and fades the house lights.
Complete dark and the
Chants for another 60 seconds. Then, a sliver of cold light from the frozen
moon.
From out of the
blackness comes the DIRECTOR’S voice:
ACT ONE
SHAKESPEARE’S ACT 1
SCENE 1
DIRECTOR (from
darkness)
… Gentlemen – you have
the pitch darkness … you have the cold … Tech. Booth, take the moon out, please
– You have the Politics, the State of Emergency, now in its sixth week! … You
have your long entrance through this windchill… You can hear, but you can’t see
the others … Who is it, who’s there? The Ghost? One of the King’s spies, or
assassins? Or a spy or agent of Fortinbras? … Norway smells Denmark’s weakness.
Fortinbras is on the march. Revenge is on the march! So – come towards each
other – actually ready to fight, to kill, or be killed … It’s freezing but
you’re sweating – use your noses and your ears to find your way through this
darkness … O.K. – go. Cue the church bells, and sneak the moonlight on a 20
count.
Bells toll midnight.
Chant fades. Silence. Footsteps.
One SOLDIER enters
from Up Stage, the other SOLDIER from the back of the auditorium and comes down
the aisle. The moonbeam casts a huge ghost-like shadow.
ACTOR (BERNARDO)
Who’s there?
ACTOR (FRANCISCO)
Nay, answer me. Stand
and unfold yourself.
BERNARDO
Long live the King!
FRANCISCO
Bernardo.
BERNARDO
He.
FRANCISCO
You come most
carefully upon your hour.
BERNARDO
‘tis now struck twelve
–
DIRECTOR (blows
whistle)
Good. "Nay,
answer me!" Just take it again from "Long live the King". We
have to grasp that this "Long live the King" is meant for the ears of
the King’s spies – out there in the dark. Tonight could be the night. The King
could massacre the Prince, Hamlet, and all his loyalists, starting with you –
or, Horatio and Hamlet could be on their way to give the word to go to ground,
or to start the uprising – anything is possible – anything! – that’s why
everybody is seeing ghosts – including the audience if you two fight to
maintain control over your bowels and your vowels – they’ll believe in ghosts
if you believe in them – and when the Ghost, of the murdered
King, gives the word, then! -- then the uprising begins! – with Hamlet
leading the troops – and you two right behind him! That’s their fantasy and
that’s the story of the first scene… Take it from the top, please. And
Gentlemen, you have to create the night, the terror, the blackness of darkness:
close your eyes – go!
BERNARDO (low)
Who’s there?
FRANCISCO (low)
Nay, answer me. Stand
and unfold yourself.
BERNARDO (loud)
Long live the King!
DIRECTOR
Now, open your eyes.
FRANCISCO (natural
tone)
Bernardo.
BERNARDO
He.
FRANCISCO
You come most
carefully upon your hour.
BERNARDO
‘tis now struck twelve
… Get thee to bed, Francisco.
FRANCISCO
…’tis bitter cold, and
I am sick at heart.
DIRECTOR
Good. Better. Exactly:
"Bitter cold", "sick at heart": no Ghost, no sign, no
signal – another midnight come and gone … Alright, let’s go on: Horatio comes
in, the Ghost does appear; Horatio is convinced and they decide to tell
Hamlet today! O.K., Scene 2, please. Cue the "flourish". Let’s
try the red and green lights.
ACT ONE
SHAKESPEARE’S ACT 1
SCENE 2
Royal music for the
KING, QUEEN AND COURT as they enter. The King is played by the Director.
The King and POLONIUS
stand on the Centre Platform. Between them a
jester crouches
holding the crown on a velvet pillow. But which of the two older men, on either
side of the crown, is the King?
The Queen stands alone
some distance from the Royal Platform. Next, HAMLET enters and stops at his
mother’s side. The Queen secretly grasps her son’s hand for a moment. The ROYAL
COURTIERS are played by all the other cast members.
The ensemble moves
constantly in a choreography of gossip and treason, a hissing echo of the
King’s first speech (the Power Party Line).
This echolalia is
sadistically enunciated and orchestrated by the chorus:
CHORUS (the Court)
"… Though yet of
Hamlet our dear brother’s death the memory be green…"
The red and green
lights play over the moving clump of bodies as over a monster of the deep.
One of the two older
men on the platform tries to speak, but to no avail.
The gestalt of
gossiping thugs never leave any space for the King.
THE KING
….Though, ah …though
yet of, ah….
Finally, the other
older man, POLONIUS, clears his throat. At the sound of the power, of the old
regime, the Court freezes.
Claudius, THE KING,
steps off his platform as if into a troubled sea and walks a dangerous circuit
among the living dead of the Court.
POLONIUS
Hm – mmm … (silence)
THE KING (coming
down)
…Though yet of Hamlet
our dear brother’s death the memory be green, and that it us befitted to bear
our hearts in grief –
The Director steps out
of the King’s character to address the company.
DIRECTOR
Look – don’t make it
easy for the King. Make him break you. This is Denmark – kill or be killed.
Today is the day – six weeks in – Claudius consolidates his power, or they
overthrow him and eat him alive!
The Director resumes
his role of King.
THE KING
… To bear our hearts
in grief, and our whole Kingdom to be contracted in one brow of woe, yet so far
hath discretion fought with nature that we with wisest sorrow think on him
together with remembrance of ourselves.
On the word
"ourselves" the King threatens the Court. They begin to shrink.
Therefore our
sometimes sister, now our queen, th’ imperial jointress to this warlike
state… have we taken to wife…
The King has
conquered. The Courtiers, like apes, laugh and clap. All except HAMLET.
The King takes the
crown and Gertrude’s arm and leads his prize up on to the platform. This leaves
Hamlet alone, in no man’s land.
Silence. The King’s
eyes turn on Hamlet – so do all the Courtiers’.
THE KING
…But now, my cousin
Hamlet and my son –
HAMLET
A little more than kin
and less than kind.
THE KING
How is it that the
clouds still hang on you?
HAMLET
Not so, my lord; I am
too much in the sun.
THE QUEEN
Good Hamlet, cast thy
nighted colour off …
Do not forever with
thy veilèd lids
Seek for thy noble
father in the dust.
Thou know’st ‘tis
common; all that lives must die,
Passing through nature
to eternity.
HAMLET
Ay, madam, it is
common.
The Director blows
softly on his whistle and leaves his platform.
DIRECTOR
Gertrude … take it
again, remember – this is all about real-politic: "Wash your face –
life is cheap, life is violent – have a drink, burn those black clothes – give
your uncle a chance, he’s as good a man as your father. Better! Younger – ha –
ha"….. Look, she’s half drunk, they all are – except Hamlet, and he’s
intoxicated with nausea. – So, again.
THE QUEEN
Good Hamlet, cast thy
nighted colour off …
DIRECTOR
That’s better. Think
Bette Davis – think, ah, who? (laughter)
THE QUEEN (Actor)
Helen Mirren?
DIRECTOR
Think, "I need a
drink. I need a nap. I, ah, need, you know, I need."
The Queen repeats the
speech with a kind of brokenhearted gaiety.
DIRECTOR (blows
whistle)
Yes – it’s coming …
cut to the Court’s exit, and go right into the soliloquy … And everyone on the
beat, a half line behind the King – and do not spare the gloating!
The Court exits
echoing the King.
THE KING AND COURT
Why, ‘tis a loving and
a fair reply,
Be as ourself in
Denmark – Madam, come.
This gentle and
unforced accord of Hamlet
Sits smiling to my
heart, in grace whereof
No jocund health that
Denmark drinks today
But the great canon to
the clouds shall tell,
And the King’s rouse
the heaven shall bruit it again,
Respeaking earthly
thunder. Come away.
Flourish. All but
Hamlet exit.
Hamlet, alone,
studies/smells the silence… He steps to the edge of the King’s platform, but
does not mount … He sits, then, on the corner of the riser. Hangs his head with
a groaning/vomiting exhalation – then another and another as he slowly lies
back flat on his back.
He moans softly, then
tenses and listens. He sees or smells a rat, sits up, rises slowly, searching.
The Prince spies the rat -- "Aggggh!" – and bolts away in the
opposite direction.
He leaps through a
drapery to escape, only to flush out a COURT OPERATIVE hidden there. The spy
screams too, and scuttles away.
However, at this
rehearsal the "rat" prop does not function.
DIRECTOR
Goddammit, where’s the
g’damn rat!?
STAGE MANAGER
Where’s the rat?
ACTOR (off stage)
The string broke. (silence)
DIRECTOR
… Cut the rat. (silence)
HAMLET (Actor)
… So – what about the
spy?
DIRECTOR (pause)
Try the, ah, moral
equivalent of the rat. (pause) The spy. Smell him.
HAMLET (Actor)
You mean –
DIRECTOR
Smell him. See what happens. What would Hamlet do!?
– Let’s go.
Again, Hamlet groans
and lies flat. Again, he tenses and listens. This time he rises with a
prehensile stealth. Controls his breathing and his limbs – stalks his prey:
shocks the SPY with a shouting leap into the drapes.
The spy tears away.
The Prince vents his outrage and plunges into his soliloquy.
In the dark, the
Director: a soft, intense "Yeah!"
HAMLET
– Ahhhhh! – Hah! that
this too too sullied flesh would melt
Thaw, and resolve
itself into a dew,
Or that the
Everlasting had not fixed
His canon ‘gainst self
slaughter! O God, God,
How weary, stale, flat
and unprofitable
Seem to me all the
uses of this world!
Hamlet, almost
unconsciously, begins a savage parody of the King and Queen; followed by a
series of mood swings. He stops twice to guard against any spy or eavesdropper.
…Frailty, thy name is
woman!
A little month, or ere
those shoes were old
With which she
followed my poor father’s body,
Like Niobe, all tears
– why she, even she –
O , God, a beast that
wants discourse of reason,
Would have mourned
longer! – married with my uncle, (pause)
My father’s brother,
but no more like my father
Than I to Hercules.
Within a month – she married.
Hamlet is down again,
on the platform, rolling in rage. In rage, and something else, something
sensual….
O, most wicked speed,
to post
With such dexterity to
incestuous sheets!
Hamlet, now, does hear
someone. He recovers and contains himself, tries to make his exit.
It is not nor it
cannot come to good.
But break, my heart,
for I must hold my tongue.
Enter Horatio and
Bernardo.
HORATIO
Hail to your lordship.
HAMLET
I am glad to see you
well. (stops) Horatio!
Or I do forget myself!
Hamlet and Horatio
embrace. The Prince shakes and sobs for an instant. The Director blows his
whistle.
DIRECTOR
Alright – they confirm
the ghost to him. Hamlet doesn’t want to believe it because then he’d have to
organise the counter-coup, right now – so he takes the piss out of his
loyal pals, the soldiers –
HAMLET
Armed, say you?
ALL (overlapping)
Armed, my lord.
HAMLET
From top to toe?
ALL
My lord, from head to
foot.
HAMLET (laughing)
Then saw you not his
face!
DIRECTOR (from the
dark)
Gotcha! Good – he
can’t believe it -- but he does! O.K. – it works – go to the end, then right on
to Scene 3.
All but Hamlet exit.
HAMLET (hides in
curtain)
My father’s spirit –
in arms! All is not well. I doubt some foul play. Would the night were come!
Till then, sit still, my soul. Foul deeds will rise, though all the earth
o’oerwhelm them, to men’s eyes.
Hamlet exits, looking
for hidden agents; POLONIUS, LAERTES, OPHELIA enter.
ACT ONE
SHAKESPEARE’S ACT 1
SCENE 3
POLONIUS and his
CHILDREN enter, the Father talking and his OFF-SPRING listening. He talks and
walks them in a circle, finally bringing them into a pool of light and forcing
them to their knees.
POLONIUS
… Aboard, Laertes,
aboard, for shame!
The wind sits in the shoulder
of your sail,
And you are stayed for
… my blessings with thee.
And these few precepts
in thy memory keep…
This above all, to
thine own self be true –
DIRECTOR
Wait! Try this:
Polonius, keep circling – make them dizzy – repeat "To thine own
self" twice. Get into the pool of light and force them down – (to Tech.
Booth). Bring the Gregorian Chants in under the repetition, then build over the
dialogue so that we see Polonius’ lips moving but we can’t hear the poison he’s
spewing, but we make our point: everybody – everybody from Attila the Hun to
Adolph Hitler to George W. Bush is to his "own self true". – O.K.
From the top, please.
Polonius, Laertes and
Ophelia begin again. They circle. The Director follows; gestures for the
Gregorian Chants, signals for the spotlight: orchestrates sound, light and
actors.
Polonius talks, the
children sink to their knees. The Director signals the Chants, then a light
change to create a silhouette of the Family tableau.
The children are
prostrate. The Father rants, unheard, as the Chants fill the world.
The icy wind of Scene
4 rises and merges with the Chants as Hamlet enters the open ramparts.
ACT ONE
SHAKESPEARE’S ACT 1
SCENE 4
Enter Hamlet, Horatio
and Bernardo. Chants down, wind up and sounds of crashing waves.
HAMLET
The air bites
shrewdly; it is very cold.
HORATIO
It is a nipping and an
eager air.
HAMLET
What hour now?
They move with
apprehension through the darkness, the freezing wind, the roaring sea.
From his table in the
dark theatre, the Director calls out:
DIRECTOR
Not so fast. It’s
freezing. They’re swimming through a nightmare, a sea of ice and terror.
Tonight’s the night: if they see the sign the revolution begins! – so look for
the sign of the Ghost, but pray that you don’t see it. (to the Stage
Manager) More wind, and moonlight – And every line has a political double
meaning.
HAMLET
… What hour now?
HORATIO
I think it lacks of
twelve.
BERNARDO
No, it is struck.
Enter Ghost
HORATIO
Look, my lord, it
comes.
They draw their
rehearsal "swords", then turn them to use as protective crucifixes.
The Director appears in the "Ghost’s-Special". That cold moonlight
beam spills over onto Hamlet.
HAMLET
Angels and ministers
of –
DIRECTOR (out of
character)
Hold it. I’m sorry but
it’s not good enough. The swords into crucifixes was very clever, once upon a
time, but the –
HORATIO (Actor)
The problem –
DIRECTOR
– The problem is it’s
a Catholic ghost in –
HAMLET (Actor)
– In a Lutheran
country.
DIRECTOR (pause)
That’s not the
problem.
HAMLET (Actor) (pause)
What is the
problem?
DIRECTOR
To shriek or not to
shriek. Garrick shrieked, according to Doctor Johnson, and scared the bejesus
out of the Ghost. But that was then. (silence) I don’t
know … (silence)
HAMLET (Actor)
… Can we try just the
light.
DIRECTOR
Without the Ghost? (pause)
Try it. What would the Prince do?
HAMLET
I don’t know.
DIRECTOR
What would he want to
do?
HAMLET
Run away?
DIRECTOR
Bingo!
HAMLET
So –
DIRECTOR
So – Hamlet runs away
– but the "Prince of Denmark", he can’t run away, he has to run toward
the "Royal Dane"!
pause
HAMLET
… What hour now?
HORATIO
I think it lacks of
twelve.
BERNARDO
No, it is struck.
Ghost light only, up.
HORATIO (a whisper)
Look, my lord, it
comes …
Horatio and Bernardo
are frozen. Hamlet, also, until he finally takes baby steps toward the Horror.
HAMLET
Angels and ministers
of grace, defend us! …
Be thou a spirit of
health or goblin damned…
DIRECTOR
Right.
"Doubleness". Hamlet forces himself to become the Prince of Denmark.
To be loyal to the Father/King against his whore Mother and the whole world! To
be his father’s true son and faithful wife! … And cut to, "Say, why
is this…?"
HAMLET
Say, why is this?
Wherefore? What should we do?
HORATIO
It beckons you to go
away with it –
BERNARDO
But do not go –
HORATIO
No, by no means.
HAMLET
It waves me still. –
Go on, I’ll follow thee.
HORATIO
Be ruled. You shall
not go.
HAMLET
My fate cries out
And makes each petty
arture in this body
As hardy as the Nemean
lion’s nerve.
Still am I called.
Unhand me, gentlemen.
By heaven, I’ll make a
ghost of him that lets me!
I say, away! – Go on.
I’ll follow thee.
Ghost and Hamlet exit.
Horatio and Bernardo talk of following but they are rooted in terror to the
spot.
All dark, again; wind
and waves sound overall.
HORATIO
… He waxes desperate
with imagination.
BERNARDO
Let’s follow. (pause)
‘Tis not fit thus to obey him.
HORATIO
Have after. (pause)
To what issue will this come?
BERNARDO (a
whisper)
Something is rotten in
the state of Denmark.
HORATIO (a whisper)
Heaven will direct it.
BERNARDO
Nay. (pause) let’s
follow him.
The DIRECTOR returns.
DIRECTOR
Good. Bernardo’s
smelling his own terror as much as he is the rottenness of Denmark. – So, go to
black, before they move, so we don’t know whether or not they have the guts to
follow Hamlet Senior and Junior on the long march to civil war, let alone a bloodbath
with Fortinbras and his Berserkers.
(to Hamlet)
Good. Now, the Prince
is going to try to kill his other self – Hamlet – his "youth", his
"observation", his genius, his memory – and live and die for the
Ghost, alone. For revenge and only Revenge! But, somehow, and this is
Shakespeare’s genius, Hamlet escapes the King and the Prince by putting on an
"antic disposition" – that he doesn’t know or remember is actually
the Ghost of Yorick. So, it’s Hamlet against the Prince, and the Ghost of Yorick
against the Ghost of the King: a fight to the finish! … O.K. –
"Adieu, adieu, adieu. Remember me."
Ghost-light down and
out. Dawn light slowly rising.
HAMLET
He writes in a book.
Ay, thou poor ghost,
whiles memory holds a seat in this distracted "globe".
Remember thee? Yea,
from the table of my memory I’ll wipe away all trivial, fond records, all saws
of books, all forms, all pressures past, that youth and observation copied
there,
He writes
And thy commandment
all alone shall live within the book and volume of my brain, unmixed with baser
matter. Yes, by heaven!
He writes
O most pernicious
woman! O villain, villain, smiling damned villain!
That one may smile and
smile and be a villain. At least I’m sure it may be so in Denmark.
He writes
So, Uncle, there you
are. Now to my word. It is "adieu, adieu, remember me". I have sworn
it.
Voices off
My lord – Lord Hamlet.
Hamlet almost jumps
out of his skin as his friends run on. He overwhelms them with melodrama one
moment and the wild comedic exchange with the Ghost the next.
Does Hamlet throw his
voice like a ventriloquist, to place the "Ghost" under the stones?
Truly, the Prince is split in two, caught between the King and the Jester.
Horatio and Bernardo,
off, looking for Hamlet.
HORATIO
My lord, my lord!
BERNARDO
Lord Hamlet!.
HORATIO (off)
Heaven secure him!
HAMLET (to himself)
So be it.
BERNARDO (off)
Illo, ho, ho, my lord!
HAMLET
Hillo, ho, ho, boy?
Come, bird, come!
Director calls out
from the dark.
DIRECTOR
Again:
"Hillo-ho" is the "Antic Disposition", the Ghost of Yorick,
re-membering Hamlet. The good ghost, go with the good ghost – until the
bad ghost tears you away – tremendous pace, now. Go!
HAMLET
Hillo, ho, ho, boy!
Come, bird, come!
BERNARDO (entering)
How is’t, my noble
lord?
HORATIO (entering)
What news, my lord?
HAMLET
O, wonderful!
HORATIO
Good my lord, tell it.
HAMLET
No, you will reveal
it.
HORATIO
Not I, my lord, by
heaven.
BERNARDO
Nor I, my lord.
HAMLET
How say you then?
Would heart of man once think it? But you’ll be secret?
HORATIO / BERNARDO
Ay, by heaven, my
lord.
HAMLET
There’s never a
villain dwelling in all Denmark – but he’s an arrant knave.
HORATIO
There needs no ghost,
my lord, come from the grave, to tell us this.
HAMLET (fighting
exhaustion)
Why, right, you are in
the right. And so, without more circumstance at all, I hold it fit that we
shake hands and part, you, as your business and desire shall point you for
every man hath business and desire, such as it is, and for my own poor part, I
will go pray.
HORATIO
These are but wild and
whirling words, my lord.
HAMLET
I am sorry they offend
you heartily. Yes, faith, heartily.
HORATIO
There’s no offence, my
lord.
HAMLET
Yes, by Saint Patrick,
but there is, Horatio! And much offence, too…
And now, good friends,
as you are friends, scholars and soldiers, give me one poor request.
HORATIO
What is’t, my lord? We
will.
HAMLET
Never make known what
you have seen tonight.
HORATIO / BERNARDO
My lord, we will not.
HAMLET
Nay, but swear ‘t.
HORATIO
In faith, my lord, not
I.
BERNARDO
Nor I, my lord, in
faith.
HAMLET
Upon my sword.
BERNARDO
We have sworn, my
lord, already.
DIRECTOR (off)
– Play for time, throw
your voice!
HAMLET
Indeed, upon my sword,
indeed.
"GHOST’S
VOICE" (from under the stage: Hamlet ventriloquating the voice)
Swear!
HAMLET (an hysterical
laugh)
Ha, ha, boy, sayst
thou so? Art thou there, truepenny? Come on, you hear this fellow in the
cellarage. Consent to swear.
HORATIO
Propose the oath, my
lord.
HAMLET
Never to speak of this
that you have seen, swear by my sword.
"GHOST’S
VOICE" (below)
Swear!
HAMLET
Hic et ubique? Then we’ll shift our ground: swear by my sword
never to speak of this –
"GHOST’S
VOICE" (below)
Swear by his sword.
HAMLET
Well said, old mole.
Canst work i’ th’ earth so fast? Once more remove, good friends.
HORATIO
O day and night, but
this is wondrous strange.
HAMLET
And therefore as a
stranger give it welcome. There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
than are dreamt of in your ph-ilosophy. But come. Here, as before, never, so
help you mercy, how strange or odd some’er I bear myself as I perchance
hereafter shall think meet to put an antic disposition on
that you, at such
times seeing me, never shall, with arms encumbered thus, or this head-shake, or
by pronouncing of some doubtful phrase, as "Well, well, we know", or
"We could an if we would", or "If we list to speak", or
"There be an if they might", or such ambiguous giving-out, to note
that you know aught of me – this do swear, so grace and mercy at your most need
help you.
"GHOST’S
VOICE" (below)
Swear …
HAMLET (exhaustion)
Rest, rest, perturbéd
spirit. – So, gentlemen, with all my love I do commend me to you, and what so
poor a man as Hamlet is may do t’ express his love and friending to you, God
willing, shall not lack. Let us go in together, and still your fingers on your
lips, I pray.
They start off. Pause.
Hamlet looks back.
The time is out of
joint. O curséd spite that ever I was born to set it right! Nay, come, let’s go
together.
The three move Upstage
into the dawn, their arms around each other. They pause for Hamlet to look back
over his shoulder again, to where the Ghost had been. Then, they disappear.
Silence …
The Director comes on
stage.
DIRECTOR
Five minutes, folks.
The Company
circulates, talks, drinks tea, etc.
The Director and Stage
Manager position furniture ELEMENTS for ACT 2.
Hamlet and Laertes
rehearse their fencing match under the tutelage of ACTOR 4.
DIRECTOR
May I see Reynaldo,
Polonius and Ophelia, please. I want to set the Act 2 opening tableau … So –
Polonius, you’re sitting on the element, here, on [platform] "One".
Reynaldo, you are here, at the boss’s left knee – kneeling, of course – and
Ophelia you are sitting on Daddy’s other knee, and he is, ah, combing your hair
… Let me look at this … (to the Technical Booth) Can we have the Act 2
pre-set, please.
ACTOR 2 (Assistant
Stage Manager)
Quiet, please. Act 2
Beginners, please.
DIRECTOR (to the
Booth)
Good.
ASSISTANT STAGE
MANAGER
House lights down and
out … Places …
SHAKESPEARE’S ACT 2
SCENE 1
DIRECTOR
This is the
choreography of "sexpionage", now: stroking his daughter’s hair with
the comb, A; B, he’s pouring poison into his young spy’s ear; and, C, seducing
both of them vocally. Polonius pours on the poison and the power; Ophelia looks
out straight ahead into the past; the spy licks up and picks up the crumbs. (he
nods to the Assistant Stage Manager)
ASSISTANT STAGE
MANAGER
Curtain up.
POLONIUS
Give him this money
and these notes, Reynaldo.
REYNALDO
I will, my lord.
DIRECTOR (off)
Good. Tickle him with
the money, have fun – while you play with her hair at the same time. That’s it.
Go on. It’s not sex, it’s pseudo-sex, it’s Power. Show them your power. Go on.
POLONIUS
… Ah, take you, as
‘twere some distant knowledge of him, as thus: "I know his father and his
friends and, in part, him". Do you mark this, Reynaldo?
REYNALDO
Ay, very well, my
lord.
POLONIUS
"And, in part,
him, but", you may say, "not well. But if ‘t be he I mean, he’s very
wild, addicted so and so." And there put on him what forgeries you please
–
REYNALDO
As gaming, my lord.
POLONIUS
Ay, or drinking,
fencing, swearing, quarrelling, drabbing – you may go so far.
The Father tickles the
two young people, causing them all to laugh merrily.
… You have me, have
you not?
REYNALDO (breathless)
My lord, I have.
POLONIUS
God be wi’ you. Fare
you well.
REYNALDO (trying to
rise)
Good my lord.
POLONIUS
Let him ply his music.
More tickling and
laughter as Reynaldo dances out and away.
Ophelia’s laughter
grows hysterical and breaks up into racking sobs.
POLONIUS (hugging
her)
How now, Ophelia,
what’s the matter?
OPHELIA
O, my lord, my lord, I
have been so affrighted!
POLONIUS
With what, i’ th’ name
of God?
As the daughter
confesses, the Father strokes her hair, enters into her fantasy
as well as the actual
scene she paints. Both stare straight out, seeing the memory.
The lights dim slowly
to the end of the scene.
OPHELIA
My lord, as I was
sewing in my closet,
Lord Hamlet, with his
doublet all unbraced,
No hat upon his head,
his stockings fouled,
Ungartered, and
down-gyvèd to his ankle,
Pale as his shirt, his
knees knocking each other,
And with a look so
piteous in purport
As if he had been
loosed out of hell
To speak of horrors –
he comes before me.
(silence)
POLONIUS (softly)
Mad for thy love?
OPHELIA
(pause) My lord, I do not know. (she falls asleep)
Pause. Very slowly,
Polonius stands with Ophelia in his arms, as if she were a sleeping child.
Polonius stands staring out, he murmurs:
POLONIUS
This is the very
ecstasy of love …
I will go seek the
king.
The Father walks
slowly away into darkness, carrying the Child.
As they disappear,
bright lights come up on ACT 2, SCENE 2. Flourish sounds; enter King and Queen,
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, and Attendants.
Sound, off, of court
dance music. The King and Queen march out a simple round of changing dance
partners with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.
SHAKESPEARE’S ACT 2
SCENE 2
King, Queen and
Hamlet’s hapless "friends", Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, dance
slowly as the royal couple seduce the young men. Music.
KING
Welcome, dear
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Moreover that we much did long to see you.
QUEEN (overlapping)
Good gentlemen, Hamlet
hath much talked of you –
KING (overlapping)
– The need we have to
use you did provoke our hasty sending –
QUEEN (overlapping)
– And sure I am two
men there is not living to whom he more adheres –
GUILDENSTERN &
ROSENCRANTZ
– We both obey and
here give up ourselves in the full bent to lay our service freely at your feet,
to be commanded.
KING
Thanks, Rosencrantz
and gentle Guildenstern –
QUEEN
Thanks, Guildenstern
and gentle Rosencrantz –
Polonius, alone,
hurries in, interrupts the dance and whispers into the King’s ear. The King,
then, whispers to the Queen.
QUEEN
Guildenstern and
gentle Rosencrantz – I beseech you instantly to visit my too much changèd son –
Go, some of you, and bring these gentleman where Hamlet is.
Courtiers dance off
with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Music, off, continues softly throughout.
Polonius makes the
King and Queen wait, testing his power.
POLONIUS
… Mmmm … I have –
found the cause – of Hamlet’s lunacy.
KING
O, speak of that! That
do I long to hear.
The Queen moves to
Polonius’ side, magnetised by power.
POLONIUS
… Your noble son is –
mad … I have a daughter (have while she is mine) who, in her duty and
obedience, mark, hath given me this. Now gather and surmise.
Polonius’ sadistic
teasing continues as he reads the
SCROLL.
"…To the
celestial, and my soul’s idol, the most beautified Ophelia – "
That’s an ill phrase,
a vile phrase; "beautified" is a vile phrase. But you shall hear.
Thus:
"In her excellent
white bosom, these – "
QUEEN (overlapping)
– Came these from
Hamlet to her?
POLONIUS
Good madam, stay
awhile. I will be faithful.
"Doubt thou the stars
are fire, doubt that the sun doth move, doubt truth to be a liar, but never
doubt I love.
O dear Ophelia, I am
ill at these numbers. I have not art to reckon my groans, but that I love thee,
most best, believe it. Adieu.
Thine evermore, most
dear lady, whilst this machine is to him, HAMLET."
This, in obedience,
hath my daughter shown me, and more –
The King and Polonius
now begin to struggle over control of the scroll, the Queen’s attention, the
plan of action – everything.
KING
– But how hath she received
his love?
POLONIUS
What do you think of
me?
KING
As of a man –
POLONIUS
I would fain prove so!
No, I went round to work, and my young mistress thus I did bespeak:
"Lord Hamlet is a
prince, out of thy star. This must not be!" … And he, repelled (a short
tale to make) fell into a sadness, then into a fast, thence to a watch, thence
into a weakness, thence to a lightness, and, by this declension, into the
madness wherein now he raves and all we mourn for.
Pause. The power
struggle continues in silence. Finally, the King snatches the scroll away from
Polonius, hits him over the head with it, and pulls Gertrude to him.
KING
Do you think ‘tis
this?
QUEEN
… It may be, very like
…
POLONIUS
Hath there been such a
time, that I –
KING (overlapping)
– Not that I know –
POLONIUS (overlapping)
– I will find where
truth is hid, though it –
KING (overlapping)
How may we try it
further?
POLONIUS (milks the
suspense)
… You know sometimes
he walks four hours together… Here in the lobby.
QUEEN
So he does indeed.
POLONIUS (playing
his last card to retain power)
At such time I’ll
loose my daughter to him.
(to the King)
Be you and I behind an arras then –
KING (overlapping)
We will try it.
HAMLET enters, from
the back of the auditorium, reading a book.
QUEEN
But look where sadly
the poor wretch comes reading.
POLONIUS
Away, I do beseech you
both, away. I’ll board him presently.
O, give me leave.
He hurries the King
and Queen off.
How does my good lord
Hamlet?
HAMLET
Well, God-a-mercy.
POLONIUS (pause)
Do you know me, my
lord?
HAMLET (sniffing
the air)
Excellent well; you
are a fishmonger.
POLONIUS
Not I, my lord.
HAMLET
Then I would you were
so honest a man.
POLONIUS
Honest, my lord.
HAMLET
Ay, sir. To be honest
as this world goes, is to be one man picked out of ten thousand.
Hamlet scans the
shadows, looking for spies.
POLONIUS
That’s very true, my
lord.
HAMLET (holds his
nose)
For if the sun breed
maggots in a dead dog, being a god kissing carrion – have you a daughter?
POLONIUS
I have, my lord.
HAMLET
Let her not walk i’
th’ sun. Conception is a blessing, but, not as your daughter may conceive,
friend, look to ‘t.
Polonius mutters to
the King, hidden in the dark. Hamlet takes note of course.
POLONIUS
… Still harping on my
daughter. – What do you read, my lord?
HAMLET
Words, words, words.
POLONIUS
What is the matter, my
lord?
HAMLET
Between who?
POLONIUS
I mean the matter that
you read, my lord.
HAMLET
Slanders, sir; for the
satirical rogue says here that old men have grey beards, that their faces are
wrinkled, their eyes purging thick amber and plum-tree gum and that they have a
plentiful lack of wit, together with most weak hams –
Hamlet roams into the
shadows, speaking for the King’s benefit, or any of his surveillance.
– All of which, sir,
though I most powerfully and potently believe, yet I hold it not honesty to
have it thus set down; for yourself, sir, shall grow old as I am, if like a
crab you could go backward.
POLONIUS (in
shadows)
Though this be
madness, yet there is method in ‘t. – Will you walk out of the air, my lord?
HAMLET
Into my grave?
POLONIUS (in
shadows)
Indeed, that’s out of
the air … I will leave him and suddenly contrive the means of meeting between
him and my daughter. – My lord, I will take my leave of you.
HAMLET
You cannot, sir, take
from me anything that I will more willingly part withal – except my life,
except my life, except my life.
POLONIUS
Fare you well, my
lord.
HAMLET (in shadows)
These tedious old
fools.
Enter Guildenstern and
Rosencrantz.
POLONIUS
You go to seek the
Lord Hamlet … there he is.
Polonius pretends to
exit, but hides and listens – and Hamlet observes this.
GUILDENSTERN
God save you, sir. (to
Hamlet) My honoured lord.
ROSENCRANTZ
My most dear lord.
DIRECTOR (off)
Hamlet – make sure
that they know that you know – and speak to all the spies, royal and otherwise,
and make these "Day Boys" follow you in and out of the nooks and
crannies of this asylum for the criminally insane.
Now, the Prince leads
his "friends" on a tour of the deep shadows; even down into the aisles
of the auditorium among the hidden and listening audience members.
HAMLET (escorting
them)
My excellent good
friends! How dost thou, Guildenstern? Ah, Rosencrantz! Good lads, how do you
both?
GUILDENSTERN (laughing)
On Fortune’s cap, we
are not the very button.
HAMLET (laughing
and leading)
Then you live about
her waist, or in the middle of her favours.
GUILDENSTERN (all
laughing)
Faith, her privates
we.
HAMLET
In the secret parts of
Fortune? O, most true! She is a strumpet … What news?
They stop
ROSENCRANTZ
… None, my lord, but
that the world’s grown honest.
Hamlet stares at the
poor pawns. Then, he leads them apart, where they cannot be overheard if they
speak in guarded tones.
HAMLET
… Then is doomsday
near. But your news is not true…. What have you, my good friends, deserved at
the hands of Fortune that she sends you to prison hither?
GUILDENSTERN
… Prison, my lord?
HAMLET
Shh – Denmark’s a
prison.
ROSENCRANTZ (whispers)
Then is the world one.
DIRECTOR (off)
Find a safer place.
Take pity on them. Try to save them. They’re dead and they don’t know it. –
Again: (Rosencrantz repeats his speech)
HAMLET
…A goodly one, in
which there are many confines, wards and dungeons, Denmark being one o’ th’
worst.
Hamlet walks and talks
with the baffled BOYS. They find a secluded spot. Their tone is intimate. The
friends try to hide their fear from Hamlet.
ROSENCRANTZ
We think not so, my
lord.
HAMLET
Why, then, ‘tis none
to you, for there is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so. To
me, it is a prison.
ROSENCRANTZ
Why, then, your ambition
makes it one. ‘Tis too narrow for your mind.
HAMLET (overlapping)
O God, I could be
bounded in a nutshell and count myself a king of infinite space, were it not
that I have bad dreams.
Silence. The Boys have
been shaken by Hamlet’s pain. Then:
DIRECTOR (off)
Yes. You’re moved by
the Prince – and frightened … Which one of you sniffed, before?
GUILDENSTERN
Me.
DIRECTOR
Good. Keep it in and
blow your nose.
GUILDENSTERN
Seriously?
DIRECTOR
Yes! … So – go back to
"bad dreams", and cue the Gravediggers. You there?
TWO VOICES (off)
Ay!
DIRECTOR
Go.
HAMLET
O God, I could be
bounded in a nutshell and count myself a king of infinite space, were it not
that I have bad dreams.
Silence. Guildenstern
blows his nose. Then, out of the silence, in the distance can be heard two
voices singing.
The singers are an
older and younger man. They are the two Gravediggers / "Clowns" that
we will not see until near the end of the play.
We hear them, now,
drawing closer, then further away.
GRAVEDIGGERS (off)
"… In youth
when I did love, did love, methought it was very sweet
to contract – o – the
time for – a – my behove,
O, methought there – a
– was nothing – a – meet."
The voices fade.
Silence again. Hamlet hums the tune he has just heard, in the distance. Then,
dancing slowly….
HAMLET
… Shall we to th’
court? For, by my fay, I cannot reason.
Hamlet hops ahead,
leading them back up onto the stage, onto a platform. As they return, several
prying heads can be seen ducking out of sight.
The FRIENDS dog his
heels until Hamlet turns on them. His voice drills low and deep. The Lads hang
their heads in shame.
HAMLET
… In the beaten way of
friendship – what make you at Elsinore?
ROSENCRANTZ
T-t-to visit you, my –
HAMLET
Were you not sent for?
Is it your own inclining? – Is it a free visitation? Come, come, deal justly
with me. Come, come – (Guildenstern gags) Nay, speak.
Rosencrantz and
Guildenstern are red and white with shame and nausea.
DIRECTOR (off)
More spies, please …
thankyou.
More spying heads
protrude from the curtains, etc.
GUILDENSTERN
My lord ,,,, (whisper)
We were sent for.
Hamlet is moved deeply
by his old friends’ plight. He puts his arms around their shoulders.
The Prince speaks up
and out with great intensity, the two courtiers huddle under the protecting
embrace.
HAMLET
I will tell you why;
so shall my anticipation prevent your discovery, and your secrecy to the King
and Queen moult no feather.
More listening heads
appear. The Prince fights his despair in ringing tones.
… I have of late, but
wherefore I know not, lost all my mirth, foregone all custom of exercises, and,
indeed, it goes so heavily with my disposition that this goodly frame, the
earth, seems to me a sterile promontory; this most excellent canopy, the air,
look you –
All the spying heads
scan and look.
…This brave
o’erhanging firmament, this majestical roof, fretted with golden fire – why, it
appeareth nothing to me but a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours. What
a piece of work is a man, how noble in reason, how infinite in faculties, in
form and moving how express and admirable; in action how like an angel, in
apprehension how like a god: the beauty of the world, the paragon of animals –
and yet to me, what is this quintessence of dust? Man delights not me –
Hamlet spins around –
the spy heads disappear – then turns back to the Boys.
– No, nor women
neither, though by your smiling you seem to say so.
ROSENCRANTZ
No, my lord –
HAMLET
Why did you laugh then
when I said, "Man delights not me"?
ROSENCRANTZ
To think, my lord, if
you delight not in man, what lenten entertainment the players shall receive
from you. (Hamlet jumps in the air) We coted them on the way –
Sound of approaching
Actors, off, singing and laughing. Hamlet runs toward the sound.
HAMLET
He that plays the King
– shall be welcome!
Players – the entire
company – and Polonius enter. Hamlet plunges into their midst, hugging and
kissing. There is an uproar of greetings and physical dancing and jigging.
The Old Actor – the
First Player – is played by the Director.
HAMLET
You are welcome,
masters; welcome all. – I am glad to see thee well. – Welcome, good friends. –
O my old friend! (an almost convulsive embrace) Why thy face is valanced
since I saw thee last. Com’st thou to beard me in Denmark? What, my "young
lady" and mistress! (they embrace)
We’ll have a speech
straight. Come, give us a taste of your quality. Come, a passionate speech.
OLD ACTOR (ringing
tones)
What speech, my good
lord?
Much merriment, until
the Director steps out of character to work.
DIRECTOR
That’s it, that’s the
tremendous release we need here – this act’s a killer! – we need Hamlet’s
"family", he needs these people, these are Yorick’s people… --
Alright! – Go to the end of the Old Actor’s speech – we have to work on the
"Rogue and peasant slave" soliloquy. (to Hamlet) Have some
water. Don’t force your voice.
Hamlet drinks water;
the Director relates to the "Players", then resumes his role as the
Old Actor.
The Company take their
places for the end of the scene.
The First Actor
(Director) concludes his oration with an oceanic passion that leaves Hamlet
bowled over.
OLD ACTOR
… But if the gods
themselves did see Hecuba when she saw Pyrrhus make malicious sport in mincing
with his sword her husband’s limbs, the instant burst of clamour that she made
(unless things mortal move them not at all), would have made milch the burning
eyes of heaven, and passion in the gods!
(silence)
POLONIUS
… Look whe’er he has
not turned his colour and has tears in his eyes. Prithee, no more.
Hamlet breathes deeply
in order to regain control of himself.
HAMLET
(to the Old Actor)
‘Tis well … (to Polonius) Good my lord, will you see the players well
bestowed? Do you hear, let them be well used, for they are the abstract and
brief chronicles of the time …
POLONIUS (pause)
My lord, I will use
them according to their desert.
HAMLET
God’s bodykins, man,
much better! Use every man after his desert and who shall ‘scape whipping? Use
them after your own honour and dignity… Take them in.
POLONIUS
… Come, sirs.
HAMLET
Follow him, friends.
We’ll hear a play tomorrow.
Hamlet detains the Old
Actor and the others leave. Their tone is confidential.
HAMLET
Dost thou hear me, old
friend? Can you play The Murder of Gonzago?
OLD ACTOR
Ay, my lord.
HAMLET
We’ll ha’t tomorrow
night. You could, for a need, study a speech of some dozen or sixteen lines,
which I would set down and insert in’t, could you not?
OLD ACTOR (pause)
…Ay, my lord.
HAMLET
… Very well. Follow
that lord – and look you, (finger on lips) mock him not.
The Old Actor exits,
leaving a costume and prop basket behind. Hamlet opens the treasure trove of
old props and costume pieces.
The Director returns,
no longer playing the Old Actor, and watches from Down Stage.. Then:
DIRECTOR
That’s it. Take your
time. Lose yourself.
Hamlet is lost in the
world of the magic basket. Like a happy child he begins to touch and hold the
contents.
HAMLET (to himself)
… Now – I am alone …
He tries on a toy
crown. Then laughs at a Fool’s cap, and puts it on. Smiles and sings to
himself. Next, a painted sword and shield is brandished.
He stands and begins
to imitate the delivery of the Old Actor’s speech.
"…. But if the
gods themselves did see Hecuba when she saw Pyrrhus make malicious sport, in
mincing, with his sword her husband’s limbs – "
He laughs and hugs
himself with joy. With Hamlet’s uncanny imitation of the grand and passionate
style of the Old Actor, he has moved himself deeply.
But then, slowly, he
remembers where he is and what he is doing. Turns to look for eavesdroppers,
gives out a groaning sob.
HAMLET (cont…)
– Ahhhh – hahh ….
Hamlet throws down his
costume piece and props and begins to pace and curse:
…What a rogue and
peasant slave am I!
Is it not monstrous
that this player here,
But in a fiction, in a
dream of passion,
Could force his soul
so to his own conceit
That from her working
all his visage wann’d,
Tears in his eyes,
distraction in his aspect,
A broken voice, and
his whole function suiting
With forms to his
conceit? – and all for nothing!
For Hecuba!
DIRECTOR (off)
– Let the rhetoric
take over – start "Acting" again – how would the Old Actor do it?
Hamlet gets drunk again on "Acting", then, the Prince sobers up with
guilt, again – the rollercoaster! Hamlet’s the Actor – The Prince is the
critic! Go!
HAMLET
…What would he do,
Had he the motive and
the cue for passion
That I have? He would
drown the stage with tears
And cleave the general
ear with horrid speech –
Hamlet begins, now, to
stalk his gaolers and spies. He moves with stealth along the walls and among
curtains.
HAMLET
(shouting at a moving
curtain) Am I a coward?! (pause)
Who calls me "villain"?
(listens to the echo) …(stalking a "rat") Who does me
this? Ha!
Something scuttles
away, Hamlet listens to the retreating steps. Silence. Then:
DIRECTOR (off)
Right! You’ve
terrified them! Feel your power, now, go for the kill!
The curtains are
moving, the rats are running, the King’s right there, behind that
curtain! Kill him, kill him now! Where’s your dagger – where’s your sword?! You
– have – no – weapon – you idiot! You fool, you fake, you – find a weapon! ACT!
Hamlet sobs, dives
into the Players’ basket and comes out with a toy dagger. His voice builds to a
ringing, shrieking invective.
HAMLET
– Bloody, bawdy
villain!
Remorseless,
treacherous, lecherous, kindless villain!
Ooooo vengeannnnnnce!
Hamlet’s prolonged
scream on "O vengeance!"
carries him to a curtain. He hurls himself, stabbing, into the darkness.
There is no-one there…
The Prince sprawls on the floor in total frustration. Then rolls back into the
light in a frenzy of humiliation.
DIRECTOR off
Now the Critic!
HAMLET
Why, what an ass am I!
This is most brave,
That I, the son of a
dear father murdered,
Prompted to my revenge
by heaven and hell,
Must, like a whore,
unpack my heart with words
And fall a-cursing
like a very drab,
A scullion! (he
gags and retches)
Fie upon’t! Foh!
Hamlet lies flat,
panting. Then, slowly, he changes back, again, into an Actor in a Play!
DIRECTOR off
Now the Actor!
HAMLET
About, my brains! –
Hum, I have heard
That guilty creatures
sitting at a play
Have, by the very
cunning of the scene –
The Prince/Actor
rises, now reborn as Actor – Director – Playwright.
… Been struck so to
the soul that presently
They have proclaimed
their malefactions.
For murder, though it
have no tongue, will speak
With most miraculous
organ.
The Prince is consumed
by his scenario, transported and seized by his fantasy. So much so, that he is
unaware of the spying heads once again, peeping and peering out of their holes.
…I’ll have these
players
Play something like
the murder of my father
Before mine uncle.
I’ll observe his looks;
I’ll tent him to the
quick – Ahh! – Ahh!
Again, Hamlet begins
to stab and lunge in a kind of slow motion – acting and vocalising both Villain
and Revenger… But, then, once more, he returns to his total isolation.
…If he do blench,
I know my course! …
This spirit that I have seen
May be the devil, and
the devil hath power
T’ assume a pleasing
shape; yea, and
Perhaps out of my
weakness and my melancholy,
He abuses me to damn
me.
One last forlorn
attempt to re-enter and hide in the fantasy of the play.
HAMLET
… I’ll have grounds
more relative than this. (sotto voce) The play…
The play’s the thing
wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the King!
Hamlet calls out his
haunting, hollow challenge. He stands, immobile, like a statue of longing.
Silence.
DIRECTOR (off)
… Hold it. And the spy
heads pull back … Silence: Lights to black … And take a ten minute break,
please… (house lights up)
END OF ACT ONE
ACT TWO
The DIRECTOR and STAGE
MANAGER set up for Act 3 of Shakespeare’s HAMLET.
HAMLET and LAERTES
rehearse their duel. Off, the two GRAVEDIGGERS practise their songs. At length,
the Director blows his whistle.
ASSISTANT STAGE
MANAGER
Act 3, please – stand
by … Act 3 Beginners, please.
SHAKESPEARE’S ACT 3
SCENE 1
Hamlet enters, wearing
one of the Actors’ ROBES. He stops to listen, hears voices; hides behind a
curtain or wall-flat.
From his vantage
point, unseen, the Prince watches as POLONIUS, OPHELIA, THE KING hurry on,
talking.
POLONIUS
Ophelia, read on this
Prayer Book. That show of such an exercise may colour your loneliness.
The THREE mount a
platform. The King and Polonius work on Ophelia. Polonius positions his
daughter and her Holy Book.
The King attends to
the hang of her Gown, hair, drapery of her bosom and ensemble. Polonius, too,
joins in – touching, adjusting – and he provides her with a bundle of love
letters.
Hamlet, hidden,
watches, appalled at this spectacle of abuse.
The Prince starts to
stagger away, but is heard by the Two Men.
POLONIUS (cont.)
I hear him coming.
Let’s withdraw, my lord.
Polonius and Claudius
secrete themselves behind an opposite curtain. Again, Hamlet sees the entire
action.
Ophelia holds her
prayerful pose, but her prayerbook is upside down.
Silence. Hamlet is
paralysed. Torn. He starts to leave. Stops. Finally, returns to Ophelia.
HAMLET
… Nymph, in thy
orisons
Be all my sins
remembered.
The Prince stands
below Ophelia’s platform, looking up at her. She cannot meet his gaze; she
looks down; adjusts her book, then holds out the bundle of love letters.
There is a palpable
sadness between them: bound together yet forever parted.
OPHELIA
My lord, I have
remembrances of yours,
That I have longèd
long to re-deliver.
I pray you now receive
them.
Hamlet takes the
letters, glances through them. Heaves a deep sigh. Hands them back to her.
HAMLET
… No, not I. I never
gave you aught.
OPHELIA (pause)
… My honoured lord,
you know right well you did.
HAMLET
– Ha, ha, are you
honest?
OPHELIA
My lord?
The Prince is drawn to
her, he has to mount her platform. He touches her, she reacts. He touches her
again. When he speaks there is a lump in his throat.
HAMLET
… Are you fair?
The two lovers are
both breathless.
OPHELIA
What means your
lordship?
He touches her again.
He drops his voice so as not to be overheard.
HAMLET
… I did love you once.
Ophelia’s hand jerks
out – out of her control – to touch the Prince.
Then, she moves into
his arms.
OPHELIA
Indeed, my lord, you
made me believe so.
He kisses her deeply.
His voice is tender, despite his words.
HAMLET
You should not have
believed me …
Their embrace becomes
compulsive as they kiss hungrily.
The lovers are almost
beyond control, when from the curtains two heads pop out: the King and
Polonius.
Hamlet’s reaction is
instant fury. He leaps from the platform, toward the spies, bellowing:
HAMLET (cont.)
I loved you not!
Ophelia sobs out a few
words, but the Prince is beside himself: he lashes Ophelia with his voice and
words, and the King and Polonius as well.
However, when Hamlet
leaps into the curtains, screaming – again, there is no-one there. So, he
rounds on Ophelia, again, and then runs back into the draperies cursing, still
looking for the royal spies.
HAMLET
– Get thee to a
nunnery. Why would’st thou be a breeder of sinners? I am myself
indifferent honest, but yet I could accuse me of such things that it were
better my mother (looking for the King) had not borne me –
Ophelia collapses to
her knees. Hamlet turns back to attack her but, sobbing through his rage we can
hear his utter despair.
HAMLET (cont..)
– What should such
fellows as I do crawling between earth and heaven?
He whirls furiously
toward the shadows:
We are arrant knaves,
all; believe none of us. Go thy ways to a nunnery!
Ophelia loses
consciousness. Silence. Hamlet, stunned, kneels over her. He lifts her in his
arms. He is hoarse, almost spent.
HAMLET (cont.)
… Where’s your father?
Ophelia opens her
eyes. She lies in his arms. His eyes plead with her – to be loyal, to love him.
Ophelia is on the
rack. This is the choice of her lifetime. Whom should she betray? They have
ripped her apart.
OPHELIA
… At home … my lord.
Her tortured lie is
fatal to them both. They shake in each other’s arms.
Hamlet slowly
separates himself and tries to stand. He trembles and pants like a wounded
beast.
HAMLET
… Let the doors be
shut upon him … that he may play the fool nowhere but in’s own house …
He makes to leave but
stumbles to his knees. On all fours he tries to crawl away. Ophelia shrieks out
in pain:
OPHELIA
O, help him, you sweet
heavens!
She runs to help him;
he fights her off; rises to his knees; croaks his curse into her body as he
clings to her waist for balance.
HAMLET
I have heard of your
paintings too, well enough. God hath given you one face, and you make yourself
another … you jig and amble, and you lisp … Go to, I’ll no more on’t. It
hath made me mad!
The Prince’s trembling
is now a series of almost epileptic twitches and spasms. There can be no
question but that he is near a complete breakdown.
Ophelia is terrified
to the point of loss of control and continence. Her whimpers, cries and groans
underscore Hamlet’s vomit-like curse.
HAMLET (cont.)
– I say we will have
no more marriages. Those that are married already – all but one! – shall
live. The rest shall keep as they are. (he starts to crawl away) To a
nunnery, go! …
Ophelia watches, in
horror, as the Prince crawls very slowly into the deep shadows.
Then a terrible sight:
Ophelia, as if in a nightmare, sinks to her knees, and she, too, begins to
crawl after her lover – some ten feet or so behind.
But Hamlet reaches the
dark edge of the space and disappears, leaving Ophelia alone.
At this, her FATHER
and the KING slink in. They pick up Ophelia. She cannot stand. They support
her; walk her off slowly as they talk in hushed tones.
POLONIUS
How now, Ophelia? …
You need not tell us what Lord Hamlet said. We heard it all. – My lord, if you
hold it fit, after the play, let his Queen-Mother all alone entreat him to show
his grief. Let her be round with him; and I’ll be placed, so please you, in the
ear of all their conference.
The two men take turns
almost dragging Ophelia off.
… If she find him not,
to England send him, or confine him where your wisdom best shall think …
KING
… It shall be so.
Madness in great ones must not unwatched go.
And they are gone. The
stage is empty except for several heads watching from the darkness.
The Director returns
from the wings.
DIRECTOR
Right – what’s the
time?
He studies his watch,
then says something privately to the Stage Manager.
… Can we have some
lights. – thankyou …
Now – very strong. New
dimensions. I’m starting to believe in this Soulbreaker of a Prison! So – what
I want is to skip to the end of the Mousetrap Scene – after the play within the
play – to the King’s prayer, and, then, the Closet Scene. Then, bits and pieces
of Act 4, as far as "Do it England…" Then – we go to Act 5 and work
the Graveyard Scene, and then – we go home … All clear?
A chorus of
"no"; nervous complaints and jokes.
Then, tomorrow, we
pick up all the missed scenes we’re skipping today … Trust me, alright?
Thankyou, stand by … let’s see the Ghost Special, please.
The DIRECTOR buckles
on a prop sword and swordbelt and prepares to play the King’s prayer scene.
The only light is the
"Ghost Special".
SHAKESPEARE’S ACT 3
SCENE 3
DIRECTOR
… Can you, ah, take it
down a point … And open the "barndoor" a little – that’s good, I
think?
STAGE MANAGER
I think so.
DIRECTOR
Let’s try it … I want
to take it from the entrance, then we’ll see. Can we have the furore of
the Castle, please.
The Stage Manager cues
and leads the COMPANY in a soundscape of off-stage reaction to the debacle of
the scene just past, the play Within the Play, or "Mousetrap" scene.
STAGE MANAGER &
COMPANY
Ready? Stage Right,
Go! – "He poisons him in the garden for his estate / He poisons him –
" Stage Left, Go! – "His name’s GONZAGO – " / "He poisons
him" / "Poisons him" / "His name" / "His
name" / "His name" / "Gonzago" / "Gonzago" /
"Gonzago" …
Thus, the overlapping
dialogue from the previous scene – combined with shrieks, curses, cries and
whispers – create an aural environment for a castle in conflict.
As the King’s prayer
scene progresses the sounds of political and personal turmoil fade out,
replaced by a dead midnight silence that is broken only by the tolling church
bells.
Now, the Director
enters as the KING. He strides in and across the stage but is stopped in his
tracks by the sudden presence of a distant beam of light: the "Ghost
Special".
Claudius stops, stares
– then appears to listen and see someone or something. As he speaks and plays
the scene with the beam of light, we deduce that now he, too, sees and hears
the Ghost!
The King’s voice and
body make a savage mockery of the Ghost’s unheard accusations.
KING
(as if responding)
Ohhhh – (as if repeating) My offence is rank, it smells to heaven; it
hath the primal eldest curse upon’t. A brother’s murder? – Pray can I not! …
The King now launches
into a fierce justification of his entire life – as the far superior but
younger brother [!]
What if this cursèd
hand were thicker than itself with brother’s blood? Is there not rain enough in
the sweet heavens to wash it white as snow?
The argument rages. He
laughs and curses.
– "Forgive me my
foul murder"?! (a savage laugh) That cannot be, since I am still
"possessed" of those effects for which I did the murder:
A complete
soul-bargaining confrontation with his Brother or God or both of them:
My crown! (puts
crown on floor) – mine own ambition! (unbuckles sword and belt, puts
aside on floor) – My Queen!
The King starts to
take off his robe – then wraps it more closely than ever around himself; and
squares off, ready to fight to the finish –
KING (Director)
Line?
STAGE MANAGER
"What then?"
DIRECTOR
Is this working?
STAGE MANAGER
Keep the focus on your
brother – on the Ghost – then if he changes into "God", so be it, the
audience‘ll get it.
DIRECTOR (King)
…What then?!
KING
– What then?! What
rests?! Try what repentance can. What can it not?
Yet what can it, when
one cannot repent?! (panting) Help, angels! Make assay … Bow, stubborn
knees, and heart with strings of steel …
The King goes down
like a bull in the slaughter. And his "prayer" is one prolonged and
vicious curse. A mantra of envy, jealousy, rationalisation and unreconstructed
revenge and resentment.
This muttered,
spitting word-salad of revolt and rejection explains why the King does not hear
Hamlet’s low vows when the Prince enters.
The only words from
the text that Hamlet and the audience can make out, as the King
"prays", are such as below, and all of them apply to the tyranny of
his older brother, the Ghost:
KING (cont..)
… Wretched state! …
Bosom black as death! … Corrupted currents of this world! … Offence’s gilded
hand! … Like a man to double-business bound! …
Meanwhile, Hamlet
crosses far Up Stage of the kneeling, seething regicide. He stops to hear.
KING (cont.)
…Shove by justice … (a
low laugh) The wicked prize itself buys out the law! (laugh) No
shuffling there (laughs) Ahh -- limèd soul …
The Prince hears parts
of the above even as he, too, pours out his conflicted impulses. Slurring his
words, his voice hoarse and resonant with extreme agitation and exhaustion.
HAMLET
… Now might I do it
pat, now he is praying …
But, again, Hamlet has
no weapon! Then, he spies the KING’S SWORD AND SWORD BELT, spread just behind
the kneeling Claudius. Hamlet moves down, like a cat, to steal the weapon.
…And now I’ll do it. (he
has the sword) … That would be scann’d…
The Prince pauses,
shackled by ambivalence. He rocks from side to side, debating with himself – as
is the King, as well: it is as if there are four distinct characters, now,
trapped in this midnight scene.
KING HAMLET
… Compelled, even to
the teeth …
My stronger guilt …
He took my father
grossly, full of bread, with all his crimes broad blown, as flush as
May…
…I stand in pause …
then I’ll look up,
(laughs) my
fault is past!
Up sword, and know
thou a more horrid hent – when he is drunk asleep, or in his rage –
Whereto serves mercy …
this two-fold
force (spits in
disgust) …
Or in the incestuous
pleasure of his bed … my mother … stays … this physic but prolongs thy sickly
days.
(exit with the
sword)
Hamlet slips away.
Claudius concludes as he began, enraged. He glares up at his
"Brother" – the Ghost Special.
KING
– My words fly up, my
thoughts remain below …
Still on his knees, he
reaches behind him for his sword. Not there. Tries the other side. No!
Claudius arches in
terror; stares up at the Ghost/God beam, then scrambles like a big bug,
stabbing about for his missing weapon. Finally, he freezes. Stares back at the
beam of light.
The Ghost Special
fades slowly to black as the church bells toll midnight.
SHAKESPEARE’S ACT 3
SCENE 4
Church bells toll.
Lights up on Queen’s Bedroom area. Elements for the bed and seats; draperies; a
tall portable mirror. And a large tapestry that pictures the late King Hamlet
in a famous battle scene on the ice! "The Victory Over Norway!"
Hamlet can be heard
calling from a dark corridor somewhere in the castle.
HAMLET (off)
Mother!
The Queen’s Bedroom,
however, is empty and there is no answer. Silence.
HAMLET (off, closer)
Mother?
A round of scurrying
footsteps. Pause. Then, again. A spy materialises out of the darkness, slips
into the Queen’s Bedroom, and, finding it empty, he slips away, back into the
darkness.
Silence. Then more
footsteps. Out of the darkness the Prince appears. He still carries the King’s
sword. Yet, once again, his mood has shifted radically. He is, clearly,
exhausted – almost dragging the weapon, as a boy would his father’s sword.
The tremendous highs
and lows of the past twenty-four hours seem to have aged Hamlet, giving him the
skeletal body image of an old man, or a crippled child. His voice, too, is
almost gone now.
Like a spent runner he
halts in the light spilling from his mother’s bedroom. He stands on the
threshold, looking, waiting.
HAMLET
… Mother …
He waits. Silence. He
sways, almost unconscious on his feet.
At length, he turns
away, takes two steps. Stops. Turns back and, this time, enters the chamber.
DIRECTOR off
See yourself in the
mirror. Who are you?
Inside, he stares into
the mirror. His head sinks, then snaps up, sinks again – forcing him to move to
stay awake.
He begins an unsteady
tour of the room. Stops in front of the hanging war tableau of his father’s
famous victory. Silence, then church bells toll the half-hour.
The Prince drops his
mesmerised gaze from the vainglorious scene pictured on the large tapestry. He
stumbles over to the BED and sinks down, murmuring –
HAMLET
… Mother …
And, at last, he
sleeps. Muttering to himself: a word from the play, "Hecuba", but all
the rest is choked and garbled. He thrashes, too, for a time, then the fever
seems to pass, and he rests…. Silence as he sleeps, then a few bells, and
silence again …
After a time, the
"Victory Over Norway" tapestry shivers, and from behind the bloody
scene, the Queen Mother steps out to behold her son. She stands there,
breathing, gazing down at his spent figure.
HAMLET (in his
sleep)
… Mmmm …
Slowly, she moves to
the bed and sits down next to her sleeping offspring. She watches him. Then,
strokes his hair, very lightly. And he seems to react slightly. When she
brushes his forehead with her lips, the youth definitely leans toward her.
Still sitting,
Gertrude circles her arm like a protective shield around her boy’s shoulder.
They breathe together.
Are we watching a
dream, Hamlet’s dream, or is this actually happening? The answer to that
question is provided by POLONIUS.
The OLD SPY pokes his
head out from another hanging curtain and glares at the Queen. And she, the
mother, glares back like any animal protecting its own. She tightens her grip
around the sleeping Prince’s shoulder.
Hamlet stirs, Polonius
withdraws. Gertrude looks down, into Hamlet’s open eyes. Slowly, he wakes up to
where he is. His voice is as soft as a child’s.
HAMLET
… Mother …
Gertrude seems about
to speak. As she bends over Hamlet, Polonius, again, shows his head. His
protruding eyes warn her. She stiffens. Hamlet – who cannot see the old spy’s
head wagging out from the curtain behind him – reacts to his mother’s sudden
change of breathing and posture.
HAMLET
… What’s the matter?
QUEEN
Hamlet …
The Son fixes on the
Mother’s face. She seems about to blurt out a terrible truth. But the Prime
Minister’s eyes pronounce the death sentence, should she forget herself at this
moment of crisis.
Her head bows, at
last, in submission. Hamlet, painfully awake now, turns to look behind him, but
there is no-one there. Are the drapes moving slightly?
A jolt of fear and
rage shocks the Prince to his feet. Sword in hand he moves like a tiger toward
the black drapery.
QUEEN
Hamlet! Thou hast thy
father much offended!
Gertrude is up – her
voice a whip of warning. Hamlet stares back at her, his sword poised – to kill
someone!
Then, like a bolt from
the blue, Gertrude points – with her entire body – in warning, toward the
curtains that hide the certain death that threatens them both.
Hamlet, sword raised,
stands amazed … Then he walks out of the scene.
The ACTOR playing
Hamlet walks out of the set and the scene.
Walks to the edge of
the stage.
DIRECTOR (off)
What’s going on?
ACTOR (Hamlet)
That’s what I want to
know.
The Director is on the
stage, now, and [Actor] Polonius has come out into the light. The three men are
all staring at [Actor] Gertrude.
ACTOR (Gertrude)
"This scene is
our big problem" – that’s what you said Thursday.
DIRECTOR (pause)
That’s true.
ACTOR (Gertrude)
"What would
Gertrude do?" – you said – "do what you would do if you were his
mother", you said.
DIRECTOR (pause)
I did.
ACTOR (Gertrude)
"His
mother", you said, not "Gertrude", not "the Queen".
You said –
DIRECTOR
I said –
ACTOR (Gertrude)
You said "His
mother", and that –
DIRECTOR
She’s the –
ACTOR (Gertrude)
Listen – if I were
his "mother" and I was also the "Queen" – the "Queen
Mother" – I would be torn apart because I would have to choose
between betraying my son or my husband, and I –
DIRECTOR
But Gertrude chooses
to –
ACTOR (Gertrude)
I mean, Polonius says,
"tis meet that
some more audience than a mother, since nature – Actor/Polonius joins
in – makes them partial, should all o’erhear,
The speech, of
vantage".
DIRECTOR
I know but the
Queen…..
ACTOR (Gertrude)
But his Mother chooses
to save her son!
All stare at the Actor
playing the Queen.
ACTOR (Polonius)
… Excuse me – but that
would stop the scene.
ACTOR (Hamlet)
(pause) Stop
the play.
DIRECTOR
Wait –
ACTOR (Gertrude)
And that is the truth.
She stops – the Mother – stops the farce, the lie: the play
within the play within the play.
Silence. Other actors
have now joined those in the Queen’s Bedroom.
ACTOR (Gertrude) (cont..)
She tries. That is
what she tries to do.
DIRECTOR (pause)
And that stops the
play.
ACTOR (Gertrude)
That stops the play …
she tries. And she fails. And she has to play her role – "Queen
Gertrude" – again. She betrays her son. And that starts the rest of the
play, again.
Now, they all stare at
the Director. He begins to walk slowly around the edge of the Bedroom Area. He
circles, they watch.
DIRECTOR
… Hamlet says – in Act
4 – Hamlet tells the King, "Father and Mother are Man and Wife / Man and
Wife are one flesh…"
ACTOR (Queen)
I know.
DIRECTOR
That’s the
"Law".
ACTOR (Queen)
That’s the
"Law" – but it’s not the truth.
The Director paces,
again. Then:
DIRECTOR
Does this mean that
she sees the Ghost, too?
ACTOR (Queen)
…I don’t know…
DIRECTOR
… This is huge …
Repercussions … Ramifications … As they say – Wow!… Jesus! … Let’s sleep on it.
Silence. Then the
Director whispers "I love you" in the Actor’s ear and she hugs him –
and the Company comes back to life.
DIRECTOR (cont..)
Act 4, Scene 3;
Polonius is dead, the King confronts Hamlet.
STAGE MANAGER (Queen)
Act 4, Scene 3,
please: "Now, Hamlet, where’s Polonius?"
SHAKESPEARE’S ACT 4
SCENE 3
The Company/The Court
surround the King as he faces off with Hamlet.
KING
Now, Hamlet, where’s
Polonius?
HAMLET
At supper.
KING
At supper where?
HAMLET
Not where he eats, but
where he is eaten. A certain convocation of politic worms are e’en at him.
Hamlet speaks not only
to the King but also gets "up close and personal" with the members of
the Court.
The Prince is beyond
exhaustion. He has, in fact, a second wind of gallows wit and insight. He
strikes the King and Court as, somehow, older, tougher, much more dangerous.
More – King-like?!
HAMLET (cont..)
… Your worm is your
only emperor for diet. We fat all creatures else to fat us, and we fat
ourselves for maggots. Your fat King (in the King’s face) and your lean
beggar is but variable service – two dishes but to one table. That’s the end.
KING (controlling
the Court)
Alas, alas!
HAMLET
A man may fish with
the worm that hath eat of a king and eat of the fish that hath fed of that
worm.
KING
What dost thou mean by
this?
HAMLET
Nothing – but to show
you how a king may go a progress through the guts of a beggar.
Silence. The Court is
dumbfounded. Hamlet starts to leave. No-one moves to stop him. The King is
forced to block his way.
KING
Where – is – Polonius?
HAMLET
In heaven … Send
thither to see. If your messenger find him not there seek him i’ th’ other
place yourself. But, indeed, if you find him not within the month, you shall
nose him as you go up the stairs into the lobby.
KING (to Court)
Go, seek him there.
HAMLET (laughing)
He will stay till you
come.
The King moves in to
Hamlet. They are face to face.
KING
Hamlet – prepare
thyself. The bark is ready, and everything is bent for England.
HAMLET (overlapping)
For England!
KING
Ay, Hamlet.
HAMLET
Good.
KING (walking away)
So is it, if thou
knew’st our purposes.
HAMLET
I see a cherub that
sees them. But, come, for England … Farewell, dear mother.
KING (turns)
Thy loving father,
Hamlet.
The Prince stares out,
while speaking to his mother.
HAMLET
My mother… Father and
mother is man and wife. Man and wife is one flesh, and so, my mother. – Come,
for England!
Hamlet races off
laughing. The King grabs his testicles, gathers his powers; looks out and up
into the old Ghost Special light, and barks out his glottal commands.
KING
… Do it, England! For
like the hectic in my blood he rages, and thou must cure me! Till I know ‘tis
done, howe’er my haps, my joys were ne’er begun.
Lights to black. Then
general lighting as the King returns to his Directorial role.
DIRECTOR
Ah, members of the
Court: look – remember: in that scene, for the first time, you see that Hamlet
could be dangerous – if he goes to the "People". He’s wasted, he’s
running on empty, but there are flashes of "Hamlet the Dane"! –
Anyway, remember it’s four in the morning and your future depends on when and
where and whom you decide to betray or not to betray. – Now, can I see the Act
5, Scene 1 people, please.
HAMLET, HORATIO, and
the TWO GRAVEDIGGERS join the Director on stage. The Elements, or cubicles are
adjusted to mark the open grave and/or trap D.L.
SHAKESPEARE’S ACT 5
SCENE 1
DIRECTOR (to the
booth)
Can I see late
afternoon, late April sunshine, and a lot of birdsong. (Lights and sound) …
Good … Now – I would like to see you run this scene first, without a stop, and
then we’ll work it and then we’ll go home. – O.K.?
He blows his whistle.
DIRECTOR (cont..)
Everybody – that’s it.
Good work. – Tomorrow it’s all costumes and props for a 2 p.m. runthrough, no
make-up. We’ll work the "Closet" scene at 10 a.m., then Ophelia mad
scenes at 11.30 a.m. Bring your lunches, food and water, the lot. There will be
food provided for supper. O.K., thankyou for a helluva day and for
"stopping the play"… And Wednesday, full make-up.
STAGE MANAGER
(Gertrude)
"Badgered
up!"
Laughter as the
Company departs. Alone, the Director talks to the Actors in the Graveyard
Scene.
DIRECTOR (walking
and talking)
You have it in mind?
By Saturday we’ll have the King Hamlet tomb, "marblejaws" and statue
here, Up Right; Polonius’ tomb will be here, Centre Right. And a scattering of
lesser stones all the way Up Stage on an acute perspective, so, for once, the
audience will actually see the markers … What I need from Hamlet and Horatio is
the stinging pungency of the smell, the odour, the ambience of the open grave.
Shakespeare uses smell directly and indirectly at least five times in this
scene. I don’t know what more the man can do to signal the actors that he’s not
kidding around about finitude and death, here. But the actors don’t play the
stench, even the great ones. They say the words and the "ughs" and
the "pahs" but they won’t play it. And that means the audience never
gets it. They see a few shining skulls, and a nod to poor Yorick. But that’s
it. The "Brodie Notes".
(He helps distribute
skulls around the grave)
And then, just to make
sure the meaning of the play gets buried they cut the apprentice gravedigger,
the old man’s "son", and they cut out all the riddles – the riddles
and puns that add up to nothing less than the meaning of the entire g’damn work
of art.
Remember – every
riddle hides a truth: and the truth is that they are burying Princess Di, here,
today. Right here. And Hamlet, too, unless you can spring him from this trap.
And Fortinbras and his army are waiting on the beach – watching… Norway is
going to occupy Denmark. It’s over and everybody in little Elsinore knows it’s
over… You’re an old man now. You came in with Hamlet and you’re going out with
him. But, now, there’s your son: save your son, old man, and save Hamlet –
they’re all your sons. And they will have to grow up, "literally",
overnight. So let your boy, here, know that there will be no time for clowning,
after today.
The Director climbs
down into the grave
DIRECTOR (cont.)
So, will you, by God,
smell it – it’s a very warm spring day and there are also some sweet scents,
too, all the fresh flowers on the King’s grave, and the birdsong. But the aroma
of death rises like a slow tide until the end of the scene. And in that medium
Hamlet finds the answer to his question – and I don’t mean "To be or not
to be?" – Let’s go: we want the audience, who think they know this play,
to be absolutely astonished when the "ghost" of Yorick fills up the
stage, and the theatre, and then the world.
Director climbs up and
goes to Horatio.
You’re the key: you
have to try to keep the Prince moving forward on the Revenge Plot conveyor
belt. No detours, no side-shows, cut the Clowns and their jokes that aren’t
funny anyway. It’s Ophelia’s grave, that’s all that matters. You don’t want to
go there, and Hamlet might go nuts, and the Gravedigger’s an old drunk, and the
Second Clown doesn’t exist, so do not let Hamlet’s curiosity lead him into this
stinking, and I mean stinking, dead end. The dead end where the Narrative is
buried, where Shakespeare’s play reaches its nadir and its apotheosis. Hold
your nose, literally, use your lace handkerchief and get the Prince out of
there as soon as you can. As far as you’re concerned you’re only there so that
your hero can jump into the grave and take the piss out of Laertes. Everything
else is clownshow and noise.
Lights and sound have
now set the scene. The Director puts his arm around Horatio’s shoulder.
DIRECTOR (cont.)
Let it happen. Watch your
friend, the Prince, and the old Digger, here. The old man also knows where the
bodies are buried. The old joker who picks up a skull – without looking at it!
– and announces "that this same skull, sir, was Yorick’s skull". And
then it hits you – that this clown has known who you guys are, all along. That
he’s been trying to tell you something behind all that horseplay. And, then,
you see Hamlet bowled over by the return of Yorick. And then you know – and we
know – that this is the end of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. The old Revenge Plot goes
on forever, but right here the home truth hits you between the eyes: it stops
the play: under the mask of the "First Clown", was the wise and
weathered phiz of the Old Gravedigger – and under that mask is Yorick – and
behind him, at last, is Master William Shakespeare who, alone, knows who’s who
in this charnel-house. He was there "the day Young Hamlet was born",
and he’s here today – when the Prince must die: do the math! But what wipes you
out is when you see that Hamlet sees all this, too, and a lot more – and that
he’s happy! Joyful – like the Old Gravedigger. And you’re amazed and struck
dumb. Because, of course, you don’t yet comprehend that Hamlet recognises the
Old Clown as none other than – the Ghost of Yorick himself!
The Director embraces
the rapt Horatio and, then, Hamlet. Then, he exits into the darkness.
Go. No stops.
The TWO GRAVEDIGGERS
can be heard talking and laughing as they approach the graveyard: "Beggars
and Kings and worms and beggars and – "
OLD GRAVEDIGGER (off)
… Ha – ha – Go to!
Away, nay – answer me that?
THE OLD GRAVEDIGGER,
the father, and THE YOUNG GRAVEDIGGER, the son, enter with spades and other
tools of their trade. They stop to cool off, for a moment, before approaching
the newly opened grave, Down Stage.
DIRECTOR (off)
Father – scan the
horizon. You need to warn Hamlet before the funeral procession arrives. And you
need to prepare your son, right now, before Fortinbras and his shock troops
make their move on the Castle. Sorry, go on.
They move down to the
grave to begin work. Their technique is an economical and complete
craftsmanship. The Father spits into his hands, the Son imitates him. The
Father hides a smile and picks up the schooling, the teaching, the protecting
of the Youth. The Father scans the approaches to the graveyard, as if he might
be expecting someone.
OLD GRAVEDIGGER
Mmm … Is she to be
buried in Christian burial, when she wilfully seeks her own
"salvation"?
YOUNG GRAVEDIGGER
I tell thee she is.
The crowner hath sat on her and finds it Christian burial.
OLD GRAVEDIGGER
Mm – Hmmm – how can
that be, unless she drowned herself in her own defence?
YOUNG GRAVEDIGGER
Why, ‘tis found so.
OLD GRAVEDIGGER
It must be se
offendendo, it cannot be else. For here lies the point: if I drown myself
willingly, it argues an act, and an act hath three branches – it is to act, to
do, to perform. Argal, she drowned herself willingly.
YOUNG GRAVEDIGGER
Nay, but hear you –
DIRECTOR (off)
Right – the boy’s
quick, he’s dancing, learning’s a game, and learning is loving for this
father and child – the only healthy relationship in the entire play -- but you
have to get through to the lad how to slip past Fortinbras’ thugs. Play the
game, but warn him!
OLD GRAVEDIGGER
– Give me leave.. Here
lies the water; good. Here stands the man; good. If the man go to this water
and drown himself, it is – will he, nil he – he goes; mark you that. But if the
water comes to him, he drowns not himself. Argal, he that is not guilty of his
own death shortens not his own life.
Thus, the logic and
law of Power, Church and State. The Son is stymied. The Father’s catechism is
the chop-logic of privilege and, after a frustrated cogitation, the lad sees
through the riddle and the rationalisation – as he was meant to.
YOUNG GRAVEDIGGER
… But is this the law?
OLD GRAVEDIGGER
Ay, marry, is’t –
crowner’s quest law.
The Son’s disgust
leads him to the answer that the Father was fishing to find.
YOUNG GRAVEDIGGER
Will you ha’ the truth
on’t? If this had not been a gentlewoman, she would have been buried out of
Christian burial!
DIRECTOR (off)
Warn him now!
OLD GRAVEDIGGER
Why, there thou sayst!
The Father laughs and
dances a little jig with joy, and drives home the warning.
And the more pity that
great folk should have count’nance in this world to hang themselves more than
their even-Christian….
The Old Man scans the
roads, again. Then:
… Come, my spade
…There is no ancient gentleman but gard’ners, ditchers, and grave-makers. They
hold up Adam’s profession.
YOUNG GRAVEDIGGER
Was he a gentleman?
OLD GRAVEDIGGER
He was the first that
ever bore arms.
YOUNG GRAVEDIGGER
Why, he had none.
DIRECTOR (off)
You have to frighten
him a bit, now. You have to remind him who he is – a gravedigger. And that the
Fortinbras of this world come and go – but we endure.
OLD GRAVEDIGGER
What, art a heathen?
The scripture says "Adam digged". Could he dig without arms?…I’ll put
another question to thee. If thou answerest me not to the purpose, confess
thyself –
DIRECTOR (off)
Good. Getting scared.
We’re the First and the Last. This is deadly serious, now there’s a shit-storm
coming.
YOUNG GRAVEDIGGER
Go to!
OLD GRAVEDIGGER (softly,
seriously)
What is he that builds
stronger than either the mason, the shipwright, or the carpenter?
The Boy looks up into
his Father’s face, catching his tone and drift.
YOUNG GRAVEDIGGER
… Marry – now I can
tell …
OLD GRAVEDIGGER (face
to face)
To’t.
YOUNG GRAVEDIGGER (straining)
… Mass, I cannot tell.
Now, over the Youth’s
shoulder, the Father sees Hamlet and Horatio in the distance.
The Father embraces
the Son; plants the answer in his ear.
OLD GRAVEDIGGER
…Cudgel thy brains no
more about it …and when you are asked this question next, say "A
grave-maker". The houses he makes last till doomsday. (watching Hamlet’s
approach) Go, get thee in, and fetch me a stoup of licquor.
The Son trots off,
never seeing Hamlet and Horatio as they draw near.
The Old Man feigns
ignorance of the Prince’s presence, by beginning to dig and singing a song.
Meanwhile, the Prince
and Horatio have reached the grave area. Each holds a handkerchief to his nose.
Horatio attempts to walk past as quickly as possible, but Hamlet stops.
OLD GRAVEDIGGER (sings)
In youth when I did
love, did love,
Methought it was very
sweet
To contract-o-the time
for-a-my behove,
O, methought
there-a-was nothing-a-meet.
HAMLET
Has this fellow no
feeling of his business? He sings in grave-making.
HORATIO (pulling at
Hamlet)
Custom hath made it in
him a property of easiness.
Hamlet’s curiosity is
growing. He resists Horatio’s attempt to walk on. He even takes a step closer
to the grave, fighting the stink.
HAMLET
‘Tis e’en so. The hand
of little employment hath the daintier sense.
Hamlet speaks from the
royal point of view, yet he is moving ever closer to the grave; dragging the
gagging Horatio deeper into the effluvia of the place.
The Gravedigger begins
to heave up SKULLS from the pit. The Prince stiffens.
DIRECTOR (off)
Déja vu: have you been
here before? Have you dreamed this before?
OLD GRAVEDIGGER (sings)
But age with his
stealing steps
Hath clawed me in his
clutch,
And hath shipped me
into the land,
As if I had never been
such.
He throws up another
skull. Horatio turns away, sick. But Hamlet takes another step closer and
removes the linen rag from his face. He breathes, strained at first, then
almost naturally.
The sexton still
pretends not to see Hamlet.
HAMLET
That skull had a
tongue in it and could sing once. How the knave jowls it to the ground as if
‘twere Cain’s jawbone, that did the first murder (laughs)…This might be the
pate of a politician which this ass now o’er-reaches, one that would circumvent
God, might it not?
Horatio, recovering
slightly, notes something strange and new in his Prince.
HORATIO
…It might, my lord.
HAMLET (moving
closer)
Or of a courtier,
which could say "Good morrow, sweet lord! How dost thou, sweet lord?"
This might be my lord such-a-one that praised my lord such-a-one’s horse when
he meant to beg it, might it not?
Something half wild,
prophetic in the Prince rivets Horatio. Hamlet’s grip on his friend’s arm is
like steel, now, drawing him ever closer to the pit.
HORATIO
Ay, my lord.
HAMLET (closer)
Why, e’en so. And now
my Lady Worm’s, chapless and knocked about the mazzard with a sexton’s spade. –
Here’s fine revolution, an we had the trick to see it… Did these bones cost no
more the breeding but to play at loggats with them? Mine ache to think on’t.
DIRECTOR (off)
"Revolution"!
Horatio’s jaw drops. What’s your friend, the Prince, doing here?
The Gravedigger
continues to spade and throw skulls over his shoulder, singing all the while.
Hamlet draws closer
and closer. The Clown sings louder and louder.
OLD GRAVEDIGGER
A pickaxe and a spade,
a spade,
For and a shrouding
sheet,
O, a pit of clay for
to be made
For such a guest is
meet.
HAMLET (dodging a
skull)
– There’s another.
(laughs) Why may not that be the skull of a lawyer?
DIRECTOR (off)
Yes! The Prince’s
mimicry is deadly accurate, now, he’s become a consummate actor and his royal
attitude is melting away in the heat and stench of the place. – And you, Old
Man, turn on the Music Hall.
Now – watch him – more
skulls – then watch him openly!
HAMLET (cont..)
– A lawyer – where be
his quiddities now, his quillets, his cases, his tenures, and his tricks? Why
does he suffer this mad knave now to knock him about the sconce with a dirty
shovel and will not tell him of his action of battery? Ha!
Horatio is forced to
chortle at Hamlet’s razor staccato, and the Sexton does a little jig. The show
is on!
HAMLET (cont..)
– Hum, this fellow
might be in’s time a great buyer of land, with his statutes, his recognisance,
his fines, his double vouchers, his recoveries. Is this the fine of his fines
and recovery of his recoveries, to have his fine pate full of fine dirt?
Hamlet is transformed:
he ages, bows, trots, hangs on Horatio; dances a court dance with him; speaks
in different accents – his voice an orchestra: he has become "the abstract
and brief chronicle" of the death and life of the time of the graveyard.
All the while, Hamlet
and the Clown mimic and complement each other, and even Horatio is liberated,
so far as to pull faces as part of the canvas of characters.
Just then, the YOUNG
GRAVEDIGGER returns with the stoup of licquor. Of course, the lad, at once,
becomes the perfect audience to this inspired improvisation and TOTENDANZ.
HAMLET (cont..)
– Will his vouchers
vouch him no more of his purchases, and double ones too, than the length and
breadth of a pair of indentures? The very conveyances of his lands will
scarcely lie in this box.
DIRECTOR (off)
Stop dead! Everyone
freeze. Hamlet is "The Prince" again. His voice is an ice-pick, now.
HAMLET
…And must the
inheritor himself have no more, ha?
Silence. Horatio takes
Hamlet’s arm, preparing to rejoin the world of the old Revenge Plot. The Old Gravedigger
uncorks the licquor and takes a swig. All eyes on the Prince.
HORATIO
Not a jot more, my
lord.
HAMLET (pause)
…Is not parchment made
of sheepskins?
HORATIO (very
carefully)
Ay, my lord, and of
calves’ skin too.
DIRECTOR (off)
Old Man – don’t let him
get away – you and your boy need him to live. Life or death! Hamlet or
Fortinbras. Hold the bottle up to him. Hold his eye.
HAMLET
They are sheep and
calves which seek out assurance in that … I will speak to this fellow. – Whose
grave’s this, sirrah?
OLD GRAVEDIGGER (pause,
drinks)
Mine, sir.
The Old Sexton, still
pretending not to know who the Prince is, passes the licquor to his Son for a
nip, then they both begin to sing – watching Hamlet.
OLD & YOUNG
GRAVEDIGGERS
O, a pit of clay for
to be made
For such a guest is
meet …
DIRECTOR (off)
The Old Man – that
face – do you know him from some past life?
HAMLET
…I think it be thine
indeed, for thou liest in’t.
The sun is setting. A
red glow bathes the scene. The Old Clown squints up from the grave at the Prince.
OLD GRAVEDIGGER
You lie out on’t, sir,
and therefore ‘tis not yours. For my part, I do not lie in’t, yet it is mine.
HAMLET (a soft
laugh)
Thou does lie in’t, to
be in’t and say it is thine. ‘Tis for the dead, not for the quick; therefore
thou liest.
OLD GRAVEDIGGER (shades
his eyes)
‘Tis a quick lie, sir;
‘twill away again from me to you.
DIRECTOR (off)
This Clown is too
quick to be a "clown". Sink to one knee. Study that face.
HAMLET
… What man dost thou
dig it for?
OLD GRAVEDIGGER
For no man, sir.
HAMLET (reacts)
What woman then?
OLD GRAVEDIGGER
For none, neither.
DIRECTOR (off)
Something’s hidden
here, some riddle, some enigma; literally under the Prince’s nose. Concentrate
your powers. Your genius.
HAMLET
Who is’t to be buried
in’t?
OLD GRAVEDIGGER (nose
to nose)
One that was a woman,
sir, but, rest her soul, she’s dead.
If Hamlet had begun to
half imagine that he was peering into his own grave, now Ophelia fills his
being. He draws back, still on one knee, and looks to Horatio.
HAMLET
How absolute the knave
is! We must speak by the card or …How long hast thou been a grave-maker?
OLD GRAVEDIGGER
Of all the days i’ th’
year, I came to’t that day our last King Hamlet overcame Norway.
HAMLET (taken
aback, tests the Clown)
…How long is that
since?
DIRECTOR (off)
Music Hall!
OLD GRAVEDIGGER
Cannot you tell that?
Every fool can tell that. It was that very day that young Hamlet was born – he
that is mad, and sent into England.
HAMLET (searching)
… Ay, marry … why was
he sent into England?
OLD GRAVEDIGGER (great
solemnity)
Why, because he was
mad. He shall recover his wits there. Or if he do not, ‘tis no great matter
there.
HAMLET (caught)
Why?
OLD GRAVEDIGGER
‘Twill not be seen in
him there. There the men are as mad as he.
Nose to nose: "As
mad as he (he-he-ha)". The laugh explodes in Hamlet’s face but he does not
back up, he presses:
HAMLET
How came he mad?
OLD GRAVEDIGGER (solemn
again)
Very strangely, they
say.
HAMLET (grabbing)
How
"strangely"?
OLD GRAVEDIGGER
Faith, e’en with
losing his wits!
Another explosion:
"his wits – s – s – s?" Horatio is becoming alarmed, Hamlet brushes
him back. Rounds on the Sexton.
HAMLET
Upon what ground?
OLD GRAVEDIGGER
Why, here in Denmark
(k – k – k – k!…) I have been Sexton here, man and boy, thirty years.
DIRECTOR (off)
The last rays of the
sun. The Prince almost touches the Old Man’s face. You know it; you remember,
but can’t remember. But you will. Close your eyes – "about my brain…"
Do the math: "man and boy"; "the day Young Hamlet was born";
"thirty years"; … "was born" – his birthday, and today –
his death day!
In the silence, the
Sexton sips from the licquor and, then, passes the stoup to the Prince. Before
Horatio can push the potent potion away, Hamlet has taken it and drunk …
DIRECTOR (off)
… The drink hits you.
Good. They’re watching … Something deep coming – play the King’s – play your
father’s tomb – Up Right, where the cross is… Touch it … Look …There’s your
"Ghost" – in "compleat stich" … What’s that? A red ant
moving across the marble? … And, look, there: it’s a, ah, a freckle of green
moss, already, on the statue’s helmet. Should you pull it off? No – no, let it
be … Summer’s coming… "Rest, rest, perturbèd spirit" … O.K.
ACTOR (Hamlet)
Wait …
The Director comes on
stage, slowly to face the problem.
DIRECTOR
…Talk to me.
HAMLET (Actor)
Let me try it the –
let me scrape off the moss and then –
DIRECTOR
Hamlet’s buried his –
HAMLET (Actor)
He’s not
"Hamlet" yet, he’s still the –
DIRECTOR
He’s buried his
father; he’s Hamlet at last.
HAMLET (Actor)
Not yet.
Pause. The Director
acts out what he wants from the Actor.
DIRECTOR
Right! You have to
give us that moment! … Look: you reach for the moss, to clean it off: "if
I wanted to be free what would I do?" You touch the cold marble. You
shiver with fear. You flinch your hand away. You feel sick again – like before
– then rage – because you’re sick of being sick! And you turn and face
all of them – the living and the dead – and you say the Magic Words:
"how long will my
father lie in the earth before he rots?" And it’s over. The Ghost is laid.
The King’s dead, the Prince dies! Hamlet lives! Full stop.
silence. They stare at
each other.
HAMLET (Actor)
… I want to try it one
beat later… He scrapes off the moss, he feels it on his fingers. And he’s
trapped again – inside the Prince’s body.
DIRECTOR
So, he –
HAMLET (Actor)
He needs help. He
needs an answer. And that’s why he turns to the old man to pose the
hidden question: "if I kill the Prince of Denmark – will I have to die,
too?"
silence. They stare.
Other actors in wings watching. Finally:
DIRECTOR
… Try it.
The Director stays on
stage to watch.
Hamlet resumes the
action. Again, he sees the ant crawling, the moss growing. He stares at the
growth on his father’s marble body.
He scrapes it off.
Rubs the moss between his fingers, looks at the residue on his hands. Leans against
the tomb, breathes, slumps – then pushes away, turning to the Old Gravedigger.
HAMLET
How long will a man
lie i’th’ earth ere he rot?
pause. The Director
speaks then retires to his table, in darkness.
DIRECTOR
… You’re right … I was
– you’re right.
The Director returns
to his table. Hamlet repeats the compleat moment.
HAMLET
How long will a man
lie i’th’ earth ere he rot?
OLD GRAVEDIGGER
Faith … if he be not
rotten before he die – as we have many pocky corses nowadays, that will scarce
hold the laying in – he will last you some eight year or nine year. A tanner
will last you nine year.
Hamlet listens, hears,
feels, comprehends. The Gravediggers lean against the walls of the pit and
watch the two young men. The sun is going down. The Prince is off balance. No
other person in this Elsinore has ever outwitted him. Never. Until today.
HAMLET
…Why he more than
another?
DIRECTOR (off, to
the Gravedigger)
… Bring Hamlet back,
now, he’s hooked, bring him in. Wait for the penny to drop.
OLD GRAVEDIGGER
Why, sir, his hide is
so tanned with his trade that he will keep out water a great while; and your
water is a sore decayer of your whoreson dead body…
The Gravedigger digs
deep – gives a laugh – turns up an old caked skull.
OLD GRAVEDIGGER (cont.)
…Here’s a skull now
hath lien you i’ th’ earth three-and-twenty years.
The Sexton picks up
the skull with studied ease, his eyes never leaving the Prince’s face. Slowly,
like a conjuror, he uses the deathshead to lure Hamlet back down to the open
grave.
The deathshead, of
course, is covered with clay, plant life, and worms. Thus, Hamlet jerks back
when the Old Man holds the reeking thing close to the Prince’s face.
HAMLET
…Whose was it?
OLD GRAVEDIGGER (a
laugh)
A whoreson mad
fellow’s it was. (closer) Whose do you think it was? (closer)
HAMLET
… Nay, I know not.
OLD GRAVEDIGGER (watching
Hamlet only)
A pestilence on him
for a mad rogue! He poured a flagon of Rhenish on my head once. (closer)
This same skull, sir, was, sir – Yorick’s skull! – the King’s jester.
HAMLET
…This?
OLD GRAVEDIGGER
…E’en that….
Hamlet is breathless.
Yorick! Of course! From the moment he saw and heard this old Clown, he had had
an uncanny infection or eruption of an old memory – long forgotten yet,
somehow, the ineluctable quintessence of his very being. And the Old
Gravedigger had been riddling with him all along.
Hamlet, now, leans
closer and closer to the skull; looks from the Old Gravedigger’s face to the
Jester’s skull. Back and forth.
The Sexton moves the
skull slowly around the Prince’s face.
HAMLET (panting)
Let me see it …
The Sexton moves the
skull closer, then, suddenly slips the ghastly bones into the Prince’s hand.
Hamlet is frozen with
atavistic terror. Horatio, as well. The two Clowns lean forward, flanking the
Prince.
Hamlet slowly directs
his head to swivel back to look at the Thing clutched in his claw. To look, to
breathe, and to come to grips with the Thing – worms, moss and all. The Prince
looks, pants, then breathes …
DIRECTOR (off)
… You were right. This
is where it appears. The nausea passes. The skull reeks but something else is
rising in him. He is re-membering. His entire body is breaking out in
memory… Something rising… Look at the Old Clown, then back to Yorick, then back
– and, then, suddenly, he knows what’s possessing him: love. Old love… So, you
were right.
HAMLET
Alas, poor Yorick! I
knew him, Horatio – a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy.
Hamlet slowly cleans
the skull of the dirt, moss, worms. He uses his handkerchief and his fingers.
The Gravediggers smile
and nod. Horatio gapes. Hamlet’s eyes are locked on the Old Gravedigger’s face.
HAMLET (cont..)
…He hath borne me on
his back a thousand times … and now how abhorred in my imagination it is! My
gorge rises at it … Here hung those lips that I have kissed I know not how oft
… Where be your gibes now? Your gambols? Your songs?
Hamlet hums a
remembered tune: "Imperious Caesar"
Your flashes of
merriment that were wont to set the table on a roar? Not one now to mock your
own grinning? Quite chapfallen? … Now get you to my lady’s chamber, and tell
her, let her paint an inch thick, to this favour she must come. Make her laugh
at that.
Hamlet studies the
"clean" skull, before slowly handing it back to the Sexton. The Old
Man gives it a final wipe and sets it on the lip of the grave.
The Sexton, then,
heaves himself up and sits next to the Prince, graveside; and the Young Sexton,
his son, joins them. They pass the licquor. Birdsong. Hamlet insists that
Horatio take a sip of the brew. Horatio, at last, wipes the mouth of the
container and tastes the mixture. They all laugh at his grimace, and he sits
down, too.
HAMLET
… Prithee, Horatio,
tell me one thing.
HORATIO
What’s that, my lord?
HAMLET
Dost thou think
Alexander looked o’ this fashion i’ th’ earth?
HORATIO
…E’en so.
HAMLET
And smelt so? Pah!
HORATIO
E’en so, my lord.
The Son Gravedigger is
now asleep on his Father’s shoulder. The faces of the Four are lit by the last
rays of the sun.
HAMLET
…To what base uses we
may return, Horatio! Why may not imagination trace the noble dust of
"Alexander" till he find it stopping a bunghole?
The Old Sexton winks
and nods at Hamlet. His son snores. Horatio gasps.
HORATIO
‘Twere to consider too
curiously to consider so.
Horatio may not have
the "trick" to see the "fine revolution" in Hamlet’s words,
but the Old Clown not only sees it, he says it – to himself – just as if he had
written the Prince’s part.
HAMLET
No, faith, not a jot:
but to follow him thither, with modesty enough and likelihood to lead it – as
thus: Alexander died, Alexander was buried, Alexander returneth to dust; the
dust is earth, of earth we make loam; and why of that loam whereto he was
converted might they not stop – a beer barrel?
And the Prince picks
up the skull and tosses it to the Old Clown. That Ancient Gentleman looks at
it, spits on it – in order to give the thing a final polish with his sleeve, --
plants a farewell kiss on the cranium, and tosses it back to Hamlet.
The Prince and
Gravedigger chuckle to each other as if to say, "Whose skull was this,
really – and what difference does it make?"
Then Hamlet kisses it
goodbye and lofts it back into the grave. He lifts the stoup of licquor in a
toast to the departed; the Sexton offers his toast, too. And it is over: Hamlet
has buried his father. Hamlet is quietly joyful, for the first time.
The Young Clown snores
on his Father’s shoulder. And Horatio? He sleeps softly on Hamlet’s. The Prince
and the Clown look down into the grave. The grave – of Yorick, and Alexander, and Julius Caesar, let alone
Hamlet Senior and his infernal Ghost – of all the interchangeable Heroes and
Fools in the long weary increment since Genesis.
The Play is at an end,
at last. All that remains is for the Prince and the Old Jester to sing one last
song. So that Alexander and Julius Caesar; and the "perturbed
spirits" of the two fathers – the false King Hamlet, and the true fool,
Yorick – can rest in peace until the end of this day; when the Old Clown will
bury Young Hamlet with all the others that he had loved and lost.
HAMLET & OLD
GRAVEDIGGER (sing)
Imperious Caesar, dead
and turned to clay,
Might stop a hole to
keep the wind away.
O, that that earth
which kept the world in awe
Should patch a wall
t’expel the winter’s flaw!
The Prince and the
Clown sing "Yorick’s Song". The other two sleep. The sun’s last rays
are fading. The song ends. Silence. The ACTORS wait.
From the dark theatre,
the DIRECTOR’S voice, as he and the STAGE MANAGER, arm in arm, walk on stage.
DIRECTOR
…Yeah … Stop a
"Bunghole" – patch a "beer barrel". Yeah … Well… Shall we
sing "Yorick’s Song" one more time? And then go home. Annnnd thennnn
– tomorrow – we’ll pick up with Ophelia’s funeral procession to the cemetery –
annnnd the g’damn Revenge Plot! (to the Hamlet Actor)… You were spot on:
he’s free at last – and forever…
And the six of them –
joined by the others – sing "Yorick’s Song", again.
ALL
Imperious Caesar, dead
and turned to clay,
Might stop a hole to
keep the wind away.
O, that that earth
which kept the world in awe
Should patch a wall t’expel
the winter’s flaw!
At the Curtain Call
the entire cast come on singing "Yorick’s Song".
The tempo is
syncopated and the Actors dance a jig as they sing – endeavouring to inspire
the Audience to join them in "Yorick’s Song".
—THE END –