Hamlet in.....THE FUTURE

Hello people of Earth. I come to you speaking from the planet Mars.
The year is 7098;
Space travel has now become as easy as driving to the supermarket, flying cars are a thing of the past, and
time travel has finally been invented by none other than Albert Einstein himself.
Earth has a slight resemblance to the scenery of "Meet the Robinsons".

Anyways......

For this blog post, we were assigned to recreate Hamlet in another setting. As you have probably guessed already, I chose (dun, dun, duuunnn) THE FUTURE.  

My new (maybe improved, however which way you see it) cast list would be the about the same, but they would have updated, more relevant attire. I was thinking:

---------or---------

Also, instead of Denmark being the thing that Claudius rules it will be the planet of Mars(it will be called Mars INC. and it will control all items pertaining to Mars).
Baby Fortinbras would be the ruler of Neptune and would would wage war with large blocks of space junk as ammo.
Horatio and Marcellus would be the trusty soldiers of Mars. They would look like the people from the movie "Tron" and even ride around on those cool motorcycles.
Instead of Hamlet going to college in Germany, he will now be going to college on Earth.

On Mars, I would imagine that the buildings would resemble those of the futuristic ones one Earth in the movie "Meet the Robinsons".  It would be even more updated, though:

If you want my opinion, I think that this version of Hamlet  is way more exciting. Here's a sample scene from the new play.

Act 2 Scene 2: when Hamlet is confronted by Polonius --
 In this part of the scene, Hamlet appears to be just looking straight ahead, but don't be fooled, Hamlet is reading through his invisible glasses. At this point I need to mention that everybody has a pair of iGlass (the newest thing made by Apple). They are basically a hearty combination of Google Glass and an iPhone. Here is a picture:

So, Hamlet is walking(more like jumping) through the anti-gravity hallway reading a book through his iGlass.
Meanwhile, Polonious, Claudius and Gertrude are huddled around a monitor waiting for Hamlet to be on-line for IM-ing. Of course he is everyday for four hours. Polonius IMs Hamlet and they have their conversation, like normal however, they use slang relevant to the era.
I also might add that to respond back to a message, you talk out loud and the iGlass will pick it up and type it back to the recipient. Onlookers might perceive this as crazy, just like Claudius did when Hamlet first showed him how to use it. Also, this is how Hamlet says his soliloquies. They are messages to himself....

I hope you enjoyed this futuristic interpretation of Hamlet. I am signing off, back to Mars I go!

"To be or not to be" Soliloquy

For this blog post, I found two videos from YouTube that portray Hamlet's soliloquy from Act 3 Scene 1 and compare/contrast them.
Yes, this is where Shakespeare writes, "To be or not to be - that is the question"(3.1.64).
Here are the videos that I found.

and...

Please watch both of these clips, they are not as boring as you would think. I enjoyed both!

I would like to notice that both of these videos have Hamlet talking in a soft voice. It was neat that they both had that element because it made the soliloquy about death quite eerie. Also, that was most likely a choice of both directors of the scenes (and quite possibly Shakespeare and Hamlet) so it is not as obvious that Hamlet is talking to himself, but more of 'thinking aloud'.

In the second video, I like how the actor quivers his lips as if he is having a hard time saying his lines because the topic of the soliloquy is not really happy and an easy thing to say especially when being a devout Christian like Hamlet.
I also like how dramatic and up-close the camera angles are. It seems as if you are really are inside Hamlet's thoughts.

In the first video, I really like how there is a mirror. It makes the scene seem even more dark and depressing, as if he is judging himself, if he is like a weak girl or not. And, spoiler alert(not if you did what I said and watched the videos), Hamlet pulls out a sword as if he is going to kill himself right there and then! This really adds to the dramatic-ness(sorry that is not a word) of the scene and the soliloquy.

Overall, I would have to say I liked the first video the most. The props and setting of the scene make it more dramatic and real to the viewer. I also enjoy how the camera slowly zooms in on Hamlet, it just makes it a lot more interesting to watch, instead of up-close-and-personal zoomed in all the way like the first video.

Oh and for your entertainment here is the "to be or not to be" soliloquy song!

Good-bye for now!

The Many Portrayals of Ophelia in Act 1 Scene 3

I was assigned to watch this video and notice how the actor portrays Ophelia and if I agree with her portrayal. Then compare the first acting to another actor portraying Ophelia in the same scene. (Act 1 Scene 3)
First video:  

The second video: 

In the first video, Ophelia is portrayed as a bubbly, loving sister. Well, at least around her brother. She is willing to take her brothers advice, but by her smile while Laertes tells her the dangers of loving Hamlet, we know that she will definitely go with her gut. This actor also plays Ophelia as a playful soul, especially when she pulls out some of Laertes' stuff. I think that this actor portrayed Ophelia quite well. I imagine Ophelia as a smart girl who will has her own opinions and will stick by them. When Polonius warns Ophelia to stay away from Hamlet, she says, "I will obey my lord" sarcastically, but submissively. However, we all know that she just wanted her dad to go away and know that she obviously has her own plans of continuing to see Hamlet.

The second video portrays Ophelia as a less prominent character, however, if she is in a Shakespeare play, she is definitely important. I am confident to make the statement that Shakespeare has a reason for every little thing in his plays.  That is what makes reading Shakespeare so much fun, even better than going to Disneyland! *sarcasm*  I feel like in the second portrayal she is able to get bossed around by her brother quite easily, but slyly knows her own boundaries and can retort if she wants to. I see this especially in 0:48 seconds of the scene where she smirks a little bit only to herself. 

The two scenes have portrayed Ophelia differently. In the first scene she is shown to have more power and control over her opinions, while in the second she can be influenced easily.  I think the first portrayal captures Shakespeare's vision of Ophelia, more, since she is shown to be more of a sisterly figure by being playful, happy, and caring. However, no one can be too sure of what exactly Shakespeare wanted in his plays. Again the excitement!
My challenge to you, reader, is to portray Ophelia in your own way, possibly different than the two scenes above or maybe the same....

First Impression of Hamlet

As I start to read Hamlet by none other than Shakespeare himself, I read about the depressing character, Hamlet.

Hamlet seems as if he hates the world. When Hamlet first appears in Act 1 Scene 2, he is wearing the "nighted color" (1.2.70) and is told by his mother to "let thine eye look like a friend on Denmark"(1.2.71). The nighted color referred is black and his mother wants Hamlet to be friendly to the King. 

He is described by Shakespeare wearing all black, to emphasize his depression over the fact that he is still stuck over mourning his father's death. Hamlet's father has been dead about two months and Hamlet is still terribly mourning over the loss that it has consumed him to wear all black. I guess you can say Hamlet is childish because he can't move on from the death of a loved one, while adult or mature figures can move on with their lives. Of course, grieving and mourning is part of the recovery process when someone dies, but that part of the process typically lasts two weeks, definitely not two months.  I am not at all saying that you should remember the loved one for only two weeks and then forget them all together and completely move on. No, you should always keep them in your thoughts but it should not consume you like it does to Hamlet.

Shakespeare also portrays Hamlet as a scornful prince. He does not want to admit that his mother married the current King, Hamlet's dad's brother. Hamlet idolizes his father and hates that his mother moved on so quickly. Hamlet remarks that "She married. O'with wicked speed, to post / With such dexterity to incestuous sheets!" (1.2. 161-162) He calls the marriage "incestuous", but in fact it is totally legal. Calling a legitimate marriage incest is probably one of the worst charges you could make about a marriage, especially about your own MOTHER! To even emphasize the "wicked speed" of her turn around and marrying the brother of her former husband, Shakespeare writes that "the funeral baked meats / Did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables" (1.2.186-187). In other words, the funeral leftovers were still good for the wedding. Woah, Shakespeare is rubbing the death in! Shakespeare is definitely contributing to the depression factor of Hamlet.  

At this point in the play, Hamlet is a downer, and wants nothing to do with his mother or especially the King. By analyzing other Shakepeare plays, most of his characters change, so I am expecting Hamlet to change. I do not know whether it will be a very dramatic positive change or a subtle even more negative change. I guess, I have to read on.