Lasting Impressions by Rachel Frick Cardelle

Shakespeare’s ‘Hamlet’: a 400-Year-Long Conversation

Shakespeare wrote the tragedy “Hamlet” sometime around 1600 CE, a time of political uncertainty in England, as Queen Elizabeth I aged with no obvious heir. The Glimmer Globe Theatre’s production of “Hamlet,” directed by Michael Tamburrino, offers a chance to delve into what is widely considered one of Shakespeare’s greatest masterpieces, often placing at the top of lists of his best plays.

While normally I only cover college productions at SUNY Oneonta and Hartwick College, I looked forward to talking to Michael again (he had directed “On the Verge” in the spring at Hartwick). Plus, I wanted to go see this production with a little more insight than the first (and only) time I saw “Hamlet,” which was when I was in the seventh grade. To say I was hopelessly lost and confused throughout does not do justice to my ignorance.

It was at the Old Vic Theatre in London, and my one lasting impression is when my father dragged my little brother out part way through the show. After Hamlet (played by Albert Finney) gave a long speech, he bent to kiss Ophelia’s hand and, as he pulled back, a long spittle of drool hung between his mouth and her hand. My brother, like any respectable third-grade boy would, burst out, “Ew! Gross!” While I giggled, the British theatergoers around us were not amused. At all.

I used to think if I had seen the play again after being assigned to study it in my high school lit class, I would have been more engaged. However, since it has been numerous decades since high school (no, no need to count exactly how many decades, thank you very much…) I was glad to have a chance to talk to the director before seeing this performance. And Michael came through, leaving me more than ready to fully enjoy the play.

A quick recap of the story line (if there are any spoilers in here for you, you should have been paying better attention in your high school lit class!).

There’s this guy, Claudius, who murders his brother, the King of Denmark, and marries his brother’s wife, Gertrude. Claudius’ nephew, Prince Hamlet, is not only devastated by his father’s death and disturbed by how quickly his mother remarried, but also gets his knickers in a very tight twist when his father’s ghost informs him his Uncle Claudius murdered him. This takes the common understanding that “every family has that one uncle” to a whole new level. In his attempts at vengeance, Hamlet mistakenly poisons his girlfriend’s father—thereby sending his girlfriend, Ophelia, into madness—while Hamlet’s mother ends up dying when she drinks poison Claudius intended for Hamlet. Then Hamlet duels Ophelia’s brother, leading to both their deaths, but not before Hamlet kills his uncle. So, at the end of the play, Prince Fortinbras from Norway shows up and, with Hamlet’s blessing, takes control of the kingdom of Denmark.

“Hamlet” in its unedited version includes a number of scenes that set up the political scene, depicting the internal strife of Denmark and the decay of its body politic, and questioning what makes a ruler legitimate. That is to say that, in full, “Hamlet” runs over four hours long. Since I knew that, and considering that with a 15-minute intermission, Glimmer Globe’s production takes just over three hours, I asked Michael how he decided what to cut, whether he used someone else’s cut version, or did it himself.

“Well, I watched a lot of different versions that approach it in a lot of different ways. The Lawrence Olivier film version is, like, two hours and 20 minutes, but it cuts so much that it’s actually, I think, difficult to follow what’s going on. And, it makes some huge leaps. And my big thing was, I was trying to focus more on the family, and less on the geo-political,” Michael explained.

“When it comes to Shakespeare, I love his works. But I don’t treat it as a sacred text, necessarily. I’m totally game for changing things if it’s in service to allowing the audience to have an easier time. The Lawrence Olivier version, it gets it down to two and a half hours, but it cuts the characters of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern entirely, right, which also forces you to cut some really famous speeches,” he continued. “I was trying to leave enough in there, like the play within the play, the mouse trap, that Hamlet and the players put on to test Claudius’ guilt. Some of the ambassadors that come in from outside, I’ve cut them entirely… Scenes are shortened quite a bit. The grave digger scene is shortened a lot, and a lot of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern stuff is condensed. So, we leave the physical comedy and that sort of thing.”

In keeping with his theme of “allowing the audience to have an easier time,” Michael talked about how, once the actors are confident in their lines and their meanings, he focuses with them on ways to play the Shakespeare characters to make them interesting.

“It’s a long play. There’s so much stuff, but my big advice to them [the actors] is, it’s really easy to generalize emotions when you’re performing Shakespeare. If you’re doing a monologue and you’re like, ‘Oh, I know! I’m supposed to be feeling mournful here!’ and you just paint over the monologue with a broad brush of mournfulness, it’s boring. What I try to work with them on is [the idea] you’re always making an argument, right? You’re always trying to make a point or trying to influence something or influence someone, that’s what’s interesting, that’s what makes it engaging,” Michael said.

“Shakespeare was kind of revolutionary. He was one of the first to present characters who were not caricatures or archetypes. He presents fully formed, complex people who change dramatically over the course of a show, who lie, who contradict themselves. Like Hamlet says in his advice to the players in the show: The purpose of theater is to hold a mirror up to nature, to make something look realistic and believable. And that was not always the case with theater. The ancient Greeks and classical tragedies, they weren’t trying to look realistic,” he added.

Michael and I also talked about whether Hamlet’s father’s ghost is a literal apparition or a psychological project. (Michael believes the initial appearances are literal, while the final appearance is a psychological projection.) We debated whether Hamlet’s madness is feigned or real. (Michael’s take? “Where I lean is that it’s calculated. And he may lose control of it at certain moments, but for the most part, he knows exactly what he’s doing. I think that he’s just about always the smartest person in the room…Doesn’t mean he can’t get carried away.”)

All of this conversation made the show more enjoyable when I went. Especially as Michael went on to talk about his casting of the show. This is the 10-year anniversary of the Glimmer Globe, and the first time they have had an actor from out of state—Jackie Madejski, who plays Hamlet. The theatre was able to hire Jackie thanks to a new partnership with Aunt Karen’s Farm, which allowed Glimmer Globe to offer housing as well as studio space, for which Michael was deeply appreciative. The rest of the cast and crew is comprised of community members and local talent, ranging from high-school students to veteran actors, including two names I recognized from writing this column: Lazaro Mahar (a SUNY O student who plays multiple parts in “Hamlet”) and Gary Burlew (a Hartwick faculty member who did set construction for this production).

Getting to watch the show with some of the director’s take in my mind—and the energy of a production featuring a healthy mix of outside and homegrown talent—made the three hours go quickly. Much faster than I remember from seventh grade!

Perhaps the most intriguing part of our conversation was when I asked Michael what he hoped audiences will take away from this production of “Hamlet.”

“My favorite thing about working with the actors, and something that I hope the audiences take away, is that Shakespeare is this living, breathing entity. There’s no definitive production of ‘Hamlet.’ Every ‘Hamlet’ changes and affects all other ‘Hamlets’ going forward. It’s like this ripple effect… there will, for better or for worse, be some choice that we make in our production that somebody seeing it will remember, agree with or disagree with, and then change how they think about ‘Hamlet’ in the future. And then that’s going to affect future readings of ‘Hamlet,” he said.

“It keeps trickling on down the line, it’s like a 400-year-long conversation, and it’s a privilege to be part of that. I want people to feel that it’s not this stuffy thing that’s set in stone. It’s changing and living and breathing,” he continued. “I want people to also think about the fact that it’s not this dark, nihilistic play about death. It grapples with some of the most fundamental questions that we possibly deal with as human beings! What does my life mean? What happens after I die? How do I live a good life? And that’s Hamlet’s journey.

“Hamlet matures, goes from a state of adolescent angst and vitriol to an understanding of his place in the larger cosmic scope of things. I think that’s something that happens to all of us to an extent, as we grow and get older. Hamlet feels at the beginning of the play, hopeless and betrayed; he doesn’t have control of his life. He finds himself in a play that he doesn’t want to be in. I didn’t audition for this, and here I am. I want to get out. I want to do something else with my life. And the play is a process of him trying to rewrite the ending of his own play.”

I enjoyed being part of this “400-year-long conversation; enjoyed a production that was far more lighthearted than what I anticipated, was stunned as I sat through it to hear how many phrases we quote in modern day conversation that come from this play (“neither borrower nor lender be,” “to thine own self be true,” “brevity is the soul of wit,” “the lady doth protest too much, methinks,” “I must be cruel, only to be kind”…), and appreciated, once again, how rich we are in the performing arts here in Otsego County.

I also walked away wishing my seventh-grade self had been able to speak to Michael before heading out to the theatre.

“Hamlet,” directed by Michael Tamburrino of Glimmer Globe Theatre, shows at the Fenimore Art Museum’s Lakeside Lucy B. Hamilton Amphitheater Wednesday and Thursday evenings at 7 p.m. The final performance is August 14. Tickets are available online and, in the event of inclement weather, the production is moved inside to the Fenimore Art Museum Auditorium.

Rachel Frick Cardelle covers performing arts at SUNY Oneonta and Hartwick College.