Hamlet (place)

About: Hamlet (place) is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 2771 publications have been published within this topic receiving 16301 citations.

Louis XVI: The Silent King

Abstract: Louis XVI was the central character in the French Revolution, a major turning point in world history. Yet he remains largely unknown or, rather, stereotyped as the stupid, lazy, weak, and ultimately treasonous king dominated by Marie-Antoinette. This fresh investigation explains how the stereotype evolved and corrects it, with the aid of those few of Louis' contemporaries and later historians who have never entirely accepted its veracity and with new evidence published by the author. The new material enables the author to get to the bottom of the mind and personality of this wilfully enigmatic man and to attempt, for the first time, a reconstruction of his political thought. The new light shed on the king also illuminates the French Revolution as a whole, which has too often appeared as Hamlet without the prince.

Theatrum Mundi and site in four television Shakespeare films

Abstract: This article explores metatheatricality and site specificity in four Shakespeare television films produced by Illuminations Media: Gregory Doran’s Macbeth (2001), Hamlet (2009) and Julius Caesar (2...

Ophelia Sings like a Prima Donna Innamorata: Ophelia’s Mad Scene and the Italian Female Performer

Abstract: The 1603 First Quarto of Hamlet, sometimes known as the play’s “bad quarto,” includes the following stage direction: “Enter Ophelia, playing on a Lute, and her haire downe singing” (scene xiv, line 1690).1 While many commentators relate this description to a contemporary staging choice, few explain its derivation or rationale. For their part, editors have tended to omit, bracket, or footnote Q1’s indication, perhaps to confirm the doubtful status of this text as “pirated,” or an actor’s “memorial reconstruction.”2 In turn, this editorial preference has evidently influenced modern stage and film versions of Hamlet, most of which, though they1 All scene and line references for the First Quarto version of Hamlet are to the excellent edition entitled Il primo Amleto, with facing Italian translation, by Alessandro Serpieri (Venice: Marsilio, 1997). Following standard practice, I abbreviate the First Quarto, Second Quarto and First Folio versions of the play as “Q1,” “Q2,”and “F,” respectively; for Q2 and F references, I mainly use the Arden edition of Hamlet, ed. Harold Jenkins (London: Arden, 1982). Jenkins accepts the identification of Q1 as a “memorial reconstruction.” I also use the edition of the play by Susanne L. Wofford (New York: St Martin’s Press, 1994). I wish to thank Professor Serpieri for generously and very helpfully commenting on an early draft of this essay. Similar thanks go to Robert Henke and my other colleagues in the “Theater without Borders” international working group on early modern drama, and at Syracuse and New York Universities in Florence.

Being European: "Hamlet" on the Israeli Stage

Abstract: One of the most prolific fields of Shakespeare studies in the past two decades has been the exploration of local appropriations of Shakespeare’s plays around the world. This article, however, foregrounds a peculiar case of an avoidance of local appropriation. For almost 60 years, repertory Israeli theaters mostly refused to let Hamlet reflect the “age and body of the time”. They repeatedly invited Europeans to direct Hamlet in Israel and offered local audiences locally-irrelevant productions of the play. They did so even though local productions of canonical plays in Israel tend to be more financially successful than those directed by non-Israelis, and even when local national and political circumstances bore a striking resemblance to the plot of the play. Conversely, when one Israeli production of Hamlet (originating in an experimental theatre) did try to hold a mirror up to Israeli society—and was indeed understood abroad as doing so—Israeli audiences and theatre critics failed to recognize their reflection in this mirror. The article explores the various functions that Hamlet has served for the Israeli theatre: a rite of passage, an educational tool, an indication of belonging to the European cultural tradition, a means of boosting the prestige of Israeli theatres, and—only finally—a mirror reflecting Israel’s “age and body.” The article also shows how, precisely because Hamlet was not allowed to reflect local concerns, the play mirrors instead the evolution of the Israeli theatre, its conflicted relation to the Western theatrical tradition, and its growing self-confidence.