By Jonny Hill
After many years of deliberation, the ANU’s Shakespeare Society (Shakesoc) finally decided to stage a performance of the Bard’s most famous work, Hamlet.
Observer sat down with co-directors James Phillips and Sequoia Avrtarovski to discuss the challenges in staging this mammoth of a play.
The play dramatises the struggles of the Danish prince Hamlet and the dilemmas he faces in deciding whether to avenge the death of his father by killing his uncle. Hamlet is widely considered not only Shakespeare’s greatest work but also a central part of the Western canon.
Despite its fame, the play hadn’t been performed by Shakesoc until now.
“I know one of the reasons why it hasn’t been performed until this year was the Shakespeare Society was pretty concerned about, one, this is a very long play, and it’s very central on one character”, explained Phillips. This presented a challenge to the directors as they were forced to condense the play into just 90 minutes.
According to Phillips, the “key to our pitch, to being actually allowed to present this play, was demonstrating that one we can cut it to a reasonable length, and that also, this won’t be too much on one person’s shoulders”.
When asked about how they decided which aspects of the play to cut, the answer was straightforward. Avrtarovski admitted that she “personally [didn’t] like the character of Hamlet”. She explained that cutting down the play was not too hard as they could “cut a few minutes if we just cut [Hamlet’s] soliloqu[ies]”.
The play has seen many interpretations over the years, with the world’s most famous actors and directors each giving their personal take on the play. When asked how they aimed to distinguish their performance from other interpretations, Phillips explained,“ I think some of the horror [we’re adding], some of the decay … one thing that a lot of people don’t think about Hamlet is that it is deeply weird”. For Phillips, the ghosts, the portents, and the embedded horror imagery were all aspects of the play he wanted to bring out in the Shakesoc production.
However, Phillips also explained that despite their emphasis on the supernatural, they also aimed to maintain a sense of realism. “It’s not some… grand story,” he said. “It’s human”.
Although many high school students have been traumatised by the play’s dense language and complex themes, the directors were confident that the play’s topics would still resonate with modern audiences.
“Hamlet’s [themes] are pretty timeless. You still have boys that lose their fathers and resent their mothers for it,” Avrtarovski explained. “There are notions of misogyny that are still deeply entrenched; you still have to try to come to terms with loss and how to relate to a lover and what to make of a relationship when it feels like your whole world’s falling apart.”
“I feel like a lot of it is just really trying to create something that we think conveys everything we love about the play. Regardless of whether someone’s read it and studied it in detail or if they’ve never read any Shakespeare”.
There are rising concerns at the declining number of people who still see live theatre performances, as the Australian Bureau of Statistics found that only 22.8 per cent of people aged over 15 have attended a theatre performance in the previous 12 months. However, the directors of Hamlet advocate that live theatre is still worthwhile entertainment.
“It’s fun. It’s accessible,” said Phillips. Reflecting on theatre’s place in a media-dense world, illustrating how instead of hard work getting lost in post-production and editing, “theatre is something where you just give it your all”.
“Your feedback with audiences is immediate,” Phillips explained.
According to Phillips, unlike other forms of media which are increasingly reliant on online exposure, theatre’s not about getting clicks. “You’re not worrying about virality,” he said.
With the success of Hamlet, it seems that despite the complexities of the modern world, there still seems to be an audience for the Bard’s work.
Graphics by Nur Aisyah
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