Hamlet Productions

Kean's 19th century production

Hamlet's love for Ophelia remained evident throughout the play.

1925 Kingsway Theatre

Robert Holmes played an unusually sympathetic Laertes + spoke this line directly to King rather than an aside: 'And yet it is almost against my conscience'.

Olivier's 1937 production

psychosexual meanings with the phallic symbolism of the rapier and dagger and the erotic scenes.

How did Laurence Olivier's 1937 production open?

'This is the tragedy of a man who could not make up his mind'

Derek Jacobi 1977

Armed guards killed Horatio and all the lords of the Danish court. Fortinbras was depicted as despicable.

Hansgunther Heyme's production in 1979

Actors videoed each other with hand-held cameras. Footage then multiplied every action via a wall of TV monitors. Huge emphasis on surveillance. Sense of performance elevated.

Melissa Murray's agitprop play Ophelia in 1979

Ophelia runs off with a woman servant to join a feminist guerrilla commune.

Richard Eyre's production at the Royal Court in 1980

No Ghost to be seen- instead its terrifying speeches were wrenched out of Jonathan Pryce's Hamlet as he writhed in the grip of a psychic possession.

Bergman's production 1987

Hamlet flung Ophelia to the floor & mimed rape. There was no arras when Polonius was killed. He staggered across entire stage bleeding and collapsed. Hamlet deliberately stabbed him in the chest twice.

Franco Zeffirelli's 1990 film

Ghost employs a calm, quiet voice & begins to sob while whispering. Cut the character of Fortinbras completely allowing the focus of the play to be on dysfunctional families rather than political discord.

Adrian Noble 1992

In one of the earlier scenes, Joanne Pearce's Ophelia was led off like a little girl, wrapped up in her father's coat, highlighting the extent to which she was overprotected. Came across as a sad, childlike figure whose madness seemed curiously inevitable. Her bedroom was presented on stage as a little girl's room. In the closet scene, the ghost was dressed in a cardigan and trousers, with little attempt made to suggest a supernatural figure .

Kenneth Branagh's 1996 film

Kate Winslet plays Ophelia as a consenting partner in a full sexual relationship with Hamlet. There are continual flashbacks of love-making sessions with Hamlet. The ghost wears coloured contacts, speaks with an unnatural, aggressive voice and grabs Hamlet around the neck to push him to the floor. This film emphasises the territorial war and power struggle between Denmark & Norway using a giant statue of Old Hamlet to represent the ghost which is destroyed in the final sequence by the Norwegians. Gertrude described by Julie Christe as 'a passive character who never makes herself clear'.

Matthew Warchus 1997

Instead of handing out flowers, Ophelia spills pills around the stage- symbol of her distress. During the 'To be or not to be' speech, Alex Jennings held a gun to his head. This production didn't begin on the battlements; instead, it started with a film. Projected onto the back of the stage was a home movie of a young boy playing in the snow with his father and a dog. It was a personal tragedy about Hamlet, about his grief and about the way he coped with it.

National Theatre production 2000- directed by John Caird

Tim Hatley's design shows high, dark metallic walls surrounding the stage, suggestive both of a prison and the lofty space of a cathedral. The idea of life as a journey, a pilgrimage, is also important in this production and signalled through the design. Emphasises the Christian theme of sin and redemption.

Gregory Doran 2009

Polonius played as a prattling old fool. He is gentle & passive Claudius played as a silent, calm, calculated killer. A manipulative player. After the Mousetrap, instead of becoming hysterical in response to when Hamlet indirectly accuses him of his crime, he is calm + shakes his head, as if to give a warning.

Ian Rickson 2011

Set in a psychiatric institution. Drugs are regularly dispensed indicating that Hamlet may, in fact, have reached a stage of insanity. In this case, ghost didn't exist & it was instead Hamlet who spoke his lines, appearing like a madman.

Lyndsey Turner's 2015 production of Hamlet

Hamlet extremely childlike and at times the performance can almost be classed as comical. Dresses up as a toy soldier and has a play castle.

Robert Icke 2017

Ophelia hemmed in by a wheelchair. Restriction exemplifies her passivity. Even at heightened hysteria, she is controlled. During the closet scene, Hamlet gets on top of his mother to deliver the lines, highlighting the oedipal interpretation of the text. Michael Billington: "No one is ever quite alone in this corrupt kingdom".

Kenneth Branagh 2017

Instead of the traditional opening, Hamlet plays piano singing refrain 'He is dead and gone, lady/ He is dead and gone...' - Hamlet & Ophelia brought together with dead Father parallel- both given limited time to grieve. Sean Foley played a comedic Polonius. Rosencrantz performed a choreographed dance with Hamlet when R & G entered, suggesting great intimacy of their friendship.

What was Celestino Coronado's 1976 production of Hamlet?

This is a deeply psychoanalytic view of the play, with Hamlet played by twins who represent different sides of his personality and Helen Mirren famously doubling Ophelia and Gertrude in a way that plays with Ernest Jones' oedipal interpretation of the play.

What was interesting about use of costume in Garrick's production of Hamlet in 1772?

Garrick's hair had a hidden mechanism in it to stand upright in fear at the Ghost's entrance. Highlights religious impacts of the play.

What was significant about the ghost in Laurence Olivier's 1937 film?

Laurence Olivier also voiced the ghost's lines.