Productions & Interpretations

Richard Burbage: The Original Hamlet (c.1600-19)

The original Hamlet was played by Richard Burbage, the lead actor of Shakespeare's company (the King's Men). Little is recorded of his performance, but it was likely more heroic and declamatory than modern Hamlets. Elizabethan acting was rhetorical: gestures were formalised, delivery projected to an open-air Globe audience of up to 3,000. Boy actors played Gertrude and Ophelia. The pace was fast with no scene breaks; soliloquies were delivered directly to the audience (not as private internal monologue); and sword fights were physical, energetic spectacles.

Thomas Betterton: Restoration Hamlet (1661-1709)

After the theatres reopened in 1660 following Puritan closure, Thomas Betterton played Hamlet for nearly fifty years. His was a dignified, heroic, noble Hamlet that emphasised virtue over complexity. William Davenant's adaptation heavily cut Shakespeare's text. The Restoration brought one crucial innovation: actresses now played women, meaning Gertrude and Ophelia were no longer performed by boy actors.

David Garrick (1742-1776)

Garrick brought more naturalistic acting (by 18th-century standards), emotional intensity, and psychological depth. His famous Ghost scene conveyed genuine terror and awe. He cut bawdy jokes and "low" humour to suit neoclassical taste, establishing Hamlet as a sensitive, noble, tragic hero and beginning the shift from declamatory to psychological acting.

Edmund Kean (1814-1833)

Kean embodied Romantic intensity: volcanic passion, emotional extremes, physical and mercurial unpredictability. Coleridge described his acting as "flashes of lightning." The Romantic era made Hamlet a tormented genius -- a sensitive soul unfit for a brutal world -- and Kean inspired Coleridge and Hazlitt's critical writings that defined Hamlet for the entire 19th century.

Henry Irving (1874-1885, Lyceum Theatre)

Irving's Hamlet was neurasthenic, delicate, and refined -- emphasising intellectualism over action. Lavish Victorian sets provided spectacle and historical accuracy, with Ellen Terry as a sympathetic, innocent Ophelia. The Victorian interpretation: Hamlet was too sensitive for a corrupt world; his delay represented refinement, not weakness; moral purity confronted worldly corruption.

John Barrymore (1922-25, US)

Barrymore brought Hollywood star charisma to an athletic, swashbuckling Hamlet that emphasised action over philosophy, reducing Hamlet's paralysis and making him a heroic avenger.

John Gielgud (1934-44)

Gielgud's lyrical, musical delivery defined mid-20th century Hamlet. Beautiful verse-speaking (his trademark), intellectual refinement, and introspective depth made Hamlet a melancholic poet. Less physical, more cerebral -- Gielgud emphasised the poetry of Shakespeare's language over the drama of violent action. His influence on how Hamlet was perceived lasted decades.

Laurence Olivier (1948, Film)

Olivier's film opened with the voiceover: "This is the tragedy of a man who could not make up his mind." His Oedipal/Freudian interpretation -- Hamlet in love with his mother -- cut Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, and Fortinbras to focus on family drama. Expressionist techniques (shadows, camera angles, voiceover thoughts) created a psychological interiority new to Shakespeare on film. The most influential Hamlet film until Branagh (1996), it popularised the Freudian reading but was criticised for oversimplifying: reducing delay to Oedipal conflict missed the play's philosophical and political complexity.

Peter Hall / David Warner (1965, RSC)

Warner's Hamlet as 1960s student rebel: scruffy, anti-establishment, alienated, wearing a red scarf as visual signature of non-conformism. In the context of Vietnam War protests and counterculture, Elsinore became an oppressive establishment and Hamlet a political hero refusing to participate in a corrupt system. This production made Hamlet contemporary and relevant to 1960s youth culture.

Buzz Goodbody / Ben Kingsley (1975, RSC)

Goodbody -- the first female RSC director -- staged a minimalist production at the intimate Other Place theatre: bare stage, contemporary dress, accessible and unpretentious. Kingsley's Hamlet was an everyman, not a prince. This democratised Shakespeare, removing elitist associations and suggesting that Hamlet's dilemma belonged to everyone.

Jonathan Pryce (1980, Royal Court)

Pryce's Hamlet was manic, dangerous, and volatile. His "antic disposition" was genuinely unnerving, his treatment of Ophelia and Gertrude aggressively unsympathetic. This production challenged the romanticised Hamlet tradition by showing the protagonist's capacity for cruelty -- Hamlet as abuser, not just tragic hero.

Kenneth Branagh (1996, Film -- Full Text)

Branagh's four-hour film performed the complete text -- every line of Shakespeare's play. Set in a 19th-century Blenheim Palace with epic scale (flashbacks, a hall of mirrors, military spectacle), Branagh's Hamlet was vigorous and decisive, not paralysed. The interpretation argued that Hamlet can act -- he kills Polonius quickly, sends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to death without remorse -- and that delay stems from external obstacles, not internal weakness. With Kate Winslet as Ophelia, Julie Christie as Gertrude, and Derek Jacobi as Claudius, the film demonstrated the play's richness and what is usually cut.

Michael Almereyda / Ethan Hawke (2000, Film)

Set in contemporary New York, "Denmark Corporation" recast Claudius as CEO and Elsinore as corporate empire. Hamlet was a film student using video diaries for his soliloquies. Technology-saturated, the film explored media, surveillance culture, and the alienation of modern urban life in a hyper-connected world.

Nicholas Hytner / Rory Kinnear (2010, National Theatre)

A surveillance state production with cameras and microphones everywhere, reflecting post-9/11 paranoia and the "war on terror." Kinnear's Hamlet was ordinary and relatable, not glamorous. Military Elsinore as garrison state raised questions about unjust war (Fortinbras), regime illegitimacy, and the political resonance of Iraq, Guantanamo, and government surveillance.

Greg Doran / David Tennant (2008-09, RSC)

Tennant (post-Doctor Who) brought youth appeal; Patrick Stewart played both Claudius and the Ghost, creating psychological doubling: is the Ghost real or Hamlet's projection? Modern dress with surveillance cameras continued the post-9/11 surveillance state theme.

Robert Icke / Andrew Scott (2017, Almeida)

Scott's tender, vulnerable, intimate Hamlet in a surveillance dystopia with video monitors everywhere. The production emphasised the Hamlet-Horatio relationship (queer subtext?), presented Gertrude and Ophelia as complex agents rather than victims, and brought feminist and queer readings to the foreground.

Gender-Bending & Diverse Casting

Women have played Hamlet since Sarah Bernhardt (1899). Maxine Peake (2014, Royal Exchange Manchester) presented a female Hamlet with working-class Northern accent, questioning both gender and class. Paapa Essiedu (2016) became the first Black Hamlet at the RSC, emphasising outsider status and bringing new racial resonance to the character's alienation. Adrian Lester (2001, 2018) brought further diversity. These castings ask fundamental questions: does gender change the character? Does race alter the power dynamics? Who gets to play Shakespeare?

"Hamlet thinks too much" -- over-intellectualises, can't act. Romantic hero: sensitive soul unfit for brutal world. Paralysis = imagination overwhelming will. Hugely influential: defined Hamlet for the entire 19th century.

Hamlet's melancholy prevents action. Psychological realism: treats Hamlet as a real person with a tragic flaw. Delay = moral sensitivity + grief-induced paralysis.

Hamlet can't kill Claudius because Claudius has done what Hamlet unconsciously wanted (kill father, possess mother). Oedipal reading elaborated by Ernest Jones (1949). Criticised as anachronistic.

"Hamlet is an artistic failure" -- emotion excessive relative to cause. The "objective correlative" (external facts) inadequate to justify Hamlet's disgust. Controversial: provoked enduring debate.

Hamlet as existential absurdist: no meaning, no justice, no purpose. Shakespeare Our Contemporary influenced bleak, nihilistic productions.

Gertrude: victim or agent? Ophelia: patriarchal victim, sexuality controlled and destroyed. Showalter: madness = female powerlessness. Rose: Hamlet's misogyny central, not incidental.

Ghost = return of Purgatory (Catholic doctrine haunting Protestant England). Hamlet reflects political anxieties: succession, legitimacy, court surveillance.

Denmark as empire; Hamlet's privilege (can afford philosophical luxury); Rosencrantz and Guildenstern as colonised subjects (Stoppard).

For AO3 (Contexts)

• Historical/political: Succession, regicide, court politics, Essex Rebellion
• Religious: Protestant/Catholic, Ghost's theology, death/afterlife, Purgatory
• Philosophical: Humanism, skepticism, melancholy, stoicism
• Social: Gender, revenge culture, honour, patriarchy
• Theatrical: Metatheatre, Elizabethan staging, boy actors

For AO5 (Interpretations)

• Critical readings: Romantic (Coleridge), Freudian (Oedipal), Feminist, Absurdist
• Productions: How different Hamlets (Olivier, Branagh, Tennant, Cumberbatch) create different meanings
• Directorial choices: Surveillance state (Hytner), corporate (Almereyda), family drama (Turner)
• Performance decisions: Ghost real or imagined? Gertrude complicit? Ophelia's madness?

Essay Integration Tips

• Don't "bolt on" context: Integrate naturally into analysis
• Link technique to context: "Hamlet's Wittenberg education reflects Renaissance humanism, evident when he... yet his melancholic rejection ('quintessence of dust') subverts humanist optimism"
• Use productions as evidence: "While Olivier's Freudian reading emphasised Oedipal desire, Branagh's political interpretation foregrounds..."
• Show critical awareness: "Some critics see Hamlet's delay as psychological (Bradley), others as theatrical necessity (performance critics argue...)"