A.’s Crazy Hamlet Production

This afternoon finally saw the completion of my friend A.'s masterpiece, an abridged and adapted version of Hamlet. A. studied the play as part of an English Literature course on Shakespeare and for his final assignment, decided to make a short film. Although his film consisted (eventually) of just three short seasons, the production was quite epic.

We originally shot two scenes last week, without any preparation or rehearsal. However, A., ever the perfectionist, wasn't happy with their quality, and therefore decided we needed to do it again. This is the point when things started to get complicated. Firstly, he decide to write another scene, featuring two new characters and a mix of Shakespeare's dialogue and his own. This of course required two new actors, and they had to learn their lines, and it also meant we had four people to co-ordinate with regards to arranging a time to film. He also had to convince his friend to play a woman. A.'s argument that boys used to play women in Shakespeare's time wasn't well received, but he did eventually manage to persuade his friend.

However, now ready to film, A. discovered that the media department (from which he had borrowed the camera for the first shot) wouldn't let him use their camera again. Hence another day's delay while A. tracked down another camera - one that was of a slightly lesser quality this time. Finally, this afternoon, it all came together. With a fifth friend tagging along as an extra, A. delivered part of Hamlet's 'to be or not to be' soliloquy from the new venue of a prison. The second scene was a dialogue between Ophelia and the Queen just before Ophelia kills herself, (with Ophelia singing Shakespeare's lines to Celine Dion's 'My Heart Will Go On'). The final scene was an entirely improvised conversation between Hamlet (still in prison) and Horatio (your truly).

At the end of the day, I don't think we'll be winning any Oscars, but it was good fun nevertheless and A. seemed pleased with the results, (at least at the time of writing).