ofelia

he raised a sigh so piteous and profound
that it did seem to shatter all his bulk 
and end his being.

proud, revengful and ambitious

Get thee to a nunnery. Why wouldst thou be a 
breeder of sinners? I am myself indifferent honest, but yet
I could accuse me of such things that it were better my
mother had not borne me. I am very proud, revengeful,
ambitious, with more offenses at my beck than I have
thoughts to put them in, imagination to give them shape,
or time to act them in. What should such fellows as I do
crawling between heaven and earth? We are arrant 
knaves all. Believe none of us. Go thy ways to a nunnery.     

cada vez que vuelvo sobre la obra descubro algo nuevo de lo que no me había percatado. 

HAMLET

Why, look you now, how unworthy a thing you make of

me! You would play upon me; you would seem to know

my stops; you would pluck out the heart of my

mystery; you would sound me from my lowest note to

the top of my compass: and there is much music,

excellent voice, in this little organ; yet cannot

you make it speak. 'Sblood, do you think I am

easier to be played on than a pipe? Call me what

instrument you will, though you can fret me, yet you

cannot play upon me.

esa carita

I have heard of your paintings too, well enough. 

God has given you one face and you make yourselves another. 

...

tengo que elegir un fragmento para analizar donde se hable de algún tema que se pueda relacionar con las prácticas y/o creencias religiosas de los elizabethan times. el problema es que para hacer eso leer debo todo el texto otra vez porque: no lo recuerdo. entonces encuentro otras cosas mientras en el fondo suena le último movimiento de la novena sinfonía de beethoven (hace unos años fuimos en expedición educativa al teatro con los chicos porque consideré imprescindible para su vida que presenciaran ese acto de nobleza y felicidad que es escuchar esa sinfonía en vivo). 

...

For ’tis a question left us yet to prove,

Whether love lead fortune, or else fortune love.

The great man down, you mark his favorite flies.

The poor advanced makes friends of enemies.

And hitherto doth love on fortune tend,

For who not needs shall never lack a friend,

And who in want a hollow friend doth try,

Directly seasons him his enemy.

But, orderly to end where I begun,

Our wills and fates do so contrary run

That our devices still are overthrown.

Our thoughts are ours, their ends none of our own.

So think thou wilt no second husband wed,

But die thy thoughts when thy first lord is dead.

director's notebook

escribí esto para el curso sobre hamlet

In this production the scene seems to be set in some dark place that could be anywhere. The characters are standing still as they engage in conversation, without looking at each other: their gaze directed towards a horizon from which they expect something to appear (as people wait for the bus to arrive at the bus stop). As for the clothes, they look modern. Hamlet is dressed with a leather jacket and Horacio is wearing a coat and scarf. Even the Ghost is wearing a “modern” jacket. The only thing that looks anachronistic is the Ghost’s crown which looks very humble, like made of tin.

The Ghost is on ground level, which strikes my attention because he is placed within “touching” distance from Hamlet. Unlike other productions where the Ghost appears to be more distant or out of Hamlet’s reach (like in Laurence Olivier 1948) or even floating in the air as in Teatro San Martín’s production (Buenos Aires Argentina 2019) where the Ghost is balancing above Hamlet’s head, far from him and his companions, standing on some sort of table that supports him.

On the contrary, in this example, the Ghost is very near Hamlet and one has the sensation that he can almost touch him if he stretches his arm. At the same time, the Ghost's eyes look lost, as if the King could not clearly see that the person who is talking to him is his son. King Hamlet does not really look like a Ghost, except for the smoke or fog that surrounds him and the fact that we already know that he is dead.

The fact that he is so tangible and so close makes us think that he is very real: he looks as if he were not actually dead because he is waiting for the truth to be revealed and the revenge to be taken in order for him to finally rest in peace.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Examples mentioned above:

Buenos Aires 2019, Teatro San Martín, Rubén Szuchmacher

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lqCpqiMoUs

England, 1948, Laurence Olivier

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6T1wKqW5F8

what a piece of work

gordo

puto

sin dientes

shakespeare emma smith

https://podcasts.ox.ac.uk/antony-and-cleopatra

además de eso, una obsesión nueva y estúpida (como todas las obsesiones): en el lugar donde hubo en un tiempo una lechuga olvidada, qué sé yo, los restos abandonados que permanecieron después de un almuerzo quizás, quién sabe, ahora hay un espacio vacío: el hueco que dejó un diente que ya no está. como en ciertos cuadros del renacimiento un personaje riéndose sin sentir vergüenza alguna por mostrar su deterioro, porque, al fin y al cabo, a nadie le importa demasiado la situación periodontal de una persona que ya no es parte de nuestra realidad. 

ese lugar oscuro y vacío se me antoja una suerte de venganza de la naturaleza (pero pienso que si se tratara de un accidente todo el asunto perdería la gracia). 

...

las micro-conferencias del profesor greenblat me llevan a pensar en qué clase de mujer se enamoraría de un  hombre así, cómo será en la cama (parece un hombre pequeño), ¿tendrá apetito sexual o lo único que le interesa es hablar de shakerpeare con otros eruditos como él?

....

¿cuántos pendientes hay?

saxo grammaticus

el historiador medieval que refería los hechos acontecidos en dinamarca. uno a quien shakespeare le tomó prestado el tema para hamlet. por supuesto hizo algunos cambios y quedó muy bien. según stephen greenblatt shakespeare era un ladrón y se sentía bien robando historias. era un pierre menard. parece que el asunto del fantasma sin embargo proviene de otra fuente, de un contemporáneo que escribió una versión para otra compañía de teatro de londres en la que en algún punto de la historia se oye un "hamlet, revenge" dicho desde el más allá por un espectro de origen desconocido.

...

creo que por primera vez (luego de haber visto hamlet varias veces a lo largo de mi vida) estoy empezando a ¿entender? de qué se trata.

...

The most compelling source for Hamlet is to me the Scandinavian story of Amleth as a young boy who is bereaved of his father and is supposed to get revenge when he grows up. The idea of a young man who is under social pressure to achieve something big and burdening (in Amleths case a revenge) is an idea that we can bring back to our own times: how many young people feel that there are things they are expected to do or achieve, things that are too difficult or impossible to accomplish because they are not emotionally prepared or even because they simply do not want to do those things 

Shakespeare's twist of the story releases Hamlet from society expectations related to his father assassination (since no one knows about it) but it does not release him from other kind of social conventions like for example, for how long would it be reasonable to be mourning someone you loved? He is questioned for his melancholy and is asked to forget about his father, not only by Claudio (who may be interested because he is the murderer) but by Gertrude, Polonious and even his friends.

So the anxiety of revenge comes from his own desire of revenge which has been prompted by the Ghost apparition. I think his own pressure is even more burdening because he has no way to avoid it. Had he been in the same situation than Amleth, his pretension of madness would have been enough to escape from social pressure. In Shakespeare's play it is not possible, and it makes him very perturbed, sad, and maybe in the end, mad.

welcome to elsinor

los chicos no se aburrieron con la tragedia isabelina. pensé que iban a quedarse dormidos en mitad de la función, que sobrevendrían las quejas y los intentos de fuga, pero no resultó así. no sólo siguieron la obra con bastante interés sino que pregunaron y luego eligieron momentos favoritos. creo que tengo que llevar a e. al teatro con mayor frecuencia. es posible que haya algo importante ahí (aunque creo que él todavía no se haya dado cuenta).

hay partes del libreto que conozco de memoria. the quintessence of dust. por ejemplo. 

What a piece of work is man, How noble in reason, how infinite in faculty, In form and moving how express and admirable, In action how like an Angel, In apprehension how like a god, The beauty of the world, The paragon of animals. And yet to me, what is this quintessence of dust? Man delights not me; no, nor Woman neither; though by your smiling you seem to say so

ya hamlet se daba cuenta en ese entonces de que el mundo estaba lleno de pelotudos.