Staging the Ghost: A Critical Approach
Created by Andrew James Hartley (State University of West Georgia), with John Ammerman (Emory University), Tom Beggs (State University of West Georgia), and Sarah Lyons (MIT Shakespeare Project)
In the Summer season of 1999, the Georgia Shakespeare Festival (www.gashakespeare.org) staged Shakespeare's Hamlet under the direction of John Dillon, with Saxon Palmer in the title role and John Ammerman (Emory University and Georgia Shakespeare Festival Associate Artist) playing the ghost. What follows is an investigation of one of the production's most striking moments, the interview between Hamlet and the Ghost (1.5.2-92). It is constructed of footage of the scene itself (filmed with the kind permission of both the actors and the GSF staff), an interview with Mr. Ammerman, and some observations (text and video) by Andrew Hartley, an Assistant Director and Dramaturg for the festival.
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MASTER CLIP
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How does this portrayal of the exchange between Hamlet and the Ghost compare to other versions of this scene you have seen -- Olivier's? BBC's? Zeffirelli's? Branagh's? Which lines in the text do you think inspired the actors from the Georgia Festival to work the scene in this way? If you were acting in this scene, how might you do the scene differently? |
Several lines are cut from the beginning of this exchange between Hamlet and the Ghost:
Folio Text (1623)
| What is the impact of such cuts? How might the scene be different if those lines were included? |
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