Globe Education Online

In his penultimate blog post, Tim discusses how Hamlet has been brought to the stage, the audience's reaction to his character, and how having performed at the Globe before has helped him develop his skills.

Hamlet on stage

The season has now reached a stage where the play has settled into performance and we have just gone into rehearsal for the second play of the season, The Antipodes by Richard Brome. Hamlet has evolved in performance and I find that we have changed or developed many ideas since rehearsals. This is good as it ensures the play does not become stale. I have my experience of playing the Globe stage last season to draw on and this means I can be slightly more relaxed on stage than those working on it for the first time.

Audience reaction to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern

I have found that audiences warm to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, but that the only way we develop any relationship with them is through Hamlet. Audiences particularly respond to Act 3 Scene 2 where Hamlet confronts Guildenstern, accusing him of ‘playing’ him like a ‘pipe’. The way we perform this scene can be quite varied. Sometimes I will be distant from Hamlet while in other performances I am angry. After this scene it becomes very clear that Guildenstern believes that any alliance or agreement he makes with Gertrude and Claudius is for Hamlet’s own benefit. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are astounded by Hamlet’s murder of Polonius – after this point they pity him and work with his uncle because they believe it to be the best course of action.

Developing skills

This season I am able to develop the skills I acquired last year – I know the strong parts of the stage e.g. the diagonals and up stage centre, and am able to use these skills to help me play each scene. We try not to fix blocking for the play but to keep movements quite fluid. This is good because it means we do not repeat previous work and have to respond what happens in each scene each time it is played.

These comments are the actor's thoughts or ideas about the part as s/he goes through the rehearsal process-they are simply his/her own interpretations and frequently change as the rehearsal process progresses.

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