Thoth Tarot (Aleister Crowley and Frieda Harris):
The Three of Discs – Works
(image used by permission of the Ordo Templis Orientis, Secretary General/ International Headquarters,
Berlin, Germany)
... a/k/a the seasoning: use according to your discretion, not strictly as directed.
Yes, yes, I know I said that Shakespeare never created a character with a specific purpose in mind, and that's true here as well, of course. So if you're staging a full, unabbreviated version of "Hamlet," you'll almost necessarily find yourself using them all (or almost all – even the BBC/Derek Jacobi version, which claims to be an unabbreviated one and indeed faithfully uses every significant passage from the Second Quarto customarily inserted even into otherwise First Folio-based text versions, drops the "And let those that play your clowns ..." part from Hamlet's admonishments to the Players and excises the courtier whom the Second Quarto has appearing immediately after Osric's message about the King's wager preceding the duel). But as soon as your interpretation involves even the most minimal abbreviation(s), I'll bet you six Barbary horses and six French rapiers and poniards, with their assigns, girdle and hangers, that you'll be tampering with the bit parts, too; in fact, they're likely going to be the very first thing you'll find yourself playing with or scratching entirely. Because however many lines these folks may have, they have no purpose of their own in driving the plot but merely exist in connection with one or more of the other characters, so whether (and how) you use them depends exclusively on the importance you place on that very specific and limited purpose of theirs.
Thoth Tarot (Aleister Crowley and Frieda Harris):
The Three of Discs – Works
(image used by permission of the Ordo Templis Orientis, Secretary General/ International Headquarters,
Berlin, Germany)
Polonius's servant and foil in that scene showing to what lengths the venerable Counsellor will go to spy, even on his own son – and this, incidentally, very likely at the same moment when in his very own house the allegedly mad Prince Hamlet is breaking into his defenceless daughter's bedchamber and scaring the poor girl out of her wits. (Okay, so that timing is a bit of conjecture, but distraught as the girl still is when she tells her Papa about the encounter, I don't think too great an interval can have passed between the two scenes ... and looking at the sequencing of Grigori Kosintzev's movie in particular, I have a feeling that at least the director of one of my five favourite film adaptations seems to have drawn the same conclusions.) – Would I use the Reynaldo scene? Absolutely; you bet I would. I think it's a golden opportunity to shed some light on Polonius's character that we don't see shining half as brightly in his interactions with anybody else – in fact, I think it speaks volumes to his attitude both as a politician and a father. (And no, I don't mean "the pimp and the prostitute," either, although I gotta hand it to Sir Kenneth Branagh there: his has got to be far and away the most creative use of the Reynaldo scene in existence, and far be it from me to even try to outdo him.)
Thoth Tarot (Aleister Crowley and Frieda Harris):
The Four of Swords – Truce
(image used by permission of the Ordo Templis Orientis, Secretary General/ International Headquarters,
Berlin, Germany)
Claudius's ambassadors to Norway: If like Sir Laurence Olivier and Franco Zeffirelli you think you can do without Fortinbras, there go Voltemand and Cornelius as well. If on the other hand you do include the Norwegian prince, you'll very likely find yourself using the two ambassadors, too, because they are your sole source of background information as to what happens off stage between the first and second act; which however you need to know in order to understand how Forty comes from marching against Denmark (as we are told by Horatio in Act I) to marching through Denmark against Poland (as we see in Act IV), which in turn you need to know not only because it's the core of Fortinbras's own character development as contrasted with Hamlet's but also because it explains how the Norwegian comes to show up in Elsinore at the tragedy's very end. – Whether or not you then use Claudius's complete exchanges with the two ambassadors is again a matter of discretion, though, I suppose ... frankly, there doesn't seem to be much harm in streamlining those scenes, so that's what I would probably do.
Thoth Tarot (Aleister Crowley and Frieda Harris):
The Seven of Swords – Futility
(image used by permission of the Ordo Templis Orientis, Secretary General/ International Headquarters,
Berlin, Germany)
If you absolutely must hear that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead, by all means, this guy is the man to tell you about it: he, and only he. But personally, I couldn't care less – and no again, I'm not just trying to wiggle out of the question whether Horatio means Hamlet or Claudius when he responds to the ambassador's message that "[h]e never gave commandment for their death;" whether our valiant scholar is thus simply relating what he has learned from the Prince, or whether he in fact begins his task as the chronicler of his friend's life and fate with a considerable exercise in whitewash. I just think that it's much more important that Hamlet has let his two "schoolfellows" take his place on that English gallows to begin with. And even if you need to have greater certainty about their end, I'd still vastly prefer to have it done the Zeffirelli way; i.e., show, don't tell. (This is, after all, a movie we're talking about.) But the bottom line is that learning about the two guys' deaths yet again, after we have already heard Hamlet tell Horatio about it, just doesn't seem to add much of substance. They are pawns; to Hamlet as surely as to Claudius – expendable and, once they have left the stage, essentially done away with for good. What more do we need to know?
Thoth Tarot (Aleister Crowley and Frieda Harris):
The Ace of Discs – Matter – Earth and Air
(image used by permission of the Ordo Templis Orientis, Secretary General/ International Headquarters,
Berlin, Germany)
Well, now we're really coming down to the bits of the bit parts. This is garnishment, not even seasoning, people. To pick just a few examples: the sailors – depends on whether and how you want to show how Horatio learns about Hamlet's return to Denmark (and yes, I'd use them; I'd even take Horatio out of Elsinore for that purpose). Same, in essence, goes for the messenger bringing Hamlet's letter to Claudius (another definite "yes," and definitely within the castle, the way I see it). The attendant warning Claudius about the approach of Laertes's rebel army: depends on how you see Laertes in the first place and what importance you place on his rebellion (next to his rivalry with Hamlet) – as you may have guessed from my descriptions on the screenplay page and the one dealing with Laertes's character, I'd have use for this guy, too. The courtier coming to Hamlet with a message from Claudius and Gertrude right after the Osric scene, on the other hand: depends on the importance you place on that message in and of itself, on your ability to manoeuvre it into Osric's errand instead (as does, in part, Franco Zeffirelli), and also, I suppose, on whether you actually want to have the duel follow virtually on the foot of the Osric scene anyway (I, for one, do not). And so on, and so forth, according to the phrase or the addition of man and country ... I suppose you get the picture.
So that, folks, then concludes our cast! Can I have a final round of applause, please?
Thank you, Ladies and Gentlemen. Thank you very much. We do – oh, wow. Thank you so much. We do appreciate it. Really.
[Uh, excuse me, Madam? This movie's theatrical release ... err, yes, well, there wouldn't be someone in the audience who has bona fide studio contacts? No, I didn't think so. Oh well, never mind ...]
Copyright 2002 – 2009: Ulrike Böhm, all rights reserved.