Week 2: Hamlet

The second week, we started as before,

With check-ins held within iambic verse.

A new actor called Kama joined our space,

And introduced herself in perfect time.

The group found rhythm easier to hold,

More normal than it had the week before.

I asked the room to search the building wide,

For random objects scattered everywhere,

To gather them within the centre space,

Then choose some items other people found

And take them forth and find a monologue.

The first speech that we looked at was from Lou.

I invited her to choose a random thing.

She chose a scruffy blonde wig, not unlike

The hair of Boris Johnson, mad and wild.

I asked her use it not for comedy,

But as a tool to unlock a deeper sense

To make more beautiful and to reveal

Why and how a wig is pertinent,

And vital for the words she has to speak.

The speech was Ophelia's, which begins:

"My Lord, my Lord, I have been so affrighted"

And tells of Hamlet's strange, distressing acts.

Jack sat as father Polonius for Lou.

At first she struggled how to give the wig

A meaning in the scene that would be true.

She used the item when she spoke the line:
"He took me by the wrist and held me hard"
and chose to quickly wrap the wig around

Her wrist, and I so stopped her, asking why.

"What is it? Literally?" I asked. "What is it?"

"A wig," she answered me. And so I asked

"And do we wrap a wig about our wrist?"

We established that we do not, and so then

Clarified what people do with wigs,

And how we use them in a normal way.

And so a rule was introduced to all:

"We always honour what the item is."

"If it's a wig, it stays a wig," I said.

The wig was placed upon her father's head.

Pulled down below his brow, it hid his eyes.

It rendered Polonius blind, he could not see.

And thus revealed more meaning when she spoke:

"He seemed to find his way without his eyes."

The wig became a symbol, representing

Hamlet's madness in his troubled state.

The wig, though still a wig, was now a sign,

A means to show the blinding madness clear

That Hamlet seemed to be encompassed by.

When speech was done, Lou sat and then declared

She could not recall the last time she had felt

So challenged as an actor as she had,

And found it both frustrating, yet exciting

To be without quick answers or a sure path.

The session then continued with each actor.

Andrew held some scissors, playing Claudius,

And through a happy accident we did find

His tool matched his intention in the speech:

To tidy up and to clear away a mess.

I bid him cut the frazzled strands of hair

From off the wig with his sharp scissor'd blades.

We discovered, as the wig was Hamlet's madness,

That Claudius with scissors meant to cease

The random, chaotic strands within his state.

Hamish had a tape measure for his scene,

Exploring Hamlet's speech, wherein he weighed

The choice to murder Claudius at his prayers.

A brilliant tool to "take the measure" of

The situation which he faced before him.

Kama then chose a mystery package.

I asked her open it, and out there spilled

Some earplugs, soft foam things that block out sound,

To bring a silence to the noisy world.

I noted Hamlet's final words: "The rest Is silence."

And by placing them within her ears, we found

Through happy accident, a moment so deep,

Profound and beautiful, that signified

The final silence of each and every death.

I said these moments were not some one-off chance

But strange magic that we will often find

But only if, as we explore this work,

Enabled by a bravery just to drop

All plan, all predetermined knowing how

The scenes will or should unfold. But instead

As company and performer, be truly open

To infinite possibility, and abundance

Of new discovery in each and every line.