Week 4: Act 1

Our final Hamlet session before the Christmas break looked exclusively at Act One. We went through the act a number of times, exploring its pace and drive.

This session was the first time I had to step in and read alongside the rest of the group instead of just leading the activities. Until now I've had the privilege of just getting to watch other actors squirm and battle through the challenges and instructions I've been issuing; so it's always healthy to feel the mental gymnastics, the brain-body coordination needed to adhere to the verse and to remember to try to not to act or to play character but to simply speak these words and mean them.

Pace

We concluded, after a couple of readings that if we allow it to be... then it really is an act that zips along in terms of pace; and is short, punchy and impactful.

We found the iambic pentameter drove the forward momentum of the action.

Especially when there are shared lines which force the second actor to jump in halfway through the verse line of the previous speaker, so that there is never any unnecessary gap or pausing or silences.

The verse structure pushes us on as actors to get on with the action, get on with speaking, and get on with making our arguments.

Master Cut

We discussed that the speed and fluidity of Act One has also been helped by the cut that we're working from. I spoke about the fact that I've renoved what is officially Act One, Scene One from the beginning of the play to jump straight in to Claudius's speech.

We find that all the information that we need in this story is contained clearly enough throughout Act One without needing it to be repeated in multiple scenes.

I've removed all (or as much reference to) the political and warfare based activities – Fortinbras, Norway, etc – which allows us to focus on the human side side of this story.

10 Minute Challenge

I asked the group to forgo any concern of good or bad acting, but simply as a technical exercise to speak the entirety of Act One from beginning to end as fast as we physically could and as close to the 10 minute mark as possible.

We went over 10 minutes but not by much. Jack made a really interesting observation at the end: at times it sounded as if speaking the words suddenly became like performing energetic verbally-athletic rap.