Week 8: The Weight of Weird Whatnots

Despite early failures to cobble together a collection of objects (see Week 6), we started this week with an object table positively straining under the weight of weird whatnots.

Tim had us space the assortment around the edges of the studio space - post-it notes, a biro added to them with foresight from Kama, sat next to Hamlet’s earplugs from Week 2; a couple of fire extinguishers stood to attention, ready to serve; a kettle-bell, a pack of tissues, a heavy black blindfold.

As I learn more about this process, their presence is at once exciting, in that they are full of promise: the potential for magic I’m starting to understand they have the power to facilitate; and nerve-wracking, in that they are still opaque: not familiar enough to be fun yet! So it was with some trepidation that I, for one, took to my seat, spaced amongst the ring of objects. 

The reinstated Act One, Scene One, kicked us off. Kama as Horatio, attempting to pin down Andrew’s Ghost. Tim discussed the potential placement of the Ghost, allowing Horatio the freedom to use the space, to hear/sense it in multiple spots, reminding us that when the Ghost steps off stage it leaves, or vanishes into thin air, even if in practice that is the actor reclaiming their chair.

The Ghost then selected its object. Andrew picked up a hefty, red-and-black 10m(?) extension lead with the space for three plugs on its front. With our rule to ‘always honour what the item is’ established in Week 2, and the idea of needing to show ‘purpose’ with the object cemented in Week 5, Andrew went for the plug sockets, looking for power at multiple outlets.

Tim liked the offer of a frustrated purpose for the spirit in limbo, the idea that Andrew suggested of being unable to find power, and began to demonstrate how that could be built upon later in the show - jumping to Act One Scene Five(?), when the dead king finally manages to communicate his message of murder, suggesting that the Ghost could finally at this point succeed in turning on its appliance (a fan plugged into the extension lead).

Comments, queries, and cagey questions about how we might/could/can/should use these objects, and crucially to what extent we PLAN to use them, are creeping in evermore regularly. We spent some time chatting through the way in which an object’s use by the Ghost might then set a motif which could be built upon, and even matched by or contrasted with an object choice for Claudius when he enters subsequently. The process requires trust and restraint, and it feels that as a company we are managing to hold the line.

A jump to Act Three Scene Four to show how objects for the dead king Hamlet and Claudius might be picked up in their most overt presentation possible. Hamlet (Lou) and Gertrude (Rach) faced off over the queen’s remarriage, and as Hamlet turned to draw on Polonius (Kama) shouting from his concealed position, a mask came into play from the selection of objects, which Hamlet placed on Polonius.

Tim invited us to explore the idea that there might be a motif for being killed available as an option, and that those characters who are killed throughout the play might circle the space or remain in it, available for interaction, either wearing or physically signifying the way in which they were killed - the mask of course being just one option among millions. Another suggestion by Tim was a chime being sounded, which might lead an actor to place their hands on their ears to signify their ‘killed’ status as they moved round or through the space.

Finally, the extension lead from Act One Scene One was brought back into play for Hamlet’s ‘counterfeit presentment of two brothers’ speech, which Tim explained had the potential for one of the most far-reaching, complete reprisals of previously set motifs, wherein Hamlet takes the object signifying the dead king, and holds it up in physical comparison with the object that has come to signify Claudius, in sneering juxtaposition: ‘This was your husband. Look you now, what follows: / Here is your husband’, picking up the earlier ‘hyperion-satyr’ jibe.

We had Andrew’s extension lead, plugged into a huge metal fan, versus Claudius’ puny ciabatta extension lead plugged into a little desk fan. Clunky doesn’t cover it - Tim gave a word to the wise on picking electrical appliances - but we all got the point, and the power of possibility was upon us! Those objects are getting steadily less nerve-wracking, and increasingly exciting.

- Lou Broadbent