0:00:05 > 0:00:09'If I ask you to name Shakespeare's most famous play of all,
0:00:09 > 0:00:13'there's a fairly good chance you'll plump for Hamlet.'
0:00:13 > 0:00:17'But quite why that should be remains a mystery.'
0:00:17 > 0:00:20It connects with something very primal...
0:00:22 > 0:00:25It exists in the public consciousness
0:00:25 > 0:00:27as this icon of theatre and culture.
0:00:29 > 0:00:32It's woven into the fabric of our lives.
0:00:33 > 0:00:36There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
0:00:36 > 0:00:38than are dreamt of in our philosophy.
0:00:38 > 0:00:42'In 2008, I was asked to play Hamlet at the Royal Shakespeare Company.'
0:00:42 > 0:00:45'For any actor, that's an offer of a lifetime.'
0:00:45 > 0:00:47'But not without its challenges.'
0:00:49 > 0:00:52This was something that I wanted to do and couldn't say no to,
0:00:52 > 0:00:56but it was, and remained until the final performance,
0:00:56 > 0:00:58utterly terrifying.
0:01:00 > 0:01:02Another hit; what say you?
0:01:02 > 0:01:06This sounds ludicrous and pretentious and pompous.
0:01:06 > 0:01:08It's just a play, it's pretending to be someone
0:01:08 > 0:01:10and saying some words...
0:01:10 > 0:01:13Am I a coward?
0:01:13 > 0:01:16..and yet, because there's something special about it,
0:01:16 > 0:01:18it does things to you.
0:01:19 > 0:01:23'Why it has this effect is something I still can't answer.'
0:01:23 > 0:01:26It was written a long time ago.
0:01:26 > 0:01:29It shouldn't be relevant and contemporary.
0:01:29 > 0:01:31It shouldn't be.
0:01:31 > 0:01:34To try and work out what makes this play so unique,
0:01:34 > 0:01:36I'm going to meet with directors...
0:01:36 > 0:01:38I think that's why people didn't notice.
0:01:38 > 0:01:40..historians...
0:01:40 > 0:01:42- It's incredibly rare. - Only two in the world?
0:01:42 > 0:01:43..and some other Hamlets.
0:01:43 > 0:01:48We know that this particular role is also like a sharing of one's soul.
0:01:49 > 0:01:54So what is it about this character that is still so compelling,
0:01:54 > 0:01:56400 years after he was created?
0:02:13 > 0:02:17The first trick for any actor coming to Hamlet is to avoid
0:02:17 > 0:02:19being overwhelmed by the very notion of it.
0:02:22 > 0:02:25One of the things when you come to Hamlet is ridding yourself
0:02:25 > 0:02:29of the baggage that comes with it, and trying to just tell the story,
0:02:29 > 0:02:32and we're in the RSC shop here,
0:02:32 > 0:02:37where things have been appropriated and made into just about anything,
0:02:37 > 0:02:39and this is the classy stuff.
0:02:39 > 0:02:41Oh, look!
0:02:43 > 0:02:44Alas, poor Yorick.
0:02:48 > 0:02:51This is Hamlet, the flickbook.
0:02:52 > 0:02:54That's it summed up in 30 seconds.
0:02:54 > 0:02:57The manga Hamlet.
0:02:57 > 0:03:01Hamlet seems to be addressed as a sort of androgynous superhero.
0:03:01 > 0:03:03I mean, it's a choice.
0:03:04 > 0:03:08'And, of course, there's a smorgasbord of different Hamlets.'
0:03:08 > 0:03:09Kevin Kline.
0:03:09 > 0:03:11Mel Gibson.
0:03:11 > 0:03:13Some Scottish bloke.
0:03:15 > 0:03:16Kenneth Branagh.
0:03:16 > 0:03:18Derek Jacobi.
0:03:20 > 0:03:23This play is so deeply ingrained in our popular culture.
0:03:23 > 0:03:28What's difficult when you come to perform it is extracting yourself
0:03:28 > 0:03:33from the cliche and the fact that every line seems to be a quotation.
0:03:33 > 0:03:35It's just that everywhere I go
0:03:35 > 0:03:36it's the same old thing.
0:03:36 > 0:03:38All anyone wants me to say is
0:03:38 > 0:03:39"To be, or not to be."
0:03:39 > 0:03:40That is the question.
0:03:40 > 0:03:43Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
0:03:43 > 0:03:44the slings and arrows...
0:03:44 > 0:03:46Yes. It's either that or...
0:03:46 > 0:03:48'Almost everyone can quote a line from Hamlet.'
0:03:48 > 0:03:50Do the bit about "Alas, poor Yorick"!
0:03:53 > 0:03:56Hamlet is clearly a character that everyone seems to know about.
0:03:58 > 0:04:01But how did that happen? Why this play?
0:04:03 > 0:04:07On the face of it, the story line isn't something that necessarily
0:04:07 > 0:04:09chimes with the everyday experience of most people.
0:04:09 > 0:04:12Monarchy, madness, murder and suicide,
0:04:12 > 0:04:14yet however melodramatic the premise,
0:04:14 > 0:04:18somehow the play keeps feeling relevant and being sought out
0:04:18 > 0:04:21by successive generations.
0:04:22 > 0:04:23Is that just down to the plot?
0:04:25 > 0:04:27So what is Hamlet actually about?
0:04:27 > 0:04:30Well, Hamlet is the story of the Prince of Denmark,
0:04:30 > 0:04:33whose father, the King of Denmark, gets murdered,
0:04:33 > 0:04:35and then comes back as a ghost to tell his son, the Prince,
0:04:35 > 0:04:38that he must avenge his death.
0:04:38 > 0:04:41The person who murdered the king is Hamlet's uncle,
0:04:41 > 0:04:43who's now married Hamlet's mother.
0:04:43 > 0:04:44Got that?
0:04:47 > 0:04:49It is complicated,
0:04:49 > 0:04:52but when we first meet Hamlet it is clear.
0:04:54 > 0:04:55He is grief stricken.
0:04:58 > 0:05:03'His mother's marriage to his uncle has taken place with unseemly haste,
0:05:03 > 0:05:06'hot on the heels of his father's death.'
0:05:06 > 0:05:08Hamlet!
0:05:08 > 0:05:12'Seemingly alone in finding that remotely distasteful,
0:05:12 > 0:05:14'Hamlet is angry and isolated.'
0:05:16 > 0:05:19'Tis sweet and commendable in your nature, Hamlet,
0:05:19 > 0:05:21To give these mourning duties to your father:
0:05:21 > 0:05:25But, you must know, your father lost a father;
0:05:25 > 0:05:28That father lost, lost his.
0:05:30 > 0:05:31But to persever
0:05:31 > 0:05:34In obstinate condolement is a course
0:05:34 > 0:05:36Of impious stubbornness.
0:05:36 > 0:05:39At the beginning of the play, obviously,
0:05:39 > 0:05:41he's dealing with the death of his father.
0:05:42 > 0:05:47And he's also dealing with the fact that everyone around him
0:05:47 > 0:05:52seems to have moved on absurdly quickly from this fact.
0:05:58 > 0:06:01If you're going to do a play after somebody's just died,
0:06:01 > 0:06:03then Hamlet's the play to do.
0:06:04 > 0:06:05It's an amazing expression of grief.
0:06:09 > 0:06:12My mother died just before I did it.
0:06:12 > 0:06:13She knew I was going to do it,
0:06:13 > 0:06:17and hoped to stay alive in order to see it, but she didn't,
0:06:17 > 0:06:19and, of course, that had an effect
0:06:19 > 0:06:24on the playing of it,
0:06:24 > 0:06:27because it was my gift to her, really.
0:06:31 > 0:06:36Losing a parent is hugely changing for you,
0:06:37 > 0:06:40and grief is a sort of ghastly, immovable thing.
0:06:42 > 0:06:45Certainly, when you are in the kind of sharp end of it,
0:06:45 > 0:06:50it feels engulfing and intractable.
0:06:52 > 0:06:58'This play is about a murdered father and his lonely, grieving son.'
0:06:59 > 0:07:02'A grief that has resonated down the centuries.'
0:07:04 > 0:07:09'So, who created this extraordinary character,
0:07:09 > 0:07:10'and where did he come from?'
0:07:20 > 0:07:23'There's a lot we don't know about Shakespeare's life,
0:07:23 > 0:07:26'but there are a few things we can fairly safely assume.'
0:07:27 > 0:07:29'He was born and raised in Stratford-Upon-Avon,
0:07:29 > 0:07:31'where his father was mayor of the town,
0:07:31 > 0:07:33'which means William will have been entitled to go
0:07:33 > 0:07:37'to the local grammar school, King Edward's.'
0:07:40 > 0:07:42Hic, haec, hoc.
0:07:42 > 0:07:44STUDENTS: Hic, haec, hoc.
0:07:44 > 0:07:46Good.
0:07:46 > 0:07:47Hunc, hanc, hoc.
0:07:47 > 0:07:50STUDENTS: Hunc, hanc, hoc.
0:07:50 > 0:07:53'I'm sitting in on a lesson that the young William
0:07:53 > 0:07:55'would almost definitely have endured.'
0:07:55 > 0:07:56'Latin.'
0:07:58 > 0:08:00They're clearly very proud of their connections.
0:08:00 > 0:08:04The photo on the wall, just to intimidate the schoolboys of today.
0:08:05 > 0:08:08Not much to aspire to(!)
0:08:09 > 0:08:13Latin has been being taught in this very room
0:08:13 > 0:08:16to schoolboys in Stratford for hundreds of years.
0:08:16 > 0:08:22Shakespeare almost certainly learned Latin here. He learned rhetoric.
0:08:22 > 0:08:23Many of the things that would have
0:08:23 > 0:08:26contributed to his skills as a playwright.
0:08:28 > 0:08:31There may be a playwright in this room now.
0:08:32 > 0:08:35Its impossible to know from this distance
0:08:35 > 0:08:37what influences formed Shakespeare's genius,
0:08:37 > 0:08:40but there are some intriguing coincidences
0:08:40 > 0:08:42that are hard to overlook.
0:08:44 > 0:08:46Shakespeare married at 18,
0:08:46 > 0:08:49and had three children by the time he was 24.
0:08:50 > 0:08:51By the time William was 30,
0:08:51 > 0:08:55around the time it is thought he wrote Hamlet,
0:08:55 > 0:08:57his father was aging and ill.
0:08:58 > 0:09:01And then Shakespeare suffered a terrible tragedy
0:09:01 > 0:09:04when his 11-year-old son died.
0:09:06 > 0:09:09He was called Hamnet.
0:09:12 > 0:09:17It is impossible, I think, not to understand that the name Hamlet
0:09:17 > 0:09:20was charged with the identity
0:09:20 > 0:09:23of his 11-year-old dead son.
0:09:25 > 0:09:28And part of the intensity of this play depends upon
0:09:28 > 0:09:34the familiarity of Shakespeare and his world with the graveyard
0:09:34 > 0:09:37and what it meant to bury your fondest hopes.
0:09:42 > 0:09:46This theme of bereavement and loss takes a surprising turn
0:09:46 > 0:09:49when Hamlet is handed some dramatic news.
0:09:51 > 0:09:54The ghost of his dead father has been seen
0:09:54 > 0:09:56walking the battlements of the castle.
0:10:02 > 0:10:04- I think I saw him yesternight. - Saw who?
0:10:04 > 0:10:06My Lord, the King, your father.
0:10:10 > 0:10:12The King, my father?
0:10:15 > 0:10:18The appearance of the ghost becomes the engine of the play.
0:10:24 > 0:10:26I'm visiting the replica of the Globe Theatre
0:10:26 > 0:10:30on the South bank of the Thames, where, around 1601,
0:10:30 > 0:10:33Shakespeare's actors first performed Hamlet.
0:10:33 > 0:10:36Here, today, they are running the opening scenes.
0:10:38 > 0:10:41So this is where we see Hamlet meeting the ghost of his dead father
0:10:41 > 0:10:43for the first time.
0:10:47 > 0:10:49Where wilt thou lead me?
0:10:49 > 0:10:51Speak; I'll go no further.
0:10:51 > 0:10:52Mark me.
0:10:52 > 0:10:53I will.
0:10:54 > 0:10:56I am thy father's spirit,
0:10:59 > 0:11:01Doom'd for a certain time to walk the night,
0:11:01 > 0:11:04And for the day confined to fast in fires,
0:11:04 > 0:11:08Till the foul crimes done in my days of nature
0:11:08 > 0:11:10Be burnt and purged away.
0:11:10 > 0:11:13List, list, O, list!
0:11:13 > 0:11:17If ever thou didst thy dear father love.
0:11:17 > 0:11:18O God!
0:11:18 > 0:11:21Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder.
0:11:21 > 0:11:23- Murder! - Murder most foul.
0:11:23 > 0:11:26Haste me to know't, that I, with wings as swift
0:11:26 > 0:11:29As meditation or the thoughts of love,
0:11:29 > 0:11:30May sweep to my revenge.
0:11:30 > 0:11:32I find thee apt; but know, thou noble youth,
0:11:32 > 0:11:36The serpent that did sting thy father's life
0:11:36 > 0:11:38Now wears his crown.
0:11:38 > 0:11:40O my prophetic soul!
0:11:40 > 0:11:41My uncle?
0:11:43 > 0:11:49The ghost has confirmed what Hamlet had feared - that his father has been killed by his uncle.
0:11:50 > 0:11:52It falls to him to avenge this murder,
0:11:54 > 0:11:56but is he capable of seeing it through?
0:11:59 > 0:12:05Everyone knew in Shakespeare's time, as everyone knows now, still,
0:12:05 > 0:12:09that a revenge play, a play in which someone, a son,
0:12:09 > 0:12:12is called upon to avenge his father,
0:12:12 > 0:12:16is a play in which a terrible fate will befall the avenger.
0:12:16 > 0:12:21Hamlet is a dead man from act one.
0:12:21 > 0:12:23He knows it and we know it.
0:12:31 > 0:12:34'This call to arms has come from a ghost,
0:12:34 > 0:12:38'a supernatural visitor from the other side.'
0:12:38 > 0:12:41'What would this have meant to Shakespeare's audience?'
0:12:44 > 0:12:47'I've come to meet historian Justin Champion,
0:12:47 > 0:12:50'who is an expert in the world of 17th century religion.'
0:12:52 > 0:12:55So, what would a ghost have meant to an Elizabethan audience?
0:12:55 > 0:12:58Well, I think the first thing is that an Elizabethan audience
0:12:58 > 0:13:00would not have been surprised to see a ghost.
0:13:00 > 0:13:02Ghosts were everywhere.
0:13:02 > 0:13:05So, to most of that audience, ghosts were things that existed?
0:13:05 > 0:13:07Yeah, absolutely.
0:13:07 > 0:13:09So there wouldn't have been the shock, you know,
0:13:09 > 0:13:13if a ghost walks past us now, we'll be a little bit surprised.
0:13:13 > 0:13:14Well, a little!
0:13:14 > 0:13:17A little bit, a little bit surprised,
0:13:17 > 0:13:19but for the Elizabethan, the Stuart audience,
0:13:19 > 0:13:22ghosts are part of the world they live in.
0:13:22 > 0:13:25The spirit world and the human world are very permeable,
0:13:25 > 0:13:27so they wouldn't have been surprised at all.
0:13:27 > 0:13:30They would have asked themselves what sort of ghost is it? Good or bad?
0:13:30 > 0:13:32Right.
0:13:32 > 0:13:35'Apparently, there were four options.'
0:13:36 > 0:13:38This ghost could be the devil.
0:13:38 > 0:13:40It could be sent by the devil or the devil in person.
0:13:40 > 0:13:41Right.
0:13:41 > 0:13:44The ghost could be a projection of imagination.
0:13:44 > 0:13:47The person is somehow deluded or deranged.
0:13:47 > 0:13:51The ghost could be the result of imposture
0:13:51 > 0:13:54- locals maybe confecting an illusion of a ghost,
0:13:54 > 0:13:57or the ghost could be a wandering soul
0:13:57 > 0:14:01come back to avenge some act of injustice,
0:14:01 > 0:14:05so there is a science of what a ghost meant and how it would behave.
0:14:09 > 0:14:13The ghost's visit propels Hamlet and the play forward,
0:14:14 > 0:14:20so any actor playing the part has to decide what the ghost means to them.
0:14:20 > 0:14:23There have been famous productions where the ghost is
0:14:23 > 0:14:25a figment of Hamlet's own imagination, and I think that's
0:14:25 > 0:14:28all a very interesting take on it, actually.
0:14:28 > 0:14:33It's not what we did, so it's not...
0:14:33 > 0:14:37For me, that was Dad there.
0:14:37 > 0:14:39Adieu.
0:14:40 > 0:14:41Adieu.
0:14:43 > 0:14:45Hamlet.
0:14:47 > 0:14:50Remember me!
0:14:55 > 0:14:59'So, Hamlet is burdened with the task
0:14:59 > 0:15:00'of avenging his father's death.'
0:15:02 > 0:15:04'What makes this even worse
0:15:04 > 0:15:06is the dark and dangerous world he lives in.'
0:15:06 > 0:15:07Wow!
0:15:09 > 0:15:11Rosencrantz and Guildenstern...
0:15:11 > 0:15:15'The king has enlisted Hamlet's friends to spy on him.'
0:15:17 > 0:15:19'The king's minister, meanwhile,
0:15:19 > 0:15:22'devices his own scheme involving his own daughter.'
0:15:25 > 0:15:28'Polonius believes Hamlet's distress is caused by his love-sickness
0:15:28 > 0:15:31'for Ophelia, so he spies on them both.'
0:15:34 > 0:15:35Where's your father?
0:15:35 > 0:15:36At home, my Lord.
0:15:45 > 0:15:49We are on edge throughout the play of Hamlet because of the sense
0:15:49 > 0:15:51of people being constantly overheard.
0:15:51 > 0:15:54We never quite know who is on which side.
0:15:54 > 0:15:58There's layer upon layer of surveillance going on there.
0:15:58 > 0:16:02This is a court full of intrigue, full of spies.
0:16:10 > 0:16:14As Hamlet struggles to make sense of the chaos in his head
0:16:14 > 0:16:16and all around him,
0:16:16 > 0:16:18Shakespeare allows us to hear exactly
0:16:18 > 0:16:20what his troubled protagonist is going through.
0:16:22 > 0:16:25We, the audience, become his confidante.
0:16:28 > 0:16:31He uses soliloquies to speak to us directly.
0:16:38 > 0:16:40A soliloquy is when a character
0:16:40 > 0:16:42speaks their inner thoughts out loud,
0:16:42 > 0:16:46debates their inner arguments with themselves,
0:16:46 > 0:16:49and hopefully finds some kind of way forward.
0:16:52 > 0:16:56As an actor, when you come to play those soliloquies, you can make a choice.
0:16:56 > 0:17:00You can either speak these speeches into the air
0:17:00 > 0:17:04as if to yourself, to the world around you,
0:17:04 > 0:17:07or you can acknowledge the fact that you are in a theatre
0:17:07 > 0:17:09and that the audience are all around you,
0:17:09 > 0:17:12and you can use them as another character in your play.
0:17:12 > 0:17:15You can speak the speeches right at them.
0:17:18 > 0:17:23'Right at the heart of the play, Hamlet has a devastating soliloquy
0:17:23 > 0:17:27'that has become the most famous speech in the history of theatre,
0:17:27 > 0:17:29'possibly even all of literature.'
0:17:31 > 0:17:35'He asks, what is the point?'
0:17:38 > 0:17:41To be, or not to be:
0:17:44 > 0:17:45that is the question:
0:17:49 > 0:17:53Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
0:17:53 > 0:17:57The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
0:17:58 > 0:18:03Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
0:18:03 > 0:18:06And by opposing end them?
0:18:11 > 0:18:15Every individual confronts these questions privately,
0:18:15 > 0:18:17and then to have a play that
0:18:17 > 0:18:19confronts them publically,
0:18:19 > 0:18:21and that confronts them
0:18:21 > 0:18:25in a voice of such control, such thoughtfulness,
0:18:25 > 0:18:29such power, that something is happening on the stage for us,
0:18:29 > 0:18:32so it might not have to happen to us,
0:18:32 > 0:18:34and that's extraordinarily powerful.
0:18:36 > 0:18:40To die, to sleep;
0:18:42 > 0:18:46To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;
0:18:49 > 0:18:54For in that sleep of death what dreams may come.
0:18:56 > 0:19:00Because Hamlet is alone on stage,
0:19:00 > 0:19:04and because his most characteristic of speech is the question,
0:19:04 > 0:19:08inevitably, we, in the audience, as we watch it,
0:19:08 > 0:19:12or we as readers, as we read it, we get drawn in.
0:19:12 > 0:19:14We ask those questions of ourselves
0:19:14 > 0:19:17and try to come up with our own answers,
0:19:17 > 0:19:22so the character of Hamlet becomes profoundly personal to us.
0:19:24 > 0:19:29There's something about it that transcends its time and place.
0:19:29 > 0:19:33On some level we can all identify with those moment of crisis,
0:19:33 > 0:19:36and those moments where it really feels
0:19:36 > 0:19:40that the only solution would be to escape.
0:19:40 > 0:19:44I think that's why it is so resonant.
0:19:48 > 0:19:51'It's powerful to ask those questions now.'
0:19:52 > 0:19:55'In Shakespeare's time, it was revolutionary.'
0:19:57 > 0:19:59This is not just a state of crisis,
0:19:59 > 0:20:02this is a man thinking about killing himself.
0:20:02 > 0:20:07Suicide, in the entirety of this period is absolutely forbidden.
0:20:07 > 0:20:12Suicide is illegal - if you are convicted of suicide,
0:20:12 > 0:20:15you will be taken out to the crossroads outside the village
0:20:15 > 0:20:18or town and buried with a stake through your heart.
0:20:18 > 0:20:23Suicide is absolutely traumatic for this culture.
0:20:25 > 0:20:30That's what's so shocking about this scene is that here is a man,
0:20:30 > 0:20:34in one sense, rationally weighing up the options.
0:20:34 > 0:20:37This is clearly not somebody possessed by the devil.
0:20:37 > 0:20:40This is somebody trying to think through for themselves, and I think,
0:20:40 > 0:20:43for many in the audience, this would be very worrying.
0:20:48 > 0:20:51For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
0:20:52 > 0:20:54But that the dread of something after death,
0:20:57 > 0:21:00The undiscover'd country from whose bourn
0:21:02 > 0:21:06No traveller returns, puzzles the will
0:21:11 > 0:21:14And makes us rather bear those ills we have
0:21:14 > 0:21:17Than fly to others that we know not of?
0:21:24 > 0:21:28'Hamlets soliloquies are so famous, so eloquent and so powerful
0:21:28 > 0:21:31'that it can feel like quite a responsibility to actually
0:21:31 > 0:21:32'deliver them.'
0:21:34 > 0:21:37I suppose, for those moments, it's a bit like doing a one man show,
0:21:37 > 0:21:39in that there's no other actors to bounce off.
0:21:39 > 0:21:42I think, when those moments work, and it's just you with
0:21:42 > 0:21:45these incredible words and extraordinary arguments,
0:21:45 > 0:21:48I think it's very empowering.
0:21:49 > 0:21:51It can also be kind of terrifying
0:21:51 > 0:21:57because it's pretty safely net free
0:21:57 > 0:21:59- there's nobody else to rely on
0:21:59 > 0:22:02and there's nobody else to help you out if you forget a bit.
0:22:03 > 0:22:06'Since playing Hamlet myself, I've been fascinated with how
0:22:06 > 0:22:10'other actors have approached this most intimidating of roles.'
0:22:10 > 0:22:13Someone did say to me early on, "Learn your lines!"
0:22:13 > 0:22:15And I thought, "Of course
0:22:15 > 0:22:16I'm going to learn my lines,"
0:22:16 > 0:22:20but then, when you do sit down and look, there's quite a lot!
0:22:21 > 0:22:25'Jude Law played Hamlet in London and on Broadway in 2009.'
0:22:27 > 0:22:30There are lines like "To be, or not to be", which are so well-known
0:22:30 > 0:22:34it's almost impossible to break the expectation of them coming.
0:22:34 > 0:22:36Did you have a way of coping with that?
0:22:36 > 0:22:38Would you embrace that full-on?
0:22:38 > 0:22:43Would you try and sneak round the side of them?
0:22:43 > 0:22:47Oh, dear. It's so revealing, this, isn't it? I think I tried all that.
0:22:47 > 0:22:48Good!
0:22:48 > 0:22:52I think I tried them all, but then, you know,
0:22:52 > 0:22:56I remember also just feeling like, "Just get on with it."
0:22:56 > 0:22:58What did you make of "To be, or not to be?"
0:22:58 > 0:23:00The specific meaning of it is quite hard to grasp, isn't it?
0:23:00 > 0:23:02Yeah.
0:23:02 > 0:23:05Quite what he's saying at any given moment.
0:23:05 > 0:23:08I think that was the little hook I clung on to,
0:23:08 > 0:23:12that he didn't know himself.
0:23:12 > 0:23:14It was all question,
0:23:14 > 0:23:18and each discovery leads to the next,
0:23:18 > 0:23:20and to the next, and to the next,
0:23:20 > 0:23:24and there's a sense that he's really trying to figure it out.
0:23:25 > 0:23:28'It has been said that there are as many different Hamlets
0:23:28 > 0:23:31'as there are actors to play him,
0:23:31 > 0:23:34'and that scope for reinterpretation seems to be
0:23:34 > 0:23:37'part of what makes this role so constantly fascinating.'
0:23:39 > 0:23:44We know that this particular role is also like a sharing of one's soul,
0:23:44 > 0:23:47so you're not just going to see your preferred actor,
0:23:47 > 0:23:51but you're also going to see them perhaps bearing a side
0:23:51 > 0:23:55of themselves, and revealing a side of themselves that's really intimate.
0:23:56 > 0:23:58I think of all the parts I've played,
0:23:58 > 0:24:01that one feels the most transparent.
0:24:02 > 0:24:03When you go and see it,
0:24:03 > 0:24:05you're seeing something of the actor.
0:24:07 > 0:24:11Something very personal, private about the actor who's playing it.
0:24:11 > 0:24:12Always, I think.
0:24:12 > 0:24:16It's not a mask you can hide behind.
0:24:18 > 0:24:22There is something extraordinary about stripping away
0:24:22 > 0:24:24your acting persona, really.
0:24:24 > 0:24:27Did you find it quite exposing, then?
0:24:27 > 0:24:29Yeah. I think, in the end,
0:24:29 > 0:24:31you are standing on the stage as David Tennant.
0:24:31 > 0:24:36'None of which helps to make that most famous of speeches
0:24:36 > 0:24:38'any easier to cope with.'
0:24:38 > 0:24:41Quite often - I'm sure you've had this - people say it along with you.
0:24:41 > 0:24:42Yeah.
0:24:42 > 0:24:44That's fine.
0:24:44 > 0:24:48I had one woman who was doing it just before I said it...
0:24:50 > 0:24:52- ..which was infuriating! - Yes.
0:24:53 > 0:24:56'One the most iconic and influential takes on Hamlet
0:24:56 > 0:24:59'was in an RSC production of the 60s.'
0:25:01 > 0:25:03Look at this handsome young devil!
0:25:03 > 0:25:06Look how handsome!
0:25:06 > 0:25:09'David Warner played Hamlet in 1965.'
0:25:09 > 0:25:12'He was a moody, strident, student prince.'
0:25:12 > 0:25:15'At that time, at the age of 24,
0:25:15 > 0:25:17'he was thought to be the youngest actor
0:25:17 > 0:25:19to have played the part professionally.'
0:25:21 > 0:25:23Saying "To be, or not to be" for the first time out loud,
0:25:23 > 0:25:26did you have any particular philosophy to it?
0:25:26 > 0:25:29No, no. Things happened instinctively.
0:25:29 > 0:25:32There's one thing that I have to say.
0:25:32 > 0:25:36I didn't really understand Shakespeare's words.
0:25:36 > 0:25:37Right.
0:25:37 > 0:25:39- I had to get most of it explained to me.- Right, yeah.
0:25:39 > 0:25:45I mean, they used to say lines that I had no idea what it meant.
0:25:45 > 0:25:48I don't know if that ever happened to you. I'm sure it did.
0:25:48 > 0:25:52- Well, even by the end, you still weren't quite sure? - Well, not quite sure!
0:25:52 > 0:25:54I think actors should admit to that more readily.
0:25:56 > 0:25:58'David's Hamlet was a huge box office hit,
0:25:58 > 0:26:02'though it took a while for all the critics to catch up.'
0:26:02 > 0:26:05Some of the reactions to your Hamlet,
0:26:05 > 0:26:07which range from the effusive -
0:26:07 > 0:26:11this is the most extraordinary performance you've ever seen -
0:26:11 > 0:26:13to some quite snippy criticism.
0:26:13 > 0:26:16I happen to have on me the bad reviews.
0:26:16 > 0:26:20"I would sooner the town crier spoke Shakespeare's lines as to
0:26:20 > 0:26:21hear David Warner."
0:26:21 > 0:26:23That's pretty good, isn't it?
0:26:23 > 0:26:24"Tiresome, perverse, indulgent."
0:26:24 > 0:26:26Wow.
0:26:26 > 0:26:29There was one person who, when they heard I was going to do it, said,
0:26:29 > 0:26:30"This actor cannot do it."
0:26:30 > 0:26:33Right. Thanks. That's helpful, isn't it(!)
0:26:33 > 0:26:36"I've seen him, and I don't think he's going to be able to do it."
0:26:36 > 0:26:38And that was before.
0:26:38 > 0:26:39How did that feel?
0:26:39 > 0:26:40- It wasn't very nice. - No.
0:26:45 > 0:26:48Many people come to Hamlet with preconceptions or
0:26:48 > 0:26:51expectations of what the play should be, but in fact,
0:26:51 > 0:26:53there is not even a definitive text of the play.
0:26:55 > 0:26:58There are three different sources.
0:26:59 > 0:27:01Copies of these are extremely valuable and precious.
0:27:01 > 0:27:03I've never seen them all up close,
0:27:03 > 0:27:07but at the British Library they have examples of each one.
0:27:07 > 0:27:12Tim Pye, the curator, has agreed to open up the safe.
0:27:12 > 0:27:14Here we have the precious cargo.
0:27:14 > 0:27:16Yeah.
0:27:16 > 0:27:18'There is a first version, the so-called bad quarto,
0:27:18 > 0:27:22'believed to be cobbled together from an actor's memory.'
0:27:22 > 0:27:24'The second, much longer version, possibly printed
0:27:24 > 0:27:27'to replace the bad quarto
0:27:27 > 0:27:30'and a third version in The First Folio,
0:27:30 > 0:27:34'a collection of Shakespeare's plays published after his death.'
0:27:37 > 0:27:39Do you want to open that one up to the title page?
0:27:39 > 0:27:40I'm allowed to touch?
0:27:40 > 0:27:41Yes, of course.
0:27:41 > 0:27:43Extraordinary.
0:27:43 > 0:27:47'On the table in front of me are about £10 million worth of books.'
0:27:49 > 0:27:52So, this is the first quarto.
0:27:53 > 0:27:55Often known as the bad quarto.
0:27:55 > 0:27:58That's right. I think the bad quarto is a bit of a misnomer.
0:27:58 > 0:27:59Why is that?
0:27:59 > 0:28:01Because I think it has merits.
0:28:01 > 0:28:02Yeah.
0:28:02 > 0:28:05It is quite quick-paced for a Hamlet.
0:28:05 > 0:28:06Yes.
0:28:06 > 0:28:09- Because it's about half the length of the other two later versions. - Yes.
0:28:09 > 0:28:12It includes stage directions that aren't included elsewhere
0:28:12 > 0:28:14that people still reference nowadays.
0:28:14 > 0:28:16Right.
0:28:16 > 0:28:19So I think "bad" is a little unfair.
0:28:19 > 0:28:21Yeah.
0:28:21 > 0:28:22There are two known copies.
0:28:22 > 0:28:24- Only two? - It's incredibly rare.
0:28:24 > 0:28:26- Only two in the world? - Yeah.
0:28:26 > 0:28:29There's only two. I had no idea.
0:28:34 > 0:28:36Judging the versions against each other,
0:28:36 > 0:28:39there are many surprising differences.
0:28:41 > 0:28:43There's one on the very first line.
0:28:45 > 0:28:48"Who's there", which is quite a famous opening to a play.
0:28:48 > 0:28:49Yeah.
0:28:51 > 0:28:55Is "Stand: who is that?", in this bad quarto,
0:28:55 > 0:28:57which is quite markedly different.
0:28:57 > 0:28:58Yeah.
0:28:58 > 0:28:59Although it is much shorter,
0:28:59 > 0:29:03there are certain details that only feature in the first quarto.
0:29:06 > 0:29:09"Enter Ofelia playing on a Lute, and her haire downe singing."
0:29:09 > 0:29:13Playing on a lute? It's going to limit your casting options, as well!
0:29:14 > 0:29:16'And perhaps the most interesting
0:29:16 > 0:29:20'are the differences in that most famous of soliloquies.'
0:29:21 > 0:29:24The thing that we probably recognise as being the biggest
0:29:24 > 0:29:26difference is the most famous speech...
0:29:26 > 0:29:27..in the English language.
0:29:27 > 0:29:28Indeed, indeed.
0:29:30 > 0:29:33"To be, or not to be: that is the question:", becomes
0:29:35 > 0:29:37"To be, or not to be, I there's the point."
0:29:37 > 0:29:38Yeah.
0:29:40 > 0:29:43"To Die, to sleep, is that all?" That's quite a cut.
0:29:43 > 0:29:45"Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
0:29:45 > 0:29:47"The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune..."
0:29:47 > 0:29:49That's all gone.
0:29:49 > 0:29:50It has all gone.
0:29:50 > 0:29:52All gone.
0:29:55 > 0:29:58It does sound like a poorly-remembered version
0:29:58 > 0:29:59of the speech we know.
0:29:59 > 0:30:00Yeah.
0:30:00 > 0:30:03Half-phrases are in there, and the sense is in there.
0:30:03 > 0:30:04Yeah, yeah.
0:30:04 > 0:30:07But who's to say this isn't the original, of course?
0:30:07 > 0:30:11Well, indeed, or do we just think that's poor compared to
0:30:11 > 0:30:15the much more eloquent and elegant one we now know?
0:30:15 > 0:30:18If this was the only surviving text of Hamlet,
0:30:18 > 0:30:20would we denigrate it as much as we do?
0:30:20 > 0:30:22Well, quite.
0:30:22 > 0:30:25I quite like the fact that it's been edited in places to shorten it.
0:30:25 > 0:30:28Oh, I think it can do without edit, definitely.
0:30:28 > 0:30:30Yeah, yeah. Hamlet can sometimes be a bit long.
0:30:30 > 0:30:33It can be a bit long. I've heard that.
0:30:33 > 0:30:38Some productions can be a little dry. I wouldn't know about that.
0:30:39 > 0:30:42No, I think, absolutely. This must have charged along, which is great.
0:30:42 > 0:30:43Yeah.
0:30:49 > 0:30:53'Whichever version you use, Hamlet's dilemmas remain the same.'
0:30:55 > 0:30:58'Having doubted the point of life itself,
0:30:58 > 0:31:00'Hamlet starts to doubt his mission.'
0:31:01 > 0:31:05'Should he trust the ghost? Can he be sure Claudius is guilty?'
0:31:07 > 0:31:10'He devises a plan to expose the king.'
0:31:16 > 0:31:19This is one Lucianus, nephew to the king.
0:31:19 > 0:31:23'He enlists a group of travelling players to enact a play
0:31:23 > 0:31:25'mirroring the king's murder.'
0:31:26 > 0:31:29'If Claudius flinches, he will have the proof he requires.'
0:31:29 > 0:31:31How fares my Lord?
0:31:39 > 0:31:42Give me some...
0:31:42 > 0:31:45Give me some light!
0:31:47 > 0:31:49'The king reacts.'
0:31:49 > 0:31:51'Hamlet is vindicated.'
0:31:52 > 0:31:54What, frighted with false fire!
0:31:55 > 0:31:57Imagine what it must be like to realise
0:31:57 > 0:31:59that your worst fears are right.
0:32:00 > 0:32:03Because it's all been
0:32:03 > 0:32:04almost dealable with
0:32:04 > 0:32:08up until this point, but now I've got to do something.
0:32:14 > 0:32:18Hamlet gets the perfect opportunity to exact his revenge
0:32:18 > 0:32:22when he passes the king alone, praying.
0:32:23 > 0:32:26But will he be able to seize the moment?
0:32:34 > 0:32:37In our production, director Greg Doran had a notion
0:32:37 > 0:32:38to draw out the tension.
0:32:40 > 0:32:42I think it is a thriller.
0:32:42 > 0:32:45I mean, once I had that in my head
0:32:45 > 0:32:46that, psychologically,
0:32:46 > 0:32:47it was a thriller,
0:32:47 > 0:32:49then what you need to do is keep
0:32:49 > 0:32:52making the audience believe that they've never seen it before
0:32:52 > 0:32:54and don't know what's going to happen.
0:32:54 > 0:32:59When, for instance, he happens, after the play,
0:32:59 > 0:33:03to bump into his uncle Claudius praying,
0:33:03 > 0:33:06and he's suddenly has the idea that he could,
0:33:06 > 0:33:09while the man is praying, kill him,
0:33:09 > 0:33:12having absolutely in his mind established his guilt.
0:33:12 > 0:33:16Thriller-wise, you in the audience should be thinking,
0:33:16 > 0:33:18"He's going to do it."
0:33:19 > 0:33:20Now might I do it pat,
0:33:24 > 0:33:26now he is praying;
0:33:29 > 0:33:31And now I'll do't.
0:33:31 > 0:33:34'We took the interval right there, in the middle of the line.'
0:33:36 > 0:33:41Again, quiet a potentially bold decision to take the interval,
0:33:41 > 0:33:43in fact, in the middle of a verse line.
0:33:43 > 0:33:45The scholars were appalled.
0:33:46 > 0:33:49What was the actual line? So you went...
0:33:49 > 0:33:53"Now might I do it pat, now he's praying, and now I'll do it."
0:33:53 > 0:33:54Interval.
0:33:54 > 0:33:56Blackout, yeah.
0:33:56 > 0:34:00How many of the audience do you think went, "My god, he killed his uncle"?
0:34:00 > 0:34:02I don't know. I hope some did.
0:34:02 > 0:34:05But did we start the second half..?
0:34:05 > 0:34:07Did we re-run the beginning of the second half,
0:34:07 > 0:34:09or did you start, "And so he goes to heaven"?
0:34:09 > 0:34:12No. I started with a knife above his head.
0:34:12 > 0:34:15The lights went up, like nothing had happened for 15 minutes,
0:34:16 > 0:34:19"And so he goes to heaven, and so am I revenged."
0:34:19 > 0:34:22- And, using the audience, talked myself out of it. - Right.
0:34:23 > 0:34:25- VOICEOVER:- And so he goes to heaven;
0:34:25 > 0:34:28And so am I revenged. That would be scann'd:
0:34:28 > 0:34:30A villain kills my father; and for that,
0:34:30 > 0:34:33I, his sole son, do this same villain send
0:34:33 > 0:34:34To heaven.
0:34:35 > 0:34:37O, this is hire and salary, not revenge.
0:34:41 > 0:34:44Hamlet doesn't know what he is going to do,
0:34:44 > 0:34:47so as Hamlet raises the knife above Claudius's head,
0:34:47 > 0:34:51in that nanosecond, he believes he's going to kill him.
0:34:51 > 0:34:55It doesn't last, and he doesn't because, again,
0:34:55 > 0:34:59he's straightjacketed by his own morality and his own fears,
0:34:59 > 0:35:01and his own humanity, you could say.
0:35:03 > 0:35:05That makes me like him all the more,
0:35:05 > 0:35:08but it makes him like himself all the less.
0:35:10 > 0:35:14Hamlet asks some very serious questions
0:35:14 > 0:35:19about the morality of revenge, the morality of killing.
0:35:19 > 0:35:21We think of that as a very modern,
0:35:21 > 0:35:2321st century thing,
0:35:23 > 0:35:26but Shakespeare is there before us.
0:35:28 > 0:35:31'Hamlet is a deeply reluctant revenge hero,'
0:35:31 > 0:35:36'but in the very next scene he will slip dangerously out of character.'
0:35:36 > 0:35:38He will come straight.
0:35:38 > 0:35:40I'll silence me in here.
0:35:41 > 0:35:45Hamlet's behaviour has alarmed the king and his councillor, Polonius.
0:35:45 > 0:35:47Hamlet is summoned to his mother's bedroom...
0:35:47 > 0:35:49Mother?
0:35:49 > 0:35:51..where Polonius is hiding, eavesdropping on their conversation.
0:35:51 > 0:35:52Mother.
0:35:54 > 0:35:56Withdraw, I hear him coming.
0:35:57 > 0:36:00Hamlet arrives ready to confront his mother about her marriage,
0:36:00 > 0:36:04but in a moment of madness will do something catastrophic.
0:36:05 > 0:36:07Now, mother, what's the matter?
0:36:07 > 0:36:10Hamlet, thou hast thy father much offended.
0:36:10 > 0:36:12Mother, you have my father much offended.
0:36:12 > 0:36:14Have you forgot me?
0:36:14 > 0:36:16No, by the rood, not so:
0:36:16 > 0:36:19You are the queen, your husband's brother's wife;
0:36:19 > 0:36:21And - would it were not so! - you are my mother.
0:36:21 > 0:36:23Nay, then, I'll set those to you that can speak.
0:36:23 > 0:36:25Come, come, and sit you down; you shall not budge;
0:36:25 > 0:36:28You go not till I set you up a glass
0:36:28 > 0:36:31Where you may see the inmost part of you.
0:36:33 > 0:36:36What wilt thou do? Thou wilt not murder me?
0:36:36 > 0:36:37Help, help, help!
0:36:37 > 0:36:38Help, help!
0:36:38 > 0:36:40How now! A rat?
0:36:40 > 0:36:43Dead, for a ducat!
0:36:44 > 0:36:46Dead!
0:36:46 > 0:36:48Impulsively, Hamlet lashes out,
0:36:48 > 0:36:51believing he has finally caught the king,
0:36:51 > 0:36:53but instead, he has murdered Polonius.
0:36:57 > 0:37:01I think it happens in the heat of a very hot moment,
0:37:01 > 0:37:03before he can really examine what he's doing.
0:37:03 > 0:37:07From that moment, as he looks down at Polonius's corpse,
0:37:07 > 0:37:13I think he realises there's no going back and nothing will ever be the same now,
0:37:13 > 0:37:20and I've probably started on the path to my own destruction.
0:37:24 > 0:37:28'But although everything has changed for Hamlet in that moment,
0:37:28 > 0:37:30'the scene is not over.'
0:37:30 > 0:37:34'Something has been brewing for a long time.'
0:37:34 > 0:37:38'He still has to confront the person he feels has betrayed him most.'
0:37:38 > 0:37:39'His mother.'
0:37:42 > 0:37:45You modulate into a total disgust at what she's doing.
0:37:46 > 0:37:50'In this scene, all Hamlet's unspoken resentment
0:37:50 > 0:37:53'and fury at his mother comes tumbling out.'
0:37:53 > 0:37:58'He is disgusted by her inconstancy, her stupidity and, worst of all,
0:37:58 > 0:38:01'as he sees it, her promiscuity.'
0:38:03 > 0:38:06You cannot call it love, for at your age
0:38:06 > 0:38:08The heyday in the blood is tame, it's humble,
0:38:08 > 0:38:11And waits upon the judgment: and what judgment
0:38:11 > 0:38:12Would step from this to this?
0:38:12 > 0:38:15O Hamlet, speak no more:
0:38:15 > 0:38:18Thou turn'st mine eyes into my very soul;
0:38:20 > 0:38:24And there I see such black and grained spots
0:38:24 > 0:38:27As will not leave their tinct.
0:38:27 > 0:38:28Nay, but to live
0:38:28 > 0:38:30In the rank sweat of an enseamed bed,
0:38:30 > 0:38:33Stew'd in corruption, honeying and making love
0:38:33 > 0:38:35Over the nasty sty -
0:38:35 > 0:38:36Speak to me no more!
0:38:38 > 0:38:42'A son confronting his own mother's sexuality is an uneasy enough
0:38:42 > 0:38:44'prospect for a modern audience,
0:38:44 > 0:38:47'but Hamlet has barely been out of performance in 400 years,
0:38:47 > 0:38:51'so previous generations have clearly found their own way
0:38:51 > 0:38:54'of coming to terms with such taboo material.'
0:38:54 > 0:38:56Ah, Michael!
0:38:56 > 0:38:58- David. - Hello.
0:38:59 > 0:39:01- How are you doing? - Fine, fine.
0:39:01 > 0:39:02Thank you for coming along.
0:39:02 > 0:39:06'Theatre historian Michael Dobson has tracked the stage history
0:39:06 > 0:39:09'of what has become known as the "closet scene".'
0:39:12 > 0:39:16Well, closet in Shakespeare's time means a kind of private office
0:39:16 > 0:39:18it's in your private apartments,
0:39:18 > 0:39:22- it's near your bedroom, but it's not actually a bedroom.- Right.
0:39:22 > 0:39:26'One of the earliest representations we have of this scene
0:39:26 > 0:39:29'shows Thomas Betterton playing Hamlet in the 17th century,'
0:39:29 > 0:39:34'with two chairs placed a fair distance apart.'
0:39:35 > 0:39:36Shall I be mother?
0:39:36 > 0:39:40Yeah, you be Gertrude, you sit there, and Betterton has been
0:39:40 > 0:39:43sitting down, talking to his mother, apparently from about this distance.
0:39:43 > 0:39:45With tea and sandwiches, possibly?
0:39:45 > 0:39:48- Well, yeah. It's all terribly respectful.- It is.
0:39:48 > 0:39:52'Only in later productions does the scene tend to move to the bedroom,
0:39:52 > 0:39:55'with Sigmund Freud's influence suggesting that Hamlet
0:39:55 > 0:39:57'might actually be in love with his mother.'
0:39:59 > 0:40:02It doesn't get manically all about what they're doing on the bed
0:40:02 > 0:40:06until J Barrymore in the States in the 1920's,
0:40:06 > 0:40:10and he's read Freud and he says that, as far as he's concerned,
0:40:10 > 0:40:12Hamlet is mother-fixated.
0:40:12 > 0:40:14He decides to actually stage it that way,
0:40:14 > 0:40:18decides that his Hamlet is explained by the relationship with his mother.
0:40:18 > 0:40:21So, how much do we know about his staging in particular?
0:40:21 > 0:40:22What did he do?
0:40:22 > 0:40:23He kissed his mother on the lips.
0:40:23 > 0:40:27That's the big sign that he gives that this is really
0:40:27 > 0:40:29what it's all about and that it's not normal.
0:40:29 > 0:40:30Right.
0:40:30 > 0:40:32He's the first one who does that,
0:40:32 > 0:40:34and that line is then taken up by Olivier.
0:40:39 > 0:40:42I must be cruel, only to be kind:
0:40:44 > 0:40:48The trouble I have is that being repulsed by your parents' sexuality
0:40:48 > 0:40:50is not the same as being drawn to it.
0:40:50 > 0:40:51Yeah.
0:40:51 > 0:40:55It strikes me that there's an absolute childlike fury
0:40:55 > 0:40:59and disgust at that, rather than any kind of romantic yearning.
0:41:01 > 0:41:03I never wanted to snog my mother in that scene,
0:41:03 > 0:41:07I just wanted to slap her.
0:41:07 > 0:41:10But I think one of the reasons that this scene
0:41:10 > 0:41:14sounds so particularly excessive and erotic and charged
0:41:14 > 0:41:17is that Hamlet is so wonderfully off the point.
0:41:17 > 0:41:20I mean, he's just killed somebody, and she says,
0:41:20 > 0:41:22"Oh, my God, you've just killed somebody!",
0:41:22 > 0:41:26and he says, "Never mind that. Let's talk about your sex life."
0:41:26 > 0:41:29It's so out of balance that he is continually
0:41:29 > 0:41:32going on about his mother's sex life,
0:41:32 > 0:41:35when there is this corpse here that he's just killed,
0:41:35 > 0:41:38that it makes it stand out so.
0:41:41 > 0:41:43'However you decide to play the closet scene,
0:41:43 > 0:41:47'by the end of it, Hamlet is at the mercy of the man he loathes.'
0:41:53 > 0:41:57After Hamlet has killed Polonius, things are changed for ever.
0:41:57 > 0:41:59The king, now knowing his life is in danger,
0:41:59 > 0:42:03is determined to get rid of Hamlet and sends him away overseas.
0:42:03 > 0:42:05Events are spiralling out of control.
0:42:05 > 0:42:08From here on in, the play shifts a gear.
0:42:10 > 0:42:14'Hamlet is banished to England and although he eventually
0:42:14 > 0:42:16'manages to escape his captors and return to Denmark,
0:42:16 > 0:42:22'in his absence, Ophelia, his one-time love
0:42:22 > 0:42:26'and the daughter of Polonius, has lost her mind and drowned herself.'
0:42:32 > 0:42:35'Unaware of this, on his way back to Elsinore,
0:42:35 > 0:42:38'Hamlet happens upon a freshly dug grave,
0:42:38 > 0:42:41'little knowing it is meant for Ophelia.
0:42:45 > 0:42:49Here, in one of the play's most recognisable moments,
0:42:49 > 0:42:52Hamlet comes face-to-face with mortality.
0:42:56 > 0:42:57His clutch.
0:43:04 > 0:43:07How long will a man lie the earth ere he rot?
0:43:07 > 0:43:08Faith, if he be not rotten before he die
0:43:08 > 0:43:10some eight year, nine year.
0:43:12 > 0:43:17Here's a skull now; lain in the earth some three and twenty years.
0:43:17 > 0:43:18Whose was it?
0:43:18 > 0:43:23This same skull, sir, was Yorick's skull, the king's jester.
0:43:23 > 0:43:25Let me see.
0:43:32 > 0:43:35'Hamlet beside Yorick's grave
0:43:35 > 0:43:38'is perhaps the most enduring image the play throws up.'
0:43:38 > 0:43:42'The danger is that familiarity will rob the scene of its impact.'
0:43:42 > 0:43:44'In staging the play,
0:43:44 > 0:43:47'we were blessed with a powerful reminder of Yorick's humanity.'
0:43:49 > 0:43:53We're on our way now to the RSC's props repository,
0:43:53 > 0:43:57to look at something that was a very important part of our production.
0:44:00 > 0:44:02Hello, I'm David.
0:44:02 > 0:44:03Hi, Catherine.
0:44:03 > 0:44:06- Hi, Catherine. How are you doing? - I'm OK, thank you.
0:44:06 > 0:44:07Good.
0:44:11 > 0:44:12Brilliant.
0:44:16 > 0:44:17This is our Yorick.
0:44:18 > 0:44:23He was a Polish composer and pianist called Andre Tchaikowsky,
0:44:23 > 0:44:27and when he died in the early 80s, he bequeathed his head
0:44:27 > 0:44:31to be used in a production of Hamlet by the RSC.
0:44:31 > 0:44:33He wanted to play Yorick.
0:44:35 > 0:44:38So, here he is. This is Andre.
0:44:38 > 0:44:41He was introduced to us by our director, Greg,
0:44:41 > 0:44:44on the first day of rehearsals, as the final member of the company.
0:44:46 > 0:44:48There was a variety of reactions, I think,
0:44:48 > 0:44:53to having a real human head in the production.
0:44:53 > 0:44:55Some people found it difficult.
0:44:55 > 0:44:58I must say, personally, I was rather excited by it.
0:44:58 > 0:45:02It's one of the cliches of the play, now, an actor holding a skull,
0:45:02 > 0:45:07and the trouble with the cliche is it loses meaning,
0:45:07 > 0:45:12but if you are presented with an actual person's skull,
0:45:12 > 0:45:16a real bit of human,
0:45:16 > 0:45:22then Hamlet's speech about Yorick and about staring into the skull
0:45:22 > 0:45:26of a man he knew well becomes all the more potent
0:45:26 > 0:45:30when you're aware that you're holding somebody's head,
0:45:30 > 0:45:32quite literally, in your hands.
0:45:33 > 0:45:34There he is.
0:45:36 > 0:45:37Andre was there.
0:45:38 > 0:45:42I feel very pleased to have helped him fulfil his ambition.
0:45:48 > 0:45:51Those lips that I have kissed I know not how oft.
0:45:54 > 0:45:56Where be your gibes now?
0:45:57 > 0:45:58Your gambols? Your songs?
0:45:59 > 0:46:03Your flashes of merriment, that were wont to set the table on a roar?
0:46:04 > 0:46:06Not one now, to mock your own grinning?
0:46:08 > 0:46:09Quite chop-fallen?
0:46:11 > 0:46:14- Prithee, Horatio, tell me one thing. - What's that, my lord?
0:46:16 > 0:46:19- Dost thou think Alexander looked o' this fashion i' the earth? - Even so.
0:46:19 > 0:46:24Imperious Caesar, dead and turn'd to clay.
0:46:33 > 0:46:37My best friend's mum has just died, and it's the first time
0:46:37 > 0:46:42someone of my age has lost a parent.
0:46:43 > 0:46:46The idea of what life is and how someone being there
0:46:46 > 0:46:50and then they're just flesh,
0:46:50 > 0:46:53or they're just remains, just bones,
0:46:53 > 0:46:56and if that's what someone is reduced to,
0:46:56 > 0:46:59what were they to begin with? What is a life?
0:46:59 > 0:47:01Those things become more...
0:47:03 > 0:47:06..more mysterious, more potent as you get older.
0:47:09 > 0:47:13They are questions you go through your whole life looking at, aren't they?
0:47:18 > 0:47:21The play pauses to hold a mirror up to mortality,
0:47:22 > 0:47:26but before long, Hamlet is back at court, confronting his own destiny.
0:47:27 > 0:47:29Will he be a revenging hero?
0:47:30 > 0:47:32Can he kill a king?
0:47:34 > 0:47:37In London, at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art,
0:47:37 > 0:47:40students are rehearsing the play's final scene.
0:47:56 > 0:48:00Move more, and it'll look faster,
0:48:00 > 0:48:03but it'll actually be slower for you.
0:48:04 > 0:48:06On returning to the court, Hamlet gets involved a contest
0:48:06 > 0:48:12between himself and Laertes, the son of Polonius - the man he killed.
0:48:20 > 0:48:23Great. That's when I want you to start moving.
0:48:26 > 0:48:28This contest will involve the entire court.
0:48:28 > 0:48:30It is the climax of the play,
0:48:33 > 0:48:35and yet Hamlet, told at the beginning of the play
0:48:35 > 0:48:40to take revenge for his father's death, has planned none of this.
0:48:40 > 0:48:42It was the king's idea.
0:48:44 > 0:48:48Instead of finally deciding that he is going to do what
0:48:48 > 0:48:52he has said all along that he's going to do,
0:48:52 > 0:48:55he gets involved in a wager
0:48:55 > 0:48:59that his uncle, of all people,
0:48:59 > 0:49:02has put on his skills at fencing,
0:49:02 > 0:49:06and there's no plan that Hamlet has articulated
0:49:06 > 0:49:10that's going to lead from this sword fight in the court
0:49:10 > 0:49:12to vengeance on his uncle.
0:49:12 > 0:49:14It seems to happen randomly.
0:49:14 > 0:49:19'So, ironically, this contest is not Hamlet's plan,
0:49:19 > 0:49:22'but the King's plot to kill him.'
0:49:22 > 0:49:25'Claudius has enlisted Laertes,
0:49:25 > 0:49:28'eager to avenge the death of Polonius.'
0:49:28 > 0:49:32'A blunted sword will be exchanged for a sharp one.'
0:49:32 > 0:49:37You may choose a sword unblunted, and in a pass of practise
0:49:37 > 0:49:39Requite him for your father.
0:49:39 > 0:49:40I will do it.
0:49:40 > 0:49:43'Laertes also plans to put poison on the point of his sword
0:49:43 > 0:49:46'to make sure Hamlet will die.'
0:49:46 > 0:49:49'Hamlet knows none of this,
0:49:49 > 0:49:52'and although he has misgivings about how the fight will turn out,
0:49:52 > 0:49:56'he now seems determined to surrender to his fate.'
0:49:56 > 0:49:58If your mind dislike of anything, obey it:
0:49:58 > 0:50:01I will forestall their repair hither, and say you are not fit.
0:50:01 > 0:50:02Not a whit.
0:50:04 > 0:50:06We defy augury.
0:50:09 > 0:50:11There's a special providence in the fall of a sparrow.
0:50:14 > 0:50:16If it be now,
0:50:16 > 0:50:17'tis not to come.
0:50:19 > 0:50:21If it be not to come, it will be now.
0:50:24 > 0:50:26If it be not now,
0:50:27 > 0:50:28yet it will come.
0:50:30 > 0:50:34He is a very, very different character. His mood is different.
0:50:34 > 0:50:37There's a wonderful serenity and resignation about him
0:50:37 > 0:50:38at that point.
0:50:38 > 0:50:40"If it be not now, it is to come."
0:50:40 > 0:50:42"if it be not to come, it is now."
0:50:42 > 0:50:45"The readiness is all. Let be."
0:50:45 > 0:50:50That great, almost oriental idea of let it be, what will be will be.
0:50:50 > 0:50:53There is a real inner peace that he's reached, there.
0:50:54 > 0:50:57'And so the contest begins.'
0:50:59 > 0:51:00Come on, sir.
0:51:00 > 0:51:02Judgment!
0:51:02 > 0:51:04A hit, a very palpable hit.
0:51:04 > 0:51:08Hamlet starts well. He wins the first point.
0:51:08 > 0:51:09Stay; Give him the cup.
0:51:10 > 0:51:13'He avoids a poisoned drink offered by Claudius
0:51:13 > 0:51:15'in case Laertes should fail.'
0:51:15 > 0:51:17I'll play this bout first; set it by awhile.
0:51:18 > 0:51:23But the queen, apparently unaware of the plot, drinks.
0:51:24 > 0:51:27It is the poison'd cup.
0:51:27 > 0:51:30'Impatient to kill Hamlet, Laertes lashes out.'
0:51:30 > 0:51:31Have at you now!
0:51:33 > 0:51:35'In the confusion, swords get exchanged
0:51:35 > 0:51:40'and Laertes is wounded with his own poisoned tip.'
0:51:43 > 0:51:44How does the queen?
0:51:44 > 0:51:45She swoons to see them bleed.
0:51:45 > 0:51:51No, no, the drink, the drink.
0:51:52 > 0:51:54O my dear Hamlet.
0:51:57 > 0:51:59The drink, the drink!
0:52:02 > 0:52:05'With poison in his blood, Hamlet cannot escape his own death
0:52:05 > 0:52:09'but, at last, he ensures the king will die, too.'
0:52:10 > 0:52:11Here,
0:52:14 > 0:52:19thou incestuous, murderous, damned Dane,
0:52:19 > 0:52:20Drink off this potion.
0:52:26 > 0:52:28Is thy union here?
0:52:31 > 0:52:33Follow my mother.
0:52:42 > 0:52:45'Hamlet has finally succeeded in avenging his father's death,
0:52:46 > 0:52:49'although more by accident than design.'
0:52:50 > 0:52:53'He has had little control over any of this.'
0:52:55 > 0:52:58Now, Hamlet has to face his own death
0:52:58 > 0:53:02in the arms of his only true friend, Horatio.
0:53:05 > 0:53:08If thou didst ever hold me in thy heart
0:53:08 > 0:53:11Absent thee from felicity awhile,
0:53:11 > 0:53:15And in this harsh world draw thy breath in pain,
0:53:15 > 0:53:18To tell my story.
0:53:20 > 0:53:23O, I die, Horatio;
0:53:25 > 0:53:29The potent poison quite o'er-crows my spirit:
0:53:34 > 0:53:38The rest is silence.
0:53:52 > 0:53:57That final speech, the sense of Hamlet looking into the afterlife,
0:53:57 > 0:54:02for someone who has fretted whether there is one or not,
0:54:02 > 0:54:06it was certainly in my mind that "The rest is silence"
0:54:06 > 0:54:09was a sense of relief, that, actually,
0:54:09 > 0:54:11there's nothing else to worry about.
0:54:11 > 0:54:15I'm staring into the afterlife now, and it's just a void.
0:54:16 > 0:54:18Thank goodness for that.
0:54:21 > 0:54:25I mean, the big question for me, and I still don't know the answer.
0:54:25 > 0:54:26"The rest is silence."
0:54:26 > 0:54:28Is that the rest of life, or is that the rest,
0:54:28 > 0:54:30the rest in himself is silence?
0:54:30 > 0:54:32And he doesn't have to speak any more.
0:54:32 > 0:54:33Yeah, well.
0:54:33 > 0:54:37You know? There's a beautiful sense of calm.
0:54:37 > 0:54:41I always felt very calm in that moment, and quite happy.
0:54:43 > 0:54:44It's funny.
0:54:44 > 0:54:47My memory, talking about it, is much more about how I was feeling,
0:54:47 > 0:54:50and talking about it, I keep thinking I've got to talk
0:54:50 > 0:54:52about the part, but actually I'm trying to think where I was at.
0:54:52 > 0:54:56Yes, but the two end up being very meshed, don't they?
0:54:56 > 0:54:58Yeah, I think they do.
0:54:58 > 0:55:01'For others, the fact that Hamlet bids Horatio
0:55:01 > 0:55:04'to tell what has happened,
0:55:04 > 0:55:09'to tell his story, means there will be life after the silence.'
0:55:11 > 0:55:15What is so powerful about the end of Hamlet - it's a deeply powerful ending -
0:55:15 > 0:55:18is the moment when he transfers his story to Horatio,
0:55:18 > 0:55:21He says, "In this harsh world,
0:55:21 > 0:55:23"draw thy breath in pain
0:55:23 > 0:55:25"to tell my story."
0:55:25 > 0:55:28So he will not have lived in vain.
0:55:28 > 0:55:35We are also being told to tell the story, to perform the play again.
0:55:35 > 0:55:37It does not end in nothing.
0:55:37 > 0:55:40It does not end in "The rest is silence."
0:55:40 > 0:55:43It ends, in fact, in the injunction to replay the play.
0:55:45 > 0:55:50If thou didst ever hold me in thy heart
0:55:53 > 0:55:55Absent thee from felicity awhile,
0:55:58 > 0:56:03And in this harsh world, draw thy breath in pain,
0:56:06 > 0:56:07To tell my story.
0:56:13 > 0:56:15'But am I any nearer to understanding
0:56:15 > 0:56:19'why every successive age has identified with Hamlet?'
0:56:21 > 0:56:23Of course, there's no answer to this,
0:56:23 > 0:56:26but do you have any sense of what it is about it that's so unique?
0:56:26 > 0:56:32It tackles the fundamental themes
0:56:32 > 0:56:35of perhaps what we all ask.
0:56:35 > 0:56:38Why are we here? What is the point of us being here?
0:56:40 > 0:56:43All these huge things which, I think, just dealing with
0:56:43 > 0:56:47being a living, breathing human being, we have to ask ourselves,
0:56:47 > 0:56:51at some point, or feel, at some point, are in this play.
0:56:53 > 0:56:55I remember having conversations in the summer,
0:56:55 > 0:56:57after we'd finished the run, with people,
0:56:57 > 0:56:59and we'd be talking about something
0:56:59 > 0:57:01completely nothing to do with the play,
0:57:01 > 0:57:03and I'd go, "It's like Hamlet when he says this."
0:57:03 > 0:57:06Everything would refer back to Hamlet for about six months.
0:57:06 > 0:57:10It seemed like it explained everything,
0:57:10 > 0:57:12or the answer to everything was there.
0:57:15 > 0:57:19'In the end, there just is no other character like him.'
0:57:20 > 0:57:22I remember, in the last day of filming,
0:57:22 > 0:57:25thinking I'm so proud to have done that,
0:57:25 > 0:57:27I'm so pleased that that's something I got to do,
0:57:29 > 0:57:33and now I will never go there again, and there was a huge relief to that,
0:57:33 > 0:57:36because it was like having a weight lifted off your shoulders.
0:57:38 > 0:57:43And then, you know, three years on,
0:57:43 > 0:57:47I do find myself, I catch myself
0:57:47 > 0:57:49slightly fantasising about doing it again,
0:57:49 > 0:57:53and going back there and seeing what that would feel like,
0:57:53 > 0:57:57but that way madness quite literally lies.
0:58:23 > 0:58:26Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd