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  • Shakespeare Onstage in England, 2004–2005
  • Patricia Tatspaugh (bio)

Shakespeare Quarterly's expanded coverage of Shakespeare in England this year includes twenty-three productions of twelve plays by fifteen companies. This essay looks closely at several approaches to the same script and considers the "delicious ambiguity" of Shakespeare, concentrating on multiple productions of Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, and Measure for Measure.1

Stage design and casting of the prince were the keys to three quite different productions of Hamlet. At the Royal Shakespeare Theatre (RST), artistic director Michael Boyd set the tragedy in a spy-infested early-seventeenth century, and Toby Stephens, a worthy opponent to Claudius, revealed many facets of Hamlet's character. At the Old Vic, director Trevor Nunn placed twenty-three-year-old Ben Whishaw in a stylish, modern-dress production. But of the three Hamlets, his was least regal. Yukio Ninagawa's second English-language production of Shakespeare mixed Japanese and Western dress of an indeterminate period and took "Denmark's a prison" to define the set. His prince, Michael Maloney, was the most intellectual and introspective of the three.

Boyd's Denmark was a dark, suffocating place of eerie, colorless sounds scored for percussion, keyboard, and voice. Wild animals roared in each of the guard scenes, the Ghost's sword scraped against the metal ramp, a strangulated voice sounded in the first two scenes, a discordant sound backed Claudius's attempt to pray, and a metallic noise closed the production. Only the players, who sang as they progressed into the auditorium, provided a tuneful melody (and a companionably harmonious group). So, too, the autumnal shades of their costumes introduced a welcome bit of color among the black and shades of gray favored by the court.

The genial, hearty mask worn by Clive Wood's Claudius, so at odds with the threatening atmosphere, soon cracked to reveal a confident, calculating politician. Claudius's disdain extended from enemies—with a flourish he tore up Fortinbras's [End Page 448] request, "So much for him"—to those who served him: he addressed Voltimand (Edward Clarke) and his associate with a tight smile and drew Voltimand close to warn him not to depart from "the scope" allowed by the "delated articles."2 (Voltimand signaled his disapproval.) Claudius cut short Rosencrantz's (John Mackay's) sycophantic "Never alone / Did the King sigh, but with a general groan" with a condescending "Arm you, I pray you, to this speedy viage." Richard Cordery's self-satisfied Polonius fared no better; Claudius turned aside, for example, when Polonius called attention to Hamlet's "here's metal more attractive." To intensify the sense of treachery and danger in Claudius's kingdom, Boyd expanded instances of spying. Guards hovered ominously before the wooden cyclorama that enclosed the stage or took their positions before or behind every possible entrance and appeared, quickly and unnecessarily, to remove three chairs when Horatio (Forbes Masson) explained the Ghost's attempt to speak. Slats in the cyclorama provided spying positions not only for Claudius and Polonius but also for the functionary who eavesdropped on Gertrude (Siân Thomas) and Horatio when he confided to the queen that her son had returned to Denmark and that Claudius had intended Hamlet's death.3 Rosencrantz, Guildenstern (John Killoran), and two guards observed Hamlet deliver the "How all occasions do inform against me" soliloquy. To this Claudius even Meg Fraser's young, pretty Ophelia seemed suspect; as in Q2 (1604), an anonymous functionary, not Horatio, reported her distraction.

Claudius ruled a patriarchal kingdom, which tolerated but exhibited little affection for women. With Gertrude, Claudius was initially warm, fond, pleasant, but not overly demonstrative. Hamlet may urge Gertrude to abstain from Claudius; but at Stratford, Claudius rejected Gertrude, snarling "O Gertrude, come away," turning his attention to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, shouting "pray you make haste," dropping the hand she had proffered, and exiting before her. Gertrude understood the threat to Hamlet implicit in "let the great axe fall." Knowing Claudius had poisoned the drink, she defied him: "I will, my lord, I pray you pardon me," and successfully struggled free when Claudius would have prevented her from revealing his treachery.

Cordery's Polonius...

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