To be, or not to be?
As a beginner in Shakespearean plays, I watched Hamlet for the first time at my school. True, we read A Midsummer Night’s Dream in Grade 8, Romeo and Juliet in Grade 9, and currently, Macbeth. But I’ve never gotten the honor of watching a full length Hamlet. In fact, I’ve never watched a full length Shakespeare play.
That is not to say I did not watch Shakespeare plays at all. Each year, my school hosts a Theatre Calgary production. These productions are school-friendly; each play is only 45 minutes to an hour long. Surprisingly, within this short period of time, four actors and actresses in total put on an adaptation of a Shakespeare play.
The specific Hamlet production I had the honor of watching was 47 minutes long. I had not read the play beforehand, but later, I found out that there was a subtext (the war), a crucial scene (the gravedigger scene), which serves as comical relief, and characters missing. Even without parts of the actual play, though, I was able to enjoy and understand.
Shakespeare is seen frequently through eyes filled with fear. However, The Shakespeare Company’s adaptation made Shakespeare more approachable, less time consuming. I, for one, really liked the performance.