Thus, the play’s elaborate intricacies, subplots, and details gave Branagh a lot of space for exploration and discovery when adapting the tragedy, and Branagh’s Hamlet is a bit more than a film about a boy and his mother. A complex web of characters, secrecy, and madness, when boiled down to a one-line (biased) summary, Shakespeare’s Hamlet is, essentially, the story of a boy and his mother. In 1996, Kenneth Branagh, British actor, screenwriter, and director often associated with Shakespearean adaptations, took aim at one of the Bard’s most popular tragedies, Hamlet. But, on the other hand, removing any of the coveted ambiguity eliminates (or, at least, reduces) one of the key elements that earned Shakespeare his staying power over the last 400+ years. On one hand, these choices breathe new life into the piece, giving it a distinct tone or establishing a core theme that may reinvent or reinvigorate the work. That is, the director, screenwriter, and actor(s) make certain claims and decisions about the plot and characters which clarify the uncertainty. Tricky thing is, in a performance, be it theatre or film, some of Shakespeare’s revered ambiguity is lost. But, in some ways, the extensive attention paid to Shakespeare’s use of language has made it harder to create successful performances of Shakespeare’s work. Yet, even though Shakespeare’s work may be more popular today with readers (scholars, students, etc), the Bard and his work is still celebrated in the traditional performative way. Yet, as the centuries have gone by, is the same true? In today’s world, one of the main reasons people revere Shakespeare’s work is his use of language, its ambiguity and dexterity things more easily appreciated during reading, not watching. WarnerBros.Fact: In the late 1500s and early 1600s, Shakespeare’s plays were meant to be watched, not read.
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