Continuing in my vein of SOUND FOCUSING TEXT, I will be spending some time with looking at how different performance aspects influence how sound really channels the text. I talked about this topic previously in my post on The Winter's Tale, with how setting influenced the actual meaning of the words being spoken.
Let's take a look at three different performances of Hamlet Act 1, Scene 2, each one with a different take on setting. It's interesting the way that the background details can change the very nuance of the sounds.
This is from the 1995 Kenneth Branagh version. Look at the setting. It is a lush palace, and you can see the remains from the wedding celebration. (I thought the confetti was snow, but it isn't.) He is talking about the quick marriage of his mother to his uncle. Notice that he is talking about the remains of his father being still warm in his grave with his mother remarried as the evidence of the wedding is still fluttering around him while he is bemoaning this "evil" behavior. This brings out the incestuous act that drives Hamlet another step into madness of grief after the death of his father.
This is the David Tennant version of that same scene. You'll notice that we are still in a palace of sorts, but this one does not have the festive air of the last one. This room is large, spacious, empty. It's dark and echoes. It brings out the ideas of being sorrowful, of being in a crypt. This room is a tomb, and is filled with mourning. In the scene directly previous to this, Claudius announces that he and Gertrude have married, and they laugh. It feels so unnatural, and sounds haunted in that cold room. This brings out the hollow and empty feeling of betrayal that Hamlet is feeling from the death of his father and marriage of his mother.
This is the Laurence Olivier rendition. It's probably one of the most famous of this play as well. We are still in a palace, but this time, it does not have the feelings of luxury as much. It is thick, solid, and made of stone. This one looks like a dungeon. The fact that the lines are delivered as a "thought track" add to this. Hamlet is not at liberty to say what he feels, he must keep his hurt and anguish locked up inside of himself. He is mentally and physically in a dungeon that he is not allowed to leave. This brings out the trapped and futile resistance feelings that are developing in him.
Each of these renditions have different actors that bring out different words (which is part of my next post), but the background itself plays very much into the meaning and focusing of the text itself.
