8 May 2015
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A short lecture series
exploring Hamlet as Elizabethan audiences would have experienced it,
coincides with the Globe Theatre’s upcoming world tour of Shakespeare’s most
famous play.
Local Shakespeare expert
David Lawrence will present the lectures through the Victoria University
Continuing Education programme. As well as being suitable for anyone attending
the Globe-to-Globe performance of Hamlet in Wellington on 1 to 2 June,
he says, it is also aimed at people interested in how Shakespeare’s plays work
in performance, both in their original context and today.
“Over 400 years Hamlet
has been altered beyond recognition,” says David. “This course looks at how it
would have appeared to an Elizabethan audience in 1601 and considers the four
centuries of philosophical and theatrical change that have happened since
then.”
The lectures will be
held on Saturday afternoons over three weeks. Sessions will consider the plot
and characters, the socio-political context in which Hamlet was written,
the play’s unusual publication history and rich performance history both on
stage and screen, as well the things that influenced Shakespeare as he wrote
the play.
“People doing the course
will gain an appreciation of what to expect from the visiting production by
Shakespeare’s Globe when the play comes to New Zealand, and there will be an
opportunity for a post-mortem discussion of the play in the third session,”
says David.
As to any doubts that
Shakespeare actually penned the play, David puts them to rest. “The lead
character is a variant of the name of Shakespeare’s own son Hamnet, and the
play is written in the same year his father died—coincidence perhaps, but it
seems too extreme a coincidence to me.”
David Lawrence is an
award-winning theatre director and a Hunter Fellow of Victoria University of
Wellington. In 2013, he was part of the International Actors’ Fellowship at
Shakespeare’s Globe. He is the director of The Bacchanals, a Wellington theatre company he founded in 2000 to
explore text-based theatre and redefine classic works. David has been directly
involved in nine of Victoria’s Summer Shakespeare productions. He has been a
member of the Summer Shakespeare Trust Board for the past five years, is
currently co-chair and mentors directors of Summer Shakespeare productions.
‘Shakespeare's
Hamlet: Unpacking 400 years of cultural and historical baggage’ will be held
over three Saturdays from 1 to 3pm, from 23 May. To learn more, go to http://cce.victoria.ac.nz/courses/340-shakespeares-hamlet-unpacking-400-years-of-cultural-and-historical-baggage
For
more information contact David Lawrence on david@thebacchanals.net or phone 021 180 7526.
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