Hamlet- Speculative Design
Design For A Classic Play
BY SHAKESPEARE:
Along side a contemporary play, I got the opportunity to design for a classical play, one that has no doubtedly been done hundreds of times. My aim was to hint at an older time, but being minimalistic, selective and evocative. I didn't want to recreate what has already been done- but instead use the world of subtle symbolism for suggestion.
My final model:
Gertrude: She hides her emotions and hides in herself and behind the men who are very dominant in the story. However, she is still relevant and useful as she still holds some power within herself as Queen. On the exterior, she is very decorated and beautiful, with her wealth and status but also as a mature woman who’s capable of remarriage and isn’t seen as ‘damaged goods’
The colour of brass is near that of gold and this symbolises her wealth, power, status, spirituality and decoration.
Claudius; A Traditional Iron- He’s a very cold hearted person to have killed his brother, he strikes me as a very flat, hard, calculating and shallow person- but someone who can go from hot to cold quite quick as at first he wanted to help Hamlet, but then wanted to kill him just as easily, who also felt guilt, whilst simultaneously enjoying what he benefitted from the kill. I chose this pretty painted traditional iron as Hamlet is a 1600’s story with original text and he strikes me as a very traditional valued person, and also the flowers on the face of the iron symbolise his charming appearance, status, King-dom and personality he is able to put on to deceive others.
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Ophelia: Cornflower Petals and Damiana Leaf Herbs In Jars- These two herbs together have associations to love, lust, fertility, femininity, fidelity and summer. I feel this closely relates to her as she is a young beautiful maiden being courted by Hamlet who was probably besotted by him at first. Ive decided to keep them in their jars as this symbolises how Ophelia is kept ahold of, never being let free, and always being told what to do.
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Horatio; A Wooden Box- He isn’t seen much, he doesn’t say much and no one really minds him or thinks of him very significant because he isn’t wealthy or of high status- he doesn’t hold any power this way. However, he is very important in the fact that everyone is supported by him. He is a guard for the King, a close friend to Hamlet, good at keeping secrets and he’s neutral in the setting. He’s also the only character to actually survive to tell the tale. The wood of the object is very fitting as he is a material made from tress; the pillars that hold up and nourish life and earth as we know it.
BUT FIRST, WE HAD A SESSION ON OBJECT THEATRE:
Before starting our research, we had a few lessons on object theatre. I loved the symbology that each object can hold and what that means for it and the way it's perceived.
I started off by getting some objects that I felt each represented the characters.
Hamlet: The story is set in Denmark and the Vikings were partly from Denmark. He’s also very to the point, sharp in his words to everyone He too, is very decorated in his clothing and status. The sole purpose of an axe is to cut down, wound or slice something, and since seeing his dead dad, his mission has been to kill.
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Polonius: He likes to play with fire, he likes to intrude into situations he doest know a lot about or doesn’t belong in. He inserts himself into dangerous situations, he probably thought himself invincible, but in the end, it got him killed. Just like how the metal of the tongues can withstand a lot of the fire, at really high temperatures, metal can actually mould, melt and inevitably get destroyed. However dangerous and clumsy of him, the one tool that is used for putting on more wood for the fire, he actually was able to get close to situations.
He too is symbolised by a brass decorated and traditional object as brass is the colour of wealth, status and decoration. He is traditional in the sense that he is sexist and believes women should be ‘put in their place’ and governed around by men and telling Gertrude and Ophelia what to do with Hamlet.
PUTTING THEM INTO AN ATMOSPHERE:
It was all very well of getting the objects, but we needed to make them come to life. Here, I chose two of my objects and put them into a situation to tell a narrative.
Here is Polonius and Ophelia on the edge of a canal boat.
This is of the time of Ophelia jumping and drowning to her death. Here, I have suggested that it was her father Polonius to give her the final push.
Although it’s more obvious to anyone that it was Hamlet to drive her to her sadness, you would almost miss that Polonius was the blame.
For probably all of her life, her father had kept her quite suppressed and small by telling her what to do, thinking he was either protecting her or just being sexist by thinking women had to be told what to do. She either collapsed under her dads pressure and just learnt to accept it, or she genuinely believed she needed her dads advice and guidance to survive. With his meddling in her relationships, and her ruined relationship with Hamlet being Polonius’s fault, I feel she might have had some resentment towards him. Eventually with his death, I think she felt lost because she didn’t know what to do with this new freedom, but at the same time, she would have been an orphan and probably poor as women didn’t inherit anything and she wasn’t wed.
This is why i have positioned Polonius to corner Ophelia to jump off the ledge.
The weather describes the mood as its gloomy, miserable and foggy. She must have felt that way, but also couldn’t see the light at the end of the tunnel so to speak, and couldn’t see the future without her dad and the affections from Hamlet with all that fog.
The time in which this photo was taken was in the back end of winter. The bare branches of the tress symbolise the death and barren events that take place in the story. The recurring promise of spring however, represents Horatio in the fact that he is the only one to survive the tragic story, however he can tell the tale and hope that it is treated as a lesson for others to learn from in the future.
CHOOSING OPPOSING CHARACTERS AND SYMBOLISING THEM:
With this exercise, I chose two different characters that greatly opposed each other, drew something that I thought symbolised them, and then also drew their physical body with words describing them. This was just a fun quick exercise to get my mind thinking sporadically for inspiration.
First I chose Claudius:
A harsh fist grasping desperately at a daisy that he is damaging as two petals are falling off the delicate flower. Throughout the story he remains his ‘innocence’ which is symbolised by this daisy. However, he is far from innocent. An innocent person wouldn’t be so desperate to keep ahold of that flower and remain their innocence, they would see they're hurting things/ people and let go; they would respect the flower, be gentle and look after the flower.
With his lack of empathy, respect and goodness of heart, he is forcefully shoving his hand up to be quick to defend himself and be the dominant one with all the power, ready to be heard.
A physical representation of Claudius, full with words that in my mind, describe his physical features but also her personality and persona. In my mind, he is quite muscular and good looking as he seems very charming and confident and he was able to marry with no problem.
On the outside, in red, are words that more abstractly describe him.
Second, I chose Ophelia:
A lily on the edge of a small pond, with the appearance of what would seem as the flower crying. Either it’s raining and the water is dripping down the flower and falling into the pond, or, the pond has been created by the continuous drips of tears created by the delicate flower. The leaves and grass foliage almost hides the flower as she’s very protected and held under arm by her father, but also in society as she’s just a young innocent girl that is always quiet and obedient.
Ive chosen to represent her as a lily as they’re quite hard to keep, not lasting, shrivel up and die easy with no attention and maintenance but they’re summed up by their elegance and beauty.
The ponds ripples in the water also symbolise how one act will affect another act, it creates a dopple effect. One thing can happen, and the ripple will eventually reach to the other side of the pond and although small, will affect the outcome. Hence, the turn of events that unfolded by her dad meddling in her love affairs.
Physical representation of Ophelia, full with words that in my mind, describe her physical features but also her personality and persona.
On the outside, in red, are words that more abstractly describe her.
MAKING MOOD BOARDS:
These are a few mood boards that I threw together to get a general gist of how everything looked and felt in my mind. I liked the contrast between the harshness, damage and dead against the light, sweet, delicate aspects. I felt it represented the story of Hamlet perfectly.
In my mind, when I first read Hamlet, I imagined them all to be wearing Georgian/ Edwardian/ Victorian attire, mixed with the classic Caribbean pirate costume. I wanted a stripped-down, fairy tale version of this. I loved the colours used here, so I went to create a colour mood board too- as I feel the costume needed to reflect the colour symbolism of the play as a whole.
The colours used here are very natural colours, with the exception of dulled out purples, baby pinks and crimson red to stand out from greens and browns. I hand picked these swatches of colours from the images shown above, and the images I chose because they're of natural, a theme that I feel has great importance throughout the play.
DESIGNING THE
COSTUMES:
These are my initial designs for Ophelia that kind of overlap Gertrudes. I chose to portray the women in a kind of distressed, pirate inspired lingerie look. This is because they, as women, have to use their sexuality to gain things in life.
After my initial drawings, I felt I had enough to go off, even for the male characters because I saw the pirate/Georgian vibe come together effectively for me to then go ahead and draw their final outcomes.
I decided to do it in classic simple pencil and not use colour so as not to over do it. I also didnt want to assign certain things certain colours, I wanted the order of colour of each clothing item left to the imagination of audience members. Instead, I just used the colours from the previous colour mood board to suggest the colours for each different character.
Ophelia:
Ophelia is young and beautiful and of high status. I’ve chosen to give her a flowy skirt, the same as Gertrude to symbolise the sexuality and gentleness in both the women.
However, I’ve made her clothing a little more revealing and provocative, as she relies on men in her society to look after her, so she wants to be in their favour. In the second design, it focuses more on the Edwardian corset adorned in lace and thrills. This period of time was when women were in their most vulnerable state. Their corsets were that tight that they could not breath, they would often times faint and over time they were unable to physically move much at all. The men had to do everything for a high class woman. She was purely a fashion statement and mans prize. This summarises Ophelia completely.
Queen Gertrude:
Although Gertrude is portrayed as a passive wife, I feel she isn’t stupid as people might think, but she’s definitely still beautiful, evidenced by Claudius marrying her even though he could have had any woman, he chose someone that wasn’t virtuous and ‘pure’ anymore.
I choose to make her skirts flowy and flirtatious and something someone younger than her would wear- a nod to her sexuality and capability to re marry into her older years.
However, Ive also included a golden metal semi- armour piece as she puts up with a lot, and is actually pretty smart. She is tough skinned. As Queen you can’t show or talk about your emotions and worries, so everyone can see her golden lavish armour, but it doesn’t do much to protect.
King Claudius:
Claudius stands tall and proud of his achievements. He is adorned in extravagant jewellery strewn over his shoulder very nonchalantly. His bodice is bulky and thrilly; to accentuate his manhood, his muscular stature, but also to convey his false innocent. Using fashion to appear charming, likeable and confident.However, his high boots with trousers tucked in resembles his muddiness, and his readiness to get his hands dirty..
Hamlet:
Hamlet is more free and care free in his attire, he doesn’t care what people think of him, he’s mad, he’s off the wall and he deliberately dresses in a mad way to seem that way to people, because that’s his plan. He also reminds me of a pirate, and he also comes across them so I thought it be appropriate to make him seem more like one. To Claudius, he probably thinks Hamlet is wanting to steal the crown and thrown from him, so it’s sufficient to say he is treated like a pirate.
ARTIST RESEARCH:
Jodie Gardner- Creative Designer
I like how Jodie uses a select few objects to create depth and space and context for these scenes. There’s no detailed walls or elaborate scene changes. The height of the short chest and the mountain of the tree suggests these atmospheres that, are needed, but she has done very simply by minimalism.
DRAWING MY SET IDEA
I wanted to create something that is close to Mother Nature. The society they are in completely disregards it, it’s something they have to work against. By living in stone castles, you push away the natural, by only caring about power and status and money, you’re abandoning your innate most organic part of yourself. Everyone is so wrapped up in the thirst of winning that they completely see past what’s important. I want to throw them all into a nature setting to test their coping skills, sat upon a huge book. The symbolises that this is a story, and this is something to be learnt from. A story of power, greed and anger. This is the story that Horatio tells when he is the only last survivor and Hamlet asks him to stay alive to be the one to tell the tale. It’s also a nod to the actors who come and play the very similar story of ‘The Murder Of Gonzago’ which test’s Claudius’s coping skills and is the cause of the leakage of truth.
Dead& alive trees:
Symbolises that they have everything , but they’re willing to give it up out of close mindedness, greed, power, anger, resentment.
Cycles of life, old and anew, winter and summer
Book:
knowledge, power, experience, enrichment
Symbolises the story ‘The Murder Of Gonzago’
The fact that Horatio is told to stay alive to tell the tale.
This is a Shakespearian story.
Lantern:
Natural lighting, (candle/ flame), traditional, natural, Illuminating within the darkness, atmospheric
Owl:
Over watches, guardian, wisdom, knowledge, experience, darkness
CHANGES AND DEVELOPMENT:
Upon further checking the layout and flow of my set in relation to the story, and hearing feedback from tutors, director and lighting designer, I decided to keep the book a stationary set floor.
The book lends itself its own dramatic effect and theatrics. I think a huge page turning would be too messy to do, and kind of unnecessary. Simplicity is my friend in this show, and that would be too complicated.
Below is the new design drawing. This features three trees, and in amongst them is the rubble of an old gothic arch window. This resembles the humanity crumbling away and letting nature take over. It’s the abandonment of societal values slow fading away.
A window represents looking into the past or into the future.
I think they were being so close minded- that they could not and didn’t want to see into their future, into a better perspective; which ultimately led them into not having a future.
The Book:
Just like the trees, I wanted to be sustainable, so I kept the same pages, but added some more pages and some mount board to add the bulk. I coloured the pages with tea bag stain and burnt the ages to give it that aged feel.
Just like the snippets on the trees, these two open pages are from a Viking book, so there’s Norwegian and Danish words and names in there.
BEFORE:
AFTER:
Polonius:
Polonius is a very shady character, he hides in plain sight and he gets into everyones business and inserts his opinion into every situation. I chose to mirror his tunic, trousers and boots with that of King Claudius', except they are more basic as he hasnt got the status or as much wealth as the King. However, I feel that Polonius is very much conscious of fashion, and how to portray yourself as high status and importance. He definitely keeps up appearances as he thinks he is relevant, important and well liked.
I've also given him a hood as he is seen hiding and being secretive majority of the play- hiding in plain sight yet not being known as to what he's up to.
Su Blackwell- Paper Artist
I love how Su’s work focuses on trees, delicacy and dark backgrounds against the warm toned subtle lighting. I also love how some of her work is very minimal; with a very prominent eye catching piece in the middle or how there might be a lot going on and your eyes wander across the page and stumbles across something new each time you look.
I love the subtle suggestion of a fairy tale, her work features on top of an open book; this inspires me as at the end of Hamlet, Hamlet wants Horatio to stay alive so he’s able to tell the tale of what had happened so that possibly others could learn from it. The book idea is also fitting as this is a legendary piece of writing as its Shakespearian.
MAKING THE ROUGH MODEL:
Features:
-The main floor area is a book.
The floor appears to flick to the next page for the beginning of each of the 5 Act’s.
-No steps but the book that they’re on is mounded so it won’t be flat.
-The tree stump in the back is climbable, it’s durable so that the actors can climb on it and walk down the branch that steadily declines and meets the floor. (This is inspired by the thing in Nightmare Before Christmas, where Jack walks down that hill that appears to be alive.
Side Views For The Audience:
MAKING OF THE FINAL MODEL:
The trees:
These were something I kept from my white card model. I wanted to be sustainable so I didn’t throw away the material away and start fresh. All I did was tighten up the masking tape and glue it firmly, added a few more ‘branches’, added ripped pieces of paper from a Viking book.
I used tea bags to stain the paper darker. I left the trees masking tape alone as the colour was spot on, it has that off white- cream vintage paper colour. I chose to use pages from a Viking book as it’s fitting as Hamlet is based in Denmark and associates with Norway. This book contains content about both countries.
BEFORE:
AFTER:
The Arch:
I made the arch from layers of mount board and thin card from a cereal box and glued these together. The 'bricks' on it was made from more mount board that I cut up into each size, skewed off some of the edges, and stuck them in oder. I then lightly coated everything in poly filler as this adds texture and a subtle 'cement' type of filling between each brick. After this had died, I then painted it a grey-brown colour.
THE VENUE:
NOTTINGHAM PLAYHOUSE
Above is a photo of The Playhouse in Nottingham where it hypothetically would have been designed for. I've added in the sight lines of what the audience will see from the more 'worst/cheaper' seats. The way i've designed my set was origianlly because of these sight lines. The audience in the middle areas would be able to see everything, however, people sitting on the far left and right would only get to see half the stage. I wanted to make a set where everyone could see everything.
This is just me playing with the placements of the trees in conjunction of the arch. I wanted a nice connection between the arch and the branches of the trees so that it looked nicely joined and not random separate bits.
PHOTOS OF
FINAL MODEL:
FRONT SEAT VIEW:
LEFT SEAT VIEW:
RIGHT SEAT VIEW:
