Jan Kott, Hamlet and Me...September 23rd 2007 |
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My production of William Shakespeare’s masterpiece Hamlet that opens at Actors Guild of Lexington (October 17 – November 11) is one I have been conceiving for over 10 years now. I began thinking on this production when I was a graduate student and I first read Jan Kott’s landmark book on Shakespearean criticism called Shakespeare Our Contemporary. Here is some info on Kott:
“Jan Kott was born in Warsaw in 1914, and studied at the Universities of Warsaw and Lodz. He served in the Polish army during its stand against Hitler’s divisions, then joined the Polish resistance movement; as Peter Brook (perhaps the world’s greatest theatre director) has observed, commenting on Kott’s appreciation of the qualities of intense vitality, danger, and political involvement that mark Shakespeare’s tragedies and histories, “Kott is undoubtedly the only writer on Elizabethan matters who assumes without question that every one of his readers will at some point or another have been woken up by the secret police in the middle of the night.” After the war, Kott taught Polish literature at the University of Warsaw and wrote drama reviews and essays, some of which has been collected in Theatre Notebook. He came to the United States in 1966 and taught at the State University of New York at Stony Brook.”
“Shakespeare Our Contemporary is a provocative, original study of major plays of Shakespeare (including Hamlet); more than that, however, it is one of the few critical works to have strongly influenced theatrical productions. Many directors have acknowledged their debt to Kott, finding in his analogies between Shakespearean situations and those in modern life and drama the seeds of vital new stage-conceptions. Readers all over the world – Shakespeare Our Contemporary has been translated into 19 languages since it appeared in 1961 – have similarly found their responses to Shakespeare broadened and enriched. It has been called “the best, the most alive, radical book about Shakespeare in at least a generation.”
Two essays in the book particularly have influenced me, The Kings, which takes a look at the history plays, particularly Richard III, and Hamlet of the Mid Century. Some interesting quotes from Hamlet of the Mid Century:
“No Dane of flesh and blood has been written about so extensively as Hamlet. Shakespeare’s prince is certainly the best known representative of his nation. Innumerable glossaries and commentaries have grown around Hamlet, and he is one of the few literary heroes who live apart from his the text, apart from the theatre. His name means something even to those who have never seen or read Shakespeare’s play. In this respect, he is rather like the Mona Lisa. We know she is smiling even before we have seen the picture. Mona Lisa’s smile has been separated from the picture, as it were. It contains not only what Leonardo expressed in it but also everything that has been written about it. Too many people – girls, women, poets, painters—have tried to solve the mystery of that smile. It is not just Mona Lisa that is smiling at us now, but all those who have tried to analyze, or imitate, that smile.”
“Hamlet cannot be performed in its entirety. One has to select, curtail and cut. One can perform only one of several Hamlets potentially existing in this arch-play. It will always be poorer than Shakespeare’s Hamlet is; but it may also be enriched by being a Hamlet of our time. It may, but I would rather say – it must be so.” (My emphasis)
“The genius of Hamlet consists, perhaps, in the fact that the play can serve as a mirror. An ideal Hamlet would be one most true to Shakespeare and most modern at the same time.”
“There are many subjects in Hamlet. There is politics, force opposed to morality; there is discussion of the divergence between theory and practice, of the ultimate purpose of life; there is tragedy of love, as well as family drama; political, eschatological and metaphysical problems are considered. There is everything you want, including deep psychological analysis, a bloody story, a duel, and general slaughter. One can select at will. But one must know what one selects, and why.”
My Hamlet is one that is focusing on politics and the abuse of power. It is interesting to me that Kott, a Polish critic who lived through both the Nazis and the Communists, would be attracted to the political dimensions in Hamlet. As Brook states, Kott naturally assumes that everyone would be aware of the notion of totalitarianism, the idea of being spirited away in the middle of the night by the Stasi, the KGB, the SS…pre 9/11, pre-Patriot Act, pre-never ending useless, wasteful war in Iraq, that remained a foreign notion to us here in America. Today I am not so sure. Gitmo, rendition, the capricious disregard for the will of the people by our “leaders”, the fact that there are surveillance cameras everywhere, the fact that citizens are encouraged to spy on their neighbors, the fact that our “leaders” think it is ok to listen and to spy on citizens and do so without probable cause…where are we going? What will it take to wake us up? Indeed, the notion of power corrupting is not new, people in positions of power have been abusing those positions from before the times of the Caesars. Corruption in Frankfort and Washington DC is neither a new phenomenon nor the exclusive domain of one political party over the other. I guess my question is, with this production, who watches the watchers? And are we so asleep at the wheel of American Idol, Brittany, Lindsay and OJ that we no longer care?
What will it take to wake us up? The reinstatement of the draft? A knock on the door in the middle of the night?
From Bertolt Brecht, as quoted by Kott:
“…The theatre should always be mindful of the needs of its time. Let us takes, as an example, the old play of Hamlet. I believe that in view of the bloody and gloomy times in which I am writing this, in view of the criminal ruling classes and general despair of reason…the story of the play may be read thus: It is a time of war. Hamlet’s father, the King of Denmark, had, in a victorious war of plunder, killed the king of Norway. While the latter’s son, Fortinbras, is preparing himself for a new war, the king of Denmark is also killed, by his brother. The brothers of the dead kings, having become kings themselves, conclude peace with each other. Norwegian troops, on their way to a war of plunder against Poland, have been permitted to cross Danish territory. Just at this time, the warlike father’s ghost asks young Hamlet to revenge the crime committed on himself. After some hesitation as to whether he should add one bloody deed to another, Hamlet – willing even to go into exile—meets at the seashore young Fortinbras and his troops on their way to Poland. Following his example he turns back, and, in a scene of barbaric slaughter, kills his uncle, his mother and himself, leaving Denmark to the Norwegians. Thus we observe how, in these circumstances, the young man, already stout, badly misuses his new knowledge acquired at Wittenberg university. This knowledge gets in the way when it comes to resolving conflicts of the feudal world. His reason is impractical when faced with irrational reality. He falls victim to the discrepancy between his reasoning and his action.”
To me, Brecht’s notion of bloody and gloomy times, run by “criminal ruling classes” and creating a “general despair of reason” resonates as strongly today as it did when he first wrote those words during World War II. Hamlet is a play of immense complexity, layers, and depth…One indeed must choose which version of Hamlet they intend to direct. For me, “Denmark’s a prison” and “There is something rotten in the state of Denmark” cry out to be heard…Will anyone hear it?
What will it take to wake us up?
Actors Guild of Lexington presents…
Hamlet By William Shakespeare Directed by Richard St. Peter
Featuring Adam Luckey………………………………….Hamlet
Charles Edward Pogue*……………………..Claudius
Lara Brier…………………………………….Gertrude
Jack Parrish*…………………………………Polonius/Gravedigger
Mike Van Zant………………………………..Laertes
Hayley Williams………………………………Ophelia
Shayne Brakefield……………………………Horatio/Captain
Timothy Hull…………………………………Rosencrantz/Fortinbras/Cornelius/Barnardo
Todd Culley…………………………Guildenstern/Voltemand/Osric/Francisco
Production Design……………………………Scott Sherman
Multimedia Design……………………………Kirby Malone/Gail Scott White
Lighting Design……………………………….Steven Koehler
Costume Design……………………………….Julieanne Pogue
Sound Design………………………………….Andrew Connerly
Fight Director…………………………………Regina Cerimele-Melchy
Properties Design…………………………….Kim Colley
*Actors Appearing courtesy of Actor’s Equity Association, the union of professional actors in the United States.
Running October 17 – November 11, 2007 at the Downtown Arts Center, 141 E Main Sreet, Lexington KY 40507.
For tickets and more information, please call 859-225-0370 or email boxoffice@lexarts.org
Peace and Love Richard (Rick) St. Peter September 23, 2007
“Jan Kott was born in Warsaw in 1914, and studied at the Universities of Warsaw and Lodz. He served in the Polish army during its stand against Hitler’s divisions, then joined the Polish resistance movement; as Peter Brook (perhaps the world’s greatest theatre director) has observed, commenting on Kott’s appreciation of the qualities of intense vitality, danger, and political involvement that mark Shakespeare’s tragedies and histories, “Kott is undoubtedly the only writer on Elizabethan matters who assumes without question that every one of his readers will at some point or another have been woken up by the secret police in the middle of the night.” After the war, Kott taught Polish literature at the University of Warsaw and wrote drama reviews and essays, some of which has been collected in Theatre Notebook. He came to the United States in 1966 and taught at the State University of New York at Stony Brook.”
“Shakespeare Our Contemporary is a provocative, original study of major plays of Shakespeare (including Hamlet); more than that, however, it is one of the few critical works to have strongly influenced theatrical productions. Many directors have acknowledged their debt to Kott, finding in his analogies between Shakespearean situations and those in modern life and drama the seeds of vital new stage-conceptions. Readers all over the world – Shakespeare Our Contemporary has been translated into 19 languages since it appeared in 1961 – have similarly found their responses to Shakespeare broadened and enriched. It has been called “the best, the most alive, radical book about Shakespeare in at least a generation.”
Two essays in the book particularly have influenced me, The Kings, which takes a look at the history plays, particularly Richard III, and Hamlet of the Mid Century. Some interesting quotes from Hamlet of the Mid Century:
“No Dane of flesh and blood has been written about so extensively as Hamlet. Shakespeare’s prince is certainly the best known representative of his nation. Innumerable glossaries and commentaries have grown around Hamlet, and he is one of the few literary heroes who live apart from his the text, apart from the theatre. His name means something even to those who have never seen or read Shakespeare’s play. In this respect, he is rather like the Mona Lisa. We know she is smiling even before we have seen the picture. Mona Lisa’s smile has been separated from the picture, as it were. It contains not only what Leonardo expressed in it but also everything that has been written about it. Too many people – girls, women, poets, painters—have tried to solve the mystery of that smile. It is not just Mona Lisa that is smiling at us now, but all those who have tried to analyze, or imitate, that smile.”
“Hamlet cannot be performed in its entirety. One has to select, curtail and cut. One can perform only one of several Hamlets potentially existing in this arch-play. It will always be poorer than Shakespeare’s Hamlet is; but it may also be enriched by being a Hamlet of our time. It may, but I would rather say – it must be so.” (My emphasis)
“The genius of Hamlet consists, perhaps, in the fact that the play can serve as a mirror. An ideal Hamlet would be one most true to Shakespeare and most modern at the same time.”
“There are many subjects in Hamlet. There is politics, force opposed to morality; there is discussion of the divergence between theory and practice, of the ultimate purpose of life; there is tragedy of love, as well as family drama; political, eschatological and metaphysical problems are considered. There is everything you want, including deep psychological analysis, a bloody story, a duel, and general slaughter. One can select at will. But one must know what one selects, and why.”
My Hamlet is one that is focusing on politics and the abuse of power. It is interesting to me that Kott, a Polish critic who lived through both the Nazis and the Communists, would be attracted to the political dimensions in Hamlet. As Brook states, Kott naturally assumes that everyone would be aware of the notion of totalitarianism, the idea of being spirited away in the middle of the night by the Stasi, the KGB, the SS…pre 9/11, pre-Patriot Act, pre-never ending useless, wasteful war in Iraq, that remained a foreign notion to us here in America. Today I am not so sure. Gitmo, rendition, the capricious disregard for the will of the people by our “leaders”, the fact that there are surveillance cameras everywhere, the fact that citizens are encouraged to spy on their neighbors, the fact that our “leaders” think it is ok to listen and to spy on citizens and do so without probable cause…where are we going? What will it take to wake us up? Indeed, the notion of power corrupting is not new, people in positions of power have been abusing those positions from before the times of the Caesars. Corruption in Frankfort and Washington DC is neither a new phenomenon nor the exclusive domain of one political party over the other. I guess my question is, with this production, who watches the watchers? And are we so asleep at the wheel of American Idol, Brittany, Lindsay and OJ that we no longer care?
What will it take to wake us up? The reinstatement of the draft? A knock on the door in the middle of the night?
From Bertolt Brecht, as quoted by Kott:
“…The theatre should always be mindful of the needs of its time. Let us takes, as an example, the old play of Hamlet. I believe that in view of the bloody and gloomy times in which I am writing this, in view of the criminal ruling classes and general despair of reason…the story of the play may be read thus: It is a time of war. Hamlet’s father, the King of Denmark, had, in a victorious war of plunder, killed the king of Norway. While the latter’s son, Fortinbras, is preparing himself for a new war, the king of Denmark is also killed, by his brother. The brothers of the dead kings, having become kings themselves, conclude peace with each other. Norwegian troops, on their way to a war of plunder against Poland, have been permitted to cross Danish territory. Just at this time, the warlike father’s ghost asks young Hamlet to revenge the crime committed on himself. After some hesitation as to whether he should add one bloody deed to another, Hamlet – willing even to go into exile—meets at the seashore young Fortinbras and his troops on their way to Poland. Following his example he turns back, and, in a scene of barbaric slaughter, kills his uncle, his mother and himself, leaving Denmark to the Norwegians. Thus we observe how, in these circumstances, the young man, already stout, badly misuses his new knowledge acquired at Wittenberg university. This knowledge gets in the way when it comes to resolving conflicts of the feudal world. His reason is impractical when faced with irrational reality. He falls victim to the discrepancy between his reasoning and his action.”
To me, Brecht’s notion of bloody and gloomy times, run by “criminal ruling classes” and creating a “general despair of reason” resonates as strongly today as it did when he first wrote those words during World War II. Hamlet is a play of immense complexity, layers, and depth…One indeed must choose which version of Hamlet they intend to direct. For me, “Denmark’s a prison” and “There is something rotten in the state of Denmark” cry out to be heard…Will anyone hear it?
What will it take to wake us up?
Actors Guild of Lexington presents…
Hamlet By William Shakespeare Directed by Richard St. Peter
Featuring Adam Luckey………………………………….Hamlet
Charles Edward Pogue*……………………..Claudius
Lara Brier…………………………………….Gertrude
Jack Parrish*…………………………………Polonius/Gravedigger
Mike Van Zant………………………………..Laertes
Hayley Williams………………………………Ophelia
Shayne Brakefield……………………………Horatio/Captain
Timothy Hull…………………………………Rosencrantz/Fortinbras/Cornelius/Barnardo
Todd Culley…………………………Guildenstern/Voltemand/Osric/Francisco
Production Design……………………………Scott Sherman
Multimedia Design……………………………Kirby Malone/Gail Scott White
Lighting Design……………………………….Steven Koehler
Costume Design……………………………….Julieanne Pogue
Sound Design………………………………….Andrew Connerly
Fight Director…………………………………Regina Cerimele-Melchy
Properties Design…………………………….Kim Colley
*Actors Appearing courtesy of Actor’s Equity Association, the union of professional actors in the United States.
Running October 17 – November 11, 2007 at the Downtown Arts Center, 141 E Main Sreet, Lexington KY 40507.
For tickets and more information, please call 859-225-0370 or email boxoffice@lexarts.org
Peace and Love Richard (Rick) St. Peter September 23, 2007
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