BANG! You are directing Hamlet. How do you hand the ghost?

[BvBPL]

I just waved my magic wand and made you the director for an upcoming production of Hamlet. You have a broad free reign in setting up the production and are welcome to change the setting, put it on in modern dress, introduce multimedia elements, whatever.

How are you going to handle the ghost of Hamlet's father? You cannot totally omit the ghost, but again have a broad reign in how you present the ghost.

 

[warpus]

I would set the play in 4,581 AD, and the ghost of Hamlet's father would be represented by a cyborg implanted with the memories of his deceased father, capable of cloaking and passing through solid matter using Borg technology.

 

[gay_Aleks]

As a replicated Trekkie, I'll dispute your play on grounds that Borgs do not care for silly things like the human soul and justice and what is right.

They might however find the few last acts enjoyable, when the actors start dropping like flies.

 

[aelf]

The ghost texts Hamlet his lines.

 

[gay_Aleks]

Wouldn't it's corporeal fingers go through the phone, or would it merely possess the phone?

 

[aelf]

That's the kind of question a good director lets the audience mull over.

 

[Commodore]

I don't know how I would handle the ghost of Hamlet's father, but I do know I'd have an all Elcor cast so the audience can judge Hamlet based on his deeds rather than his emotions.

 

[PhroX]

I'm a fan of the classic "bloke in a sheet" option.

 

[Borachio]

I feel swindled: I was going to say "a bloke in a sheet". Nevermind.

How about Hamlet's father played by an older actor in greyish white armour on a darkened stage with swirling mists?


Link to video.

Still, be that as it may; who are you going to get to play Hamlet? The poor benighted fool.

 

[aelf]

No, John, you are Hamlet. And then John was a zombie.

 

[Perfection]

I would let you decide!

http://www.amazon.com/To-Be-Not/dp/0982853742

 

[classical_hero]

CGI. Pretty simple.

 

[Perfection]

But how would the CGI look?????????????

 

[CavLancer]

Delegate. I would direct this Hamlet fellow to figure it out. Such a stupid instruction would have me taken off the film. Having nicked it I would carry the wand to an active volcano and cast it in, insuring that I can never be messed with again.

Likely somewhere in there I'd use it to turn BvBPL into an earthworm, just on general principle.

 

[BvBPL]

The ghost texts Hamlet his lines.

That's pretty smart.

How do you treat the initial appearances of the ghost that are visible to other parties versus the later appearance that is apparently only visible to Hamlet?

That question is really at the heart of the treatment of the ghost. Seemingly the ghost is visible to multiple parties in Act I but later only shows up to Hamlet.

CGI. Pretty simple.

I should mention that I had originally intended this to be a stage production.

 

[NovaKart]

Someone holding a flashlight under his chin.

 

[Perfection]

Anyways for a stage production I'd have an audience member shout out the lines in a faux heckle.

I'd justify it with profound philosophical nonsense and act smug.

 

[BvBPL]

Also clever.

 

[BenitoChavez]

I'd cast Hamlet as a troubled youth who sees dead people. He consults his father about these disturbing images and his father helps him work through these issues. Only at the end of the play there is a surprise plot twist where his father, who so far has appeared alive, is actually a ghost himself. There would be subtle hints throughout the play that his father was dead, such as his father only interacts with Hamlet and the color red being prominent in every scene with a ghost/his father.

Spoiler :

I never read Hamlet

 

[Zelig]

I just waved my magic wand and made you the director for an upcoming production of Hamlet. You have a broad free reign in setting up the production and are welcome to change the setting, put it on in modern dress, introduce multimedia elements, whatever.

How are you going to handle the ghost of Hamlet's father? You cannot totally omit the ghost, but again have a broad reign in how you present the ghost.

I inscribe my necromancy circle and summon an actual ghost to act in my play. Always visible to audience, visible to other actors as appropriate.