Hamlet on screen : Shakespeare, Branagh, Doran

Abstract

Hamlet is one of the best known and most quoted plays of playwright William Shakespeare and many directors have tried to put their own twist on the play while bringing it to a wider, more diverse audience. Kenneth Branagh and Gregory Doran created two productions; one in the form of an epic film, and the other more intimate in form for television. On the surface, they seem to be relatively different, however if you look a little closer you will find a lot more in common between the two. While one production takes us back to nineteenth-century Russia with the grandeur to match, the other is utilitarian, minimalist, and takes cues from the original Globe performances with the added aid of twentieth-century technology and Foucauldian surveillance. This play has transcended its time and has permeated our culture, allowing for varied interpretations and philosophical shifts in our ideas about Hamlet and the protagonist to make it onto our screens. I will be discussing the two productions in contrast to each other as well as in contrast to other contemporary and preceding productions which have similar mise-en-scène, and demonstrating that even productions which may seem antithetical are in fact built on the same basic values.