SCREEN PLAYS
Hamlet
Hamlet at Elsinore (BBC / Danmarks Radio, 1964)
One of the most significant of all television Shakespeare productions on television was produced nearly fifty years ago as a contribution to the quatercentenary celebrations of the playwright’s birth. The idea for a television version of Hamlet recorded on location at the castle where the events are set originally came from Danmarks Radio. The project became one of the earliest major European co-productions and was pioneering in its exclusive use of outside broadcast cameras to record a drama. It also resulted in a distinguished adaptation that is engaging, insightful and often thrilling. Continue reading
Late-Night Line-Up: The Marowitz Hamlet (BBC, 1969)
By way of an hors d’oeuvre to the forthcoming Screen Plays season Classics on TV: Jacobean Tragedy on the Small Screen at BFI Southbank, this post is devoted to a controversial 1960s adaptation of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. The drama known as The Marowitz Hamlet, a ‘condensed’ version of which was filmed by the BBC in 1969, has a radically re-worked and fractured text, startlingly stylised playing, a white box for a set and the small cast in modern dress with heavy make-up. Hamlet here is challenging and experimental, and despite being only available in a faded 16mm copy, of considerable interest. Continue reading
Catching up
As you may have noticed, we have not been quite as active on the blog as before. In part this is because my colleague Amanda Wrigley has started her maternity leave – and indeed has given birth to Matilda and Dylan. Many congratulations to Amanda and her husband Dez! (Not that this will mean that we will be denied Amanda’s invaluable writings here in the coming months.) Meanwhile, this post is a way of catching up with our forthcoming season as well as a couple of recent blog posts elsewhere which may be of interest. Continue reading
SCREEN PLAYS 