Hamlet: synopsis of the TNT stage version
based on the scene order and characters of the First Quarto - original acting edition of Shakespeare's time.
Sea imagery. Then Ghost of the dead king appears to the soldiers on the battlements of Elsinore castle. The soldiers call on Horatio to witness the speechless Ghost of Hamlet's father.
The Court. The new King Claudius has recently married his brother's wife and assumed the crown. In a public speech he acknowledges the sorrow at the old King's death, but suggests it should be balanced with thoughts for themselves. He bids goodbye to Laertes who has returned from France for the funeral. The King and Queen (Hamlet's mother) try to encourage Hamlet to relax his state of mourning - but Hamlet angrily attacks their marriage so soon after his father's death.
Alone, Hamlet rages against the marriage. Horatio, an old friend of Hamlet, and Marcellas arrive and tell Hamlet of the sighting of the Ghost of his father. They arrange to meet at night to see the Ghost.
Leartes warns his sister Ophelia against Hamlet's expressions of love. Polonius arrives and dispenses advice to Leartes for his return to France and also gets from Ophelia a promise that she will refuse Hamlet's advances.
Speechless Ghost appears to Hamlet who chases it off to try to speak with it.
Hamlet corners the Ghost, which tells Hamlet that he was poisoned by his own brother (the new King) and Hamlet declares his desire for revenge. Ghost goes and Horatio and Marcellas arrive with Hamlet almost possessed. Hamlet and swears the other two to secrecy about the Ghost.
Ophelia enters. She is upset at Hamlet's strange behaviour toward her. Her father puts it down to the emotional stress of the old King's death.
The King commissions two old student friends of Hamlet to spy upon him and discover the cause of Hamlet's wild behavior. Polonius enters declaring that he has found the solution - declaring that Hamlet is deranged by love for Ophelia. The old man offers to set up a meeting between Hamlet and Ophelia so that he and the King can spy on the lovers. Hamlet enters, the King sends the Queen away and agrees to his advisor's plan.
Hamlet believing himself to be alone wonders aloud if he should live or die given the nature of the human condition and his own particular troubles. Ophelia approaches him and he mocks her with a wild parody of romantic desire. The King and Polonius enter from their spy holes. The King is not convinced that Hamlet's wild behaviour is anything to do with love and exits. Corambis/Polnius decides confront Hamlet's apparent madness but Hamlet baffles him with the mixture of truth and wild humour. The old man exits and Rosencrantz and Gilderstone enter on their spying mission - which Hamlet sees through. They tell Hamlet that a travelling theatre has arrived at Elsinore. Polonius arrives and Hamlet mocks him in a mix of madness and sense.
Hamlet greets the player/puppet-master and recalls past performances, then recreates a melodrama, chasing Polonius about. He then turns the moment into an imitation of murder. Hamlet commissions the Player(s) to insert some lines for him into the their performance when it is presented before the King.
Hamlet, alone, soliloquises on his weakness and resolves to use the play to catch out the King. He wonders if the Ghost is telling the truth. The play will test the honesty of both the King and the Ghost. Hamlet tells Horatio to watch the King's face during the play for any betrayal of his crime. The court enters to see the play. Hamlet unnerves Ophelia with his subtle sexual mockery. The play with puppets. The King stops the play at the murder, exposing his guilt (it seems to Hamlet). INTERVAL.
SECOND HALF.
Hamlet rejoices with Horatio that he knows the King is guilty. Polonius asks him to see his mother. Alone in a chapel, the King is racked by guilt and kneels to pray. Hamlets enters, sees the King at his mercy, but decides not to kill him at prayer in case it means his soul is sent to heaven.
Queen Gertrude meets with Hamlet in her chamber with Polonius spying on. Hamlet is hard on her for marrying the King so soon after Hamlet's father's death, accuses the King of being his father's murderer! Polonius makes a noise and is killed by Hamlet stabbing through the curtain. Over the old man's dead body Hamlet continues to confront his mother. The spirit of his father enters and orders Hamlet to comfort his mother and pursue his revenge. The Queen thinks Hamlet is mad, Hamlet seeks to recruit her in his revenge against the King - she agrees to help him and conceal his plan. Hamlet exits with the body of Polonius. The King enters . The Queen describes her son's wild behaviour and his killing of Polonius, but says nothing of his plan for revenge. Rosencrantz and Gilderstone sent to fetch Hamlet, return with him. Hamlet refuses at first to reveal where he has put the body of /Polonius, until revealing it in word play. The King sends Hamlet to England with Rosencrantz and Gilderstone. The King sends a message to the King of England arranging for Hamlet to be murdered when he arrives in that country.
Hamlet promises bloody thoughts and actions. The King and Queen enter, the Queen with news that Corambis/Polonius' s death has turned Ophelia mad. Ophelia enters. She speaks of sex and death in a way which seems to confuse Hamlet's love and her father's death. A commotion is heard outside and Leartes enters at the head of a mob of rioting supporters. Leartes is furious at his father's death and wants revenge on the murderer - suspecting the King. The Queen physically restrains Leartes, but the King has her release him. Ophelia enters, mad and sexually explicit, in defiance seemingly of Leartes earlier warnings. Leartes swears to be revenged.
Horatio tells the Queen that Hamlet is back in Denmark. Hamlet discovered the plot to kill him and changed the message to an order to kill Rosencrantz and Gilderstone. The Queen sends her blessings to Hamlet.
King conspires with Leartes to have Hamlet killed in a fencing contest with a poisoned rapier. The Queen enters to say that Ophelia has drowned. And image of Ophelia drowning . Leartes resolves himself to revenge.
The Clown/gravedigger has opened the ground for the burial of Ophelia, talking of how she's getting a Christian burial even though she killed herself. Hamlet enjoys the word play. Hamlet and Horatio find the skull of someone he knew - Yoricke, a jester. Everyone must die, even those as full of life and wit. The court enters with Ophelia's coffin. The Priest gives a hasty service. This angers her grieving brother, Leartes. He leaps into the grave to embrace his sister's corpse. Hamlet leaps in after him, refusing to let Leartes have a monopoly on mourning for Ophelia. The King restrains Leartes (holding him back for the duel/murder).
Hamlet, Horatio, Gentleman, King, Queen, Leartes.
Gentlemen messenger arrives from the King with the challenge to the duel. Hamlet accepts. The court assembles for the duel. Hamlet and Leartes duel. Just in case the poisoned blade is not enough the King has poisoned a drink which the Queen accidentally drinks. Leartes stabs Hamlet with the poisoned blade, but is also wounded by it and dies, not before revealing the treachery of the King. The Queen dies from the poison meant for Hamlet. Hamlet in a fury forces stabs the King and forces him to drink his own poison. The King dies. Hamlet restrains Horatio from killing himself with the poison. Hamlet dies with the line "the rest is silence".
Paul Stebbings TNT theatre
