On our penultimate night in the United Kingdom, and our second night in Stratford-Upon-Avon, we ventured to the Royal Shakespeare Company to see Hamlet: Hail to the Thief. The show took Shakespeare’s classic story of Hamlet and combined it with Radiohead’s cinematic music. I wouldn’t quite classify it as a musical because most of the story is still told through spoken word, and not all of the characters sing. It is more of a play with the occasional song to help the story along. It was a shorter show with a variety of story-telling modes compared to other productions of the same story. For example, many of the smaller plot-points in the play became dance sequences, and a few of the characters sing along to the music when the lines resonated with their current state.

I read Hamlet about a year ago for my High School English class. We watched a few scenes from various adaptations as well as the entirety of the 1996 movie starring and directed by Kenneth Branagh. Most of what we watched were as you would expect a shakespearean scene to be, British actors speaking at lightening speeds like they feared they would forget the words they were saying if they said it any slower. It was an entirely different experience to watch the Hamlet: Hail to the Thief. From the way the characters were portrayed to the music and dancing, the Royal Shakespeare Company produced a whole new Hamlet.

I cannot speak for those who have not read Hamlet, but being quite familiar with the main story I believe it came across quite well in this show. I was never distracted from the story, and in a lot of ways the music elevated certain themes and ideas hidden in Shakespeare’s words. It was hard for me to understand the words of the songs, and I am not familiar enough with Radiohead to fill in the gaps, but the music itself added emotion to the scenes. Many adaptations have non-digetic music to provide context and basic feel for the audience, but in this show the characters are actively telling us their story through music. It is not just background music, but the actual thoughts and feelings of the characters put to music. This gives a whole new weigh to the music. Using a popular band’s music also ties in younger audiences who may be bored by “classic” shakespeare and therefore introduces a new wave of audiences.

In addition to the music, RSC added a lot of dance in their production. Dance physically manifested the various streams of manipulation throughout the show. For example, one character who was more in control in the moment would move, and their movement would cause, or more force, the other character to move as well. Or, the characters would link in some way and then move about in all sorts of ways until they became all tangled up.

– Hadley ❤

I really like Radiohead. I really like Hamlet. So, I was obviously very interested in how the show would combine the two. There was really no way of knowing based on how the show was marketed, since all it really said was that the music was incorporated into the show. Would it be background music? A Radiohead jukebox musical? Instrumental? The answer is basically all three and then some.

The music was constantly present, either as background music to scenes, the song dances were occurring to, or being sung by the characters themselves. All of the music had an ominous quality to it, so that there was no moment of peace for the audience.

This interpretation cut the story down significantly (which I was fine with). Some scenes were totally taken and conveyed through dance, which I’d argue was the main form of communication through the performance. My favorite dance moment was a sort of pas de deux between Ophelia and Hamlet. It established their relationship in a way that I think was deeper than words could convey and made their eventual dissolution that much more heartbreaking to watch. I believe that the dance conveying the emotion deeper than words rings true for every scene. The music, of course, goes hand in hand with this.

There are other things that I really liked about this production that didn’t have to do with the music. For example, when we first walked in, the stage was set with a bunch of hanging suit coats. I’ve been pondering it and I’m still yet to figure out why they did this, but if the answer is simply just “it looks cool” I’m okay with that. At the end, all the suit coats fell from where they had been drawn up and hit the stage at the same time. Same thing here: I don’t know why this was the case, but I liked it. Every character was dressed in black, except for when Ophelia was brought out to be buried, she’d been changed into a long white gown. My absolute favorite production choice was just how scary King Hamlet’s ghost was. He had a booming voice with a lot of effects of it. I think there was a visual to go with it, but I couldn’t see it. When he spoke, Hamlet moved almost like he was possessed, which I thought was an interesting way to convey their communication.

I really enjoyed ending our run of shows on a high note with something interesting and thought provoking. I unfortunately didn’t take any pictures of the set or of the RSC, except for this one of my seat. I got in Row M, Seat 20. I liked that it was my first initial and my lucky number.

At least once a day, I or one of my friends will say something along the lines of “wow… it feels like we’ve been over here for a week and simultaneously three years.” And that’s how I’m feeling as I sit here in my bed, on my last night in England, writing my final Theatre in London blog post. Over the past month I have laughed, I have cried, I have gotten lost, I have blended in,I have been challenged, and I have grown. But before I get all sappy and emotional, let me tell you a little about where we have spent the last forty-eight hours: Stratford Upon Avon.

            What a quaint little town Stratford Upon Avon is. When we first got here, Shawn walked us around the entirety of the town which took…twenty minutes. So miss girl is small, but she is mighty. And she is FILLED with so much history. Stratford is where Shakespeare was born, lived for the majority of his life, and then died. Over the past two days we have gotten to see Shakespeare’s grave, birthplace, and where he lived – at Anne Hathaway’s Cottage. It has been so cool to get to stand in the places that Shakespeare stood. To walk in the gardens he walked. Today we got to visit a market in town that has been happening every weekend for the past eight hundred years. Which is just mindboggling to me. I think I’ve talked about this in a previous blog post, but being in a place that is just oozing with history is such a crazy experience because you are reminded just how fragile life is and how little time we have on this earth.

            It is truly crazy to me that this time tomorrow I will be back in Arkansas. This trip has been such a great way to end my college career. I have gotten to see so many shows, and yes, enjoy them. But also get to analyze them using the tools I have learned in my undergraduate career. On a walk today, Sarah, Claire, Jade, and I were talking about the different ways we feel like this trip has made an impact on us. While yes, I think this trip has changed me, I don’t know that just by the sheer design of the trip, I have not had the time to fully process the ways that I have changed. But what I do know is this: I am an artist. I am a storyteller. It’s what I was born to do, and it’s what I will always do. No matter what hardship I go through, no matter how much change I face, I know that that is true. I am so grateful that I got to live in England with some of my best friends for a month. And learn. And grow. That is truly such a blessing and as I sit here, finishing up this blog post I am reminded that with the submission of this post, I will have officially completed a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre Performance. So not only is this post goodbye to England, it is the finale of a three year long chapter of my life. I am so grateful to these people who have loved me and nurtured me. Who have held me, and uplifted me. I am forever grateful for our friendship and community with one another. May these memories last forever.

I am truly changed for good,

-R

As I come to the end of this trip, I now have a definitive list of my favorite shows. At the top sits Benjamin Button and, at a comfortable second, Hamlet: Hail to the Thief. When evaluating why these two musicals struck me so deeply, I have come to realize that the way they utilize music plays a humongous factor. Both of these works take well known pieces of literature, gut the aspects of the originals that are outdated and boring, and then they use music to rewrite (at least in some aspects) the story. Now I have already written about Benjamin Button, so I will keep my thoughts brief. It is a play that elongates a fairly short story, and adds music and new dialogue to create a fuller dialogue. On the contrary, Hamlet: Hail to the Thief approaches their use of music in a completely different fashion. Hamlet can be a very long and drawn out play (something I worried about when I heard there would be no intermission). This play chooses to use music as a tool to create a faster (better) pace. They also use music to tell parts of the story without having to use actual dialogue. It is also just a very obvious representation of the mental spiral of each character. 

One of my favorite scenes of the entire play, a scene that demonstrates the use of music extremely well, is the scene in which Ophelia and Hamlet are alone together on stage (right after the first large musical number). The intimacy between their movements highlighted their adolescence, love and lust for each other, and the understanding and connectedness the two have with one another. In fact, this dance single handedly made this production my favorite portrayal of Ophelia and Hamlet’s relationship.

However, while this was one of my favorite shows, whoever decided to put one of the most heartbreaking, gut-wrenching artists as the soundtrack of one of Shakespeare’s most devastating works is a diabolical evil genius and they scare me (but like also let me kiss your brain). 

Also, to the people that stole my ticket, sleep with one eye open.

The Royal Shakespeare Company is a place that has been top of my list of where I wanted to see live theater for years. They are known for the high caliber of actors that they bring in, the incredible design elements that bring their shows to life, and the audiences that travel far and wide just to see their productions. Its not called the Royal Shakespeare Company for no reason, and we saw that clearly on Saturday night!

Going into Hamlet : Hail to The Thief, I had no idea what to expect! It was such a perfect surprise in every way. I was shocked by how much depth the element of music added to the production – and had so many emotions throughout the show that wouldn’t have been there without the music.

First of all, the opening immediately caught my attention (i love a good mood setting music). and the opening song was a huge attention hook. I could tell from the get that the design would be insane, and that the music would work perfectly all together.

Acting wise – I dont think anyone fell short. Specifically Hamlet and Ophelia – wow. They could not have been casted better, in my opinion. Theres something Ive noticed about the pattern of the tones of the male leads voices in a lot of these UK shows. They tend to have the same softness, almost nasality? It weirdly makes their voices so soothing to listen to, and if I was a casting director, part of my decision process probably would be “Could I listen to them speak for 2 hours straight?”. The two Ive noticed with this kind of tone were Romeo from Romeo and Juliet at the Globe, and Hamlet from Hamlet : Hail to The Thief at the RSC. Ophelia had the same beautiful tone and presence. She brought such a gorgeous and tragic life to the character, and her relationship with Hamlet was so clearly defined from the very beginning.

The music was something I would never think this show needed, but wow. It added this level of truth and explanation that sometimes words cant even express. As my favorite girl Kristen Chenoweth says, “We sing because we can’t speak anymore”. And its true! This was the perfect element to an already incredible piece. I’d never seen Hamlet performed live before this, and this was the greatest first production to see.

The music was deep – so loud at sometimes that you could feel it shaking your bones. It was reverent at times and tragic and also beautiful, all within the context of the text. The music before and during Ophelia’s breakdown, when she sings “He promised me to wed” was heartbreaking and gave so much thought to her character, and made me realize she was just a girl in love, who realized the evil truth along with Hamlet.

The music when the actors would come into the lit up square to show the text through movement was the most impressive part of the show for me. The way that they figured out how to convey they text of Shakespeare through small movements within such a confined space – and have it make complete sense for moving the story along – was wild to me. I sat in awe as the actors told their story.

The best part of the show, besides the incredible actors, music, and direction, was the sound guy next to us. He was genuinely having the time of his life and I was cracking up every time I looked ver and saw him. I’ve never seen someone rock out so hard.

The addition of music in general was a brilliant idea, but to think to add the music of RadioHead …. unreal. It just worked perfectly. This was an incredible show and one that is absolutely at the top of my list from this trip!

xo, jo

The best part about Stratford is all the history of Shakespeare. Every corner seems to be connected to him; his birthplace, his school, his grave, and even the house where Anne Hathaway lived. It’s cool to see how this little town raised one of the most famous writers in the world. It made me appreciate how far his words have traveled, all the way from this tiny, cozy town to the huge stages of London and around the world. Seeing his story up close made everything we’ve read and watched feel more real.

But as cool as Stratford was, I couldn’t help but miss London. I miss the noise, the energy, the feeling that something’s always happening. In London, we were constantly moving; seeing shows, walking through historic sites, discovering food spots, the markets, and just soaking in everything the city had to offer. Every day was full. I got used to the pace, the people, and the buzz of city life.

This trip overall has been so amazing. I’ve seen more theatre in the past few weeks than I probably have in my whole life (I saw 20 shows like OMGGG), and stood and seen places and objects I’ve only read about in history books. From Shakespeare’s Globe to Buckingham Palace, from Camden Market to the West End, it’s been unforgettable. London felt like it had everything, and I honestly fell in love with it.

Stratford gave me a quiet moment to reflect, but it also reminded me just how much I loved being in the middle of the action. This journey has made me appreciate both the small stories and the big cities. And even though I know we had to slow down at some point, I’d go back to London in a heartbeat. I am going to forever miss this trip and all the people on it. To a sad Goodbye, Goodbye London, I will love you forever and always!

This is Sophie signing off!