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Exploring Shakespeare
Hamlet, Macbeth and A Midsummer Night's Dream
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Home | Hamlet: Languages and themes | Line delivery

Languages and themes

Line delivery
The text
The director's cut
Elizabethan context
Hamlet - a thriller
Revenge Tragedy
Death and delay
Madness

Delivering the text - a modern approach

Who's this? Meg Fraser plays Ophelia.

Context: Actors may be eager to explore the language of Shakespeare but they may also be nervous, so it's important for them to work in ways that encourage a connection with the words. This can be very physical; an active exploration of the text using running, jumping or restraining to engage the body with the words and feel the need to speak. Actors might explore echo or whispers to create atmosphere, resonance and muscularity. As we speak we develop ideas which we have only just thought; you don't always know what you're going to say next - and an actor has to try to capture that freshness.

Did you know? Shakespeare's verse rhythm is natural to English. He often writes in antithesis where one thing is set against another - the actor can use this to explore the rhythm. Some actors incline more towards following the form of the verse; some more towards the feeling. Sometimes following the rhythms of the way a speech is written will allow the actor to discover the natural instincts and free up the emotional quality it contains.

Line delivery

A novel approach to line delivery
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