Context:
The play was to have a Jacobean
feel; a world of spy-masters and a feeling of being on a knife
edge.
The stage has a wooden floor so that Hamlet can attack it
and damage it just as he does the wooden panelling that forms
the back of the set. The effect was like a panelled room in
a medieval castle which has secret doors, priest holes or
openings through which people can eavesdrop and spy. When
Hamlet stabs Polonius, he does so through a panel in the wall;
the panel is replaced after each performance as it needs to
be thin enough for the dagger to pass through and shatter
the wood. The overall feel of the set is one of enclosure;
of a solid intense world which can be perforated and deconstructed |
