Something is rotten in Vorbarr Sultana

[altariel]

Hamlet! Yes, so – it was fantastic. Which I know is the point of going to see the RSC, but when you’ve been anticipating something so eagerly you never know if you might end up disappointed.

I had a three-hour coach journey over in the morning, so I reread the play while I was travelling: as I read, I found that the Claudius-Gertrude story really stood out for me. What justification has he found for murdering his brother: could it be the Hamlet senior was a megalomaniac whose tendency to – say – get into combat with neighbouring kings is seriously threatening the safety of Denmark? How much does she know, or to what extent is she lying to herself? So I was watching for this, and the production really delivered.

The set was a palace of the ancien regime, but Claudius and Gertrude were a very modern royal couple: business-suited and business-like. The chandeliered salons of Elsinore were guarded by men in fantastically OTT dress uniforms and its battlements by men in trench-coats with machine guns. (Seriously, it was exactly like Barrayar. Pictures here.)

With the Ghost in armour, and Claudius in his suit surrounded by advisors, we were watching an attempt to transform a feudal petty kingdom maintained by single combat and the figure of a charismatic king into a bureaucratic state legitimized by diplomacy and a monopoly on violence (a fiction laid bare during the play, as Claudius’ propensity to indulge in political assassination shifts from being pragmatic to becoming a pleasure in itself; he is positively gleeful as Laertes describes the poison on his sword). The whole enterprise is threatened by Hamlet junior’s annoying tendency to tell the truth, when what everyone else wants to do is establish the fiction as quickly as possible, so that it can become the new truth.

Tennant’s physical energy and verbal sharpness were thrilling; Hamlet is the brilliant young man so much cleverer than anyone around him, but all these gifts of perception are being warped by grief and circumstance (the glimpse of the king he could have been when he begs the pardon of Laertes before their duel is the purest moment of tragedy for me). Stewart was mesmerizing: there was so much going in his performance to watch, particularly when other people were talking, and he would manipulate with a word or two every so often from the side. Penny Downie plays Gertrude initially with brittle joviality as she tries to pull her son along with the new regime; eventually she collapses into self-disgust at what she’s been a (willing? unwitting?) party to. I loved Oliver Ford Davies, who gave Polonius real pathos. And I was totally thrilled to see John Woodvine as the Player King, because you cannot beat British character actors of a certain generation.

I have to say special things about Osric the toady who, after the interval, epitomized the kind of value-free flunky that advances in an era of managerialist politics: sharp suit, slick smile, and total slipperiness of morals. He is first to bow to Fortinbras, of course; this bow is the last action performed in the play – a brilliant conclusion, I thought. I for one welcome our new Norwegian overlords.

So, the Barrayar thing: it seemed to me that this is what would have happened had Emperor Ezar persuaded Aral that the best thing for Barrayar was for Aral to take the Imperium after Ezar’s death and before Gregor reaches his majority. Hamlet senior is therefore Prince Serg: a sadistic madman whose rule would have been one of bloodshed and terror. But the public memory is of Prince Serg the war hero – and it’s this legend that Gregor grows up believing, rather than the truth of his father’s madness. Aral has married Kareen to give his rule even more legitimacy (this is Barrayar without Cordelia); Elena would, I think, be Ophelia. Gregor would go mad; Aral would try to have him murdered; everyone would murder everyone else. And I for one would welcome our new Cetagandan overlords.

Comments

[rymenhild.livejournal.com]

Your Barrayar!Hamlet is great, and I follow your argument in every step but one:

If Cordelia weren't around to convince Aral to save the Escobar fetuses, Elena would have been aborted with the rest of them, and would therefore never lived to become Ophelia. I thought about replacing her with one of the Koudelka girls, but Kou wouldn't make a Polonius and Drou wouldn't raise daughters likely to go mad and drown themselves in rivers.

[rymenhild.livejournal.com]

I mean, "would never have lived." Sorry.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Ooh, good point, my memory of Shards of Honor is rusty. Perhaps it might be easier to come up with a fix that saves the foetuses? Elena seems to suit the part of Ophelia so well, since (IIRC? or was it fanfic?!) it's implied that she had a crush on Gregor at some point?

[altariel.livejournal.com]

edge_of_ruin brilliantly suggests below that Cordelia lives long enough to save the foetuses, but Ezar subsequently has her assassinated to secure Aral's marriage to Kareen. Which I love as a solution, since it makes Aral's descent into evil more likely.

[edge-of-ruin.livejournal.com]

That all sounds such a brilliant experience - I'm feeling wildly jealous now too. And I'm going to have to read the play again - probably tonight.

When you suggested your AU that was just about the scenario that sprang to mind. If it was in his choreography for Aral to marry Kareen, Ezar would have to have Cordelian assassinated - she knows far too much. I think he only lets her live in S of H because she marries Aral and becomes oathsworn like the rest of the idiots. She could last long enough to save the fetuses though. Ezar would probably make sure Bothari was killed too leaving Elena to be brought up by Aral or fostered out to a convenient Polonius of you choice. Having lost both of them Aral could pretty easily slide down the slippery slope from patriot to killer to monster that you describe above. *Shudders*

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Ezar would have to have Cordelia assassinated

Yes! That is totally right! That is totally what would have to happen for Aral to surrender himself completely to the dark side. There's nothing to anchor his humanity.

Oh! Oh! Oh! I forgot to mention that there were even fireworks at one point!

So... can you be tempted to do a little blank verse?

[rymenhild.livejournal.com]

Meanwhile the shade of Ges Vorrutyer hangs over all. Bothari doesn't have to be assassinated in this AU. Ezar can properly and publicly execute him for the crime of killing his commanding officer. He can then control Aral even more completely by blackmailing him for collusion in Vorrutyer's death -- however much Ezar wanted Vorrutyer to die in the first place -- and reminding Aral just what Ges Vorrutyer was to him.

[toft-froggy.livejournal.com]

Hamlet is my favourite favourite play in the whole world, and it was so great to read this review; the modernizing aspect of Claudius' government is particularly interesting.

My pet idea about Hamlet has always been that it's about inability to deal with growing up. In my mind, Claudius is Hamlet senior, and the Ghost is Hamlet junior's childhood perception of Hamlet senior, the version he was brought up to believe in, like Prince Serg and Gregor. He's been away for a long time, and when he comes home he finds his perspective has shifted, his adored and feared father isn't anything like what he remembers, and he can't deal with it. So he really does go mad, and becomes obsessed with the idea that his father has been replaced by his twin brother. And the whole Gertrude thing becomes even more unsettling and oedipal. It is my favourite unreliable narrator story ever.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

It was also hilariously funny. After murdering Polonius, and a deeply emotional and highly charged scene with Gertrude, Hamlet drags off the old man's body with a cheery, "Night, mother!"

I love your interpretation, that is inspired! Tennant plays it as struggling with adulthood: he has the wit of a man, but not the emotional werewithal to cope with that or misuse his intelligence. It helps that Tennant's thin as a rake and looks about eighteen.

Capgras?

[(Anonymous)]

Shades of Capgras' delusion.

Phil

[fallingtowers.livejournal.com]

I love your description of that particular performance as a fight between feudal rule and a more modern concept of monarchy: Now I want to see this Hamlet even more, and not only for the Tennant & Stewart goodness.

Also? This Vorkosiganverse AU begs to be written!

[altariel.livejournal.com]

A DVD of the Ian McKellen King Lear has recently been released, so I hope this one will be recorded and released in time.

I'd love someone to write that AU too. Perhaps someone who can write blank verse...

[sensiblecat.livejournal.com]

It does sound as if our impressions of the play were quite similar. It was an unusually nuanced reading of the political context, and made Claudius and Polonius more sympathetic than they frequently are (it helped that both were outstanding character actors, too).

Interestingly, I was lucky enough to get to a pre-show discussion with Greg Donan and he confirmed your reading of Claudius as modernizer. It all adds an extra layer of conflict and subtlety. It's tempting to see Hamlet as a family story, but the family is royal and it can also be read as an old order giving way to new. Quite topical for a play first staged at the very end of Elizabeth's long reign.

DT plays Hamlet as very young, and in the closet scene Gertrude is very much his mother, her tolerance under strain but not yet exhuasted. Hamlet is the mixed-up, very bright young man who draws attention, compulsively, to himself and then doesn't know what to do about it.

Strangely, in LLL I felt the reverse was the case - Berowne appears to be a young part on the page but he looked closer to 40 than 20 as he played it - here is a Peter Pan who will be forced to grow up by the end of the play.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

I just went back and read your review, and we do seem to have had very similar impressions. I loved your view that Polonius is the one keeping things together: I'd read the sudden unravelling that follows his death as resulting from the shock of murder, but I think I like your interpretation more.


I was lucky enough to get to a pre-show discussion with Greg Donan and he confirmed your reading of Claudius as modernizer

Ah! How interesting! Yes, as you say, it's not simply a family story: the decisions and dysfunctions of this family take have ramifications for a whole nation.

Sadly I won't get to see LLL, but Berowne struck me as an ideal part for DT.

[kerravonsen]

Wow. Um, I mean, your description of the play (thanks for the pictures, it helped me envisage it, especially Tennant as brilliant, clever, warped, mad). And then Barrayar. Oh my.

I was going to say that I was jealous of your being able to go to the play, but it is so utterly impossible for me to have ever done so, that I'm not quite irrational enough to be jealous. Instead, I have a warmth of gladness in my heart that such brilliance exists.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Glad you enjoyed the review and the Barrayaran reading!

I still can't quite believe I was there myself. It's not the kind of thing I ever organize myself to do, and it's only thanks to a friend who went to all the trouble of booking the tickets that I got to go. I really hope it gets a DVD release, like McKellen's King Lear has.

That icon is fabulous. Is the picture from 'School Reunion'? I don't remember him contemplating a chip like that!

[valderys.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'm so happy you enjoyed it so much - and all the parallels to Vorkosigan novels - oh yes! If I get to see it one more time (I might - I might see if I can get a return ticket) then all I'll be thinking about are those parallels. Although I wouldn't welcome our new Cetagandan overlords - except I totally would, because I'm a pragmatic coward, but I'd probably work against them in secret afterwards, which I bet Osric wouldn't :)

[altariel.livejournal.com]

I had such a brilliant time (and I've been able to go back and enjoy your review now). Hope you get to see it again.

No, I don't think I'd welcome the Cetagandans much either, not really. See you at the Resistance meeting?

[genarti]

...Oh, man.

This AU is chillingly workable.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

I'm pleased with the way it's turning out!

[gair.livejournal.com]

I for one would welcome our new Cetagandan overlords.

I love you. Also, this is my week for people explaining why Hamlet is good to me! I can't stand it, usually,* but this is a fantastic reading of it, and also the keynote at Derridacon did a really good version of it which went a long way towards making it make sense to me...

*I love the emo boys, but when they get canonical and people start trying to make me take them seriously as comments on Teh Human Condition they lose much of their charm. Cf also Holden Caulfield.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Also, I think I've passed some critical watershed where I now sympathize with the parents. I was totally behind Claudius in wanting to give him a shake: "Dude! Your pain SO UNIMPORTANT compared to stopping this kingdom collapsing."

[greylin.livejournal.com]

Aaaaaagh! Eeeeeeeee! Hamlet AND Barrayar? Normally I try to avoid reading reviews ahead of seeing the play for myself but I so glad I read this one! :flaps hands trying to breathe: Thanks!

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Oh, can't wait for your own review!

[katlinel.livejournal.com]

*is awed*