Blog Post 1: Hamlet Review

            After finishing “Hamlet,” a famous play written by William Shakespeare in 1601, our AP Language Arts class ventured to Fayetteville State University to witness Hamlet in real life. “The Tragedy of Hamlet,” often shortened to Hamlet, is a play that revolves around a young prince named Hamlet, who was determined to avenge his father’s death. According to fsunews.uncfsu.edu, this play starred FSU students and actors/musicians from “Sweet Tea Shakespeare” (a theatre solely revolved around Shakespeare.) Although, we were 1 ½ hours late, the captivating scene changes, props and dramatic antics made this play seem almost realistic. Not only did the actors, follow the original lines, but they delivered each line profoundly; providing me and several of my other classmates with a better understanding. While reading Hamlet, deciphering Shakespeare’s ambiguous and complex language was strenuous yet, with this reenactment I got the main gist of it. To me, it was completely mind boggling how students, not to older than myself, was able to portray such characters.

             Throughout this play, I felt that the producer’s primary goal was to give the audience an overview of Hamlet’s “insanity”; which was shown through Hamlet’s actions with Ophelia, and Hamlet Sr.’s supposed ghost.  One thing that stood out to me the most was the dramatic antics which personally, were the “icing” to the “cake” of the play. Despite their many positive features, they also had some negative features. Such as, low projection of voice (for some actors), stage invisibility, and actors playing/portraying multiple roles; which often lead to confusion. Besides that, the play was very entertaining and it gave me a better insight of “Hamlet.” I strongly recommend this to others especially, if you’re a visual learner, or you simply just want to have a good time!