monologuesc o m p o s e d o f s e l e c t i o n s f r o m

W i l l i a m S h a k e s p e a r e ’ s

Hamlet

Prompt BookTO BE USED EXCLUS IVELY

F O R T H E

Yosun ChangProduct ion

2 0 0 2 P r i n t i n g

Online version available athttp://hamlet.yosunism.com

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Hamlet,Prince of Denmark

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Soliloquy ………………………………………………………. 32. Amalgam ....…………………………………………………….5

THE

Yosun ChangProduct ion

The Yosun Chang Production of Shakespeare’s Hamlet is the first true virtual-reality-based

monologue. The monologue is essentially an individualized piece of art, wholly personal

relative to only one person—the actor. As such, it should be selected/re-created and performed

only by the actor, as it is in this presentation. The CD-ROM and web-version and this Prompt

Book are the creation of Yosun Chang. The thematic state of the 3D work (unfortunately done

via lesser digital beasts of burden) complements the act, creating reality in unreality,

meanwhile the abstraction and unique format and presentation leaves room for the audiences’

imagination to allow for the non-recorded effect.

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SOLILOQUY LINES:

To be or not to be -- that is the question:Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to sufferThe slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,Or to take arms against a sea of troublesAnd, by opposing, end them. To die, to sleep --No more -- and by a sleep to say we endThe heartache and the thousand natural shocksThat flesh is heir to -- ‘tis a consummationDevoutly to be wished. To die, to sleep --To sleep, perchance to dream. Ay, there’s the rub,For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,When we have shuffled off this mortal coilMust give us pause. There’s the respectThat makes calamity of so long life.For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,Th’ oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s contumely,The pangs of despised love, the law’s delay,The insolence of office, and the spurnsThat patient merit of the unworthy takes,When he himself might his quietus makeWith a bare bodkin? Who would fardels bear,To grunt and sweat under a weary life,But that the dread of something after death,The undiscovered country, from whose bournNo traveler returns, puzzles the will,And makes us rather bear those ills we haveThan fly to others that we know not of?Thus conscience does make cowards of us all,And thus the native hue of resolutionIs sicklied o’er with the pale case of thought,And enterprises of great pitch and momentWith this regard their currents turn awryAnd lose the name of action.

SET DESCRIPTION/CHARACTER SKETCH:

Black background. Solo character; Hamlet delivers soliloquy with minimal props.Shadow play creates suspense. Images occur in background upon certain cues.

Hamlet appears to be a tortured soul; his expression is set as one who’sbecome disillusioned with the happier things of life, as his mentality enforces fullstrength upon the ethical conflict of slaying an uncle to avenge his father’s death.With haunting eyes and expression partially concealed in shadows to createsuspense, Hamlet is nevertheless “modernized” with a 21st century hair-impressionof the standard Elizabethan cut. As monologues go, he is dressed relatively casually,as it is really his acting—his ability to portray the significance, the beauty of thelines—that matters over the petty details required to sate the oft too-picky audience.

Wraith-like wispyimages corresponding to“slings and arrows” and“sea of troubles” occur inbackground.

Momentarily close eyesupon “to sleep.”

Time-sped-up animationof sky with clouds occurin background.

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HamletAct 3; Scene 1

Hamlet raises sword and contemplatessuicide (initially) in darkness… heexamines the blade, running his finger overits edges. Light plays on his face, creatingodd shadows, and an eerie glint in eyes.Pause between “to be” and “not to be” …while saying “not to be,” have blade tipdraw blood from finger. Drip down blood…

Show coil that is shaped like themathematical infinity sign…and little tiny people toilingupon the coil… possibly Sisyphus.

Show dagger/sword playagain. Either that orhave sword/dagger in

Show silhouette of manfalling off cliff (alsosilhouette againstbackground of animated sky)

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ANALYSIS:

In the previous scene, the King, Queen, Polonius, and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern have

been discussing Hamlet’s “insanity.” His friends from abroad have been summoned–

apparently–to find out the origins of Hamlet’s insanity/melancholy.

It is more than likely that Hamlet is feigning insanity. Adding to the “façade,” the

King feigns concern, but the Queen is truly worried. Polonius and the King hide in the

shadows to observe Hamlet in the lines prior to this soliloquy. Hamlet, however, probably

knows that he is being watched, hence his resulting actions.

The monologue focuses on Hamlet’s argument with himself over the decision of his

own life or death, so it seems at first read. The classic concept of suicide, as it is now, is an

object of concern that only the ostracized—the depressed intelligentsia or a crazy Hamlet—

would consider, at least in post-Medieval thought. It is curious that Hamlet would enter a

room and immediately start pondering about the trials of life—how it seems all unworthy, yet

it is the only thing we are sure of, therefore the lesser of two great fears.

Throughout the speech, Hamlet merely plays with suicide, as he never directly

suggests that he will close his eyes to “the sleep of death.” Instead, the soliloquy is played out

as if he were talking to a third person. This may be because he is aware that he is being

watched, thus that he cannot explicitly state his crazy want to end his suffering against “the

slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.” Or perhaps, he isn’t even consciously aware that he

himself is thinking about suicide. Rather, he is just so overwhelmed in intellectualism that he’s

riding the quantum wave of random thoughts generated by chaos theory. It’s just a “visiting

idea” that occurred to him, prompting the whole “debate.”

In reply to Hamlet’s argument, I pose the question of an afterlife guaranteed by the

(elusive) Heaven of Western religion. “Thou shall not kill” from the Ten Commandments, the

alleged fundamentals of several Western religions, decrees that thou wilt burn in Hades if thou

wilt. From that premise, if thou kill, even thyself, thy afterlife becomes a nightmare. However,

Hamlet obviously does not believe in this, implying that he’s atheist or agnostic, or perhaps

the possibility did not occur. Instead, Hamlet is quite open-minded, as to speculate astray from

the holds of still-potent religion, as to the possibility that the prevailing thought of a good “life

after death,” may not necessarily exist, with respect to an impartial view of reality. The

“dreams [that] may come” may not necessarily be the ambrosia of the scriptures, why “there’s

the respect / That makes calamity of so long life.”

Does Hamlet fear the consequences of killing Claudius? His thoughts are both

personal and impersonal, as he never declares, per se, the thoughts apply to him, but the reader

is aware that he is dark enough to seriously consider suicide. If Hamlet is aware that Claudius

is listening, then he may be attempting to mess with Claudius’ mentality, perhaps trying to

incite fear, regret or guilt of a task he’s recently done his brother—his own kin! Claudius, as to

Hamlet’s speculations incited by his father’s ghost (which modern psychology would probably

declare a manifestation of Hamlet’s acute schizophrenia), has sent his blood off on a journey

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“from whose borne no traveler returns,” and that itself is heavy enough. ∞ end of soliloquy

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A PROFOUND FARCE: A DREAM IS BUT A SHADOW

O God, I could be bounded in a nutshell andCount myself a king of infinite space, were it notThat I have bad dreams.

Look here upon this picture and on this,The counterfeit presentment of two brothers.See what a grace was seated on this brow,Hyperion’s curls, the front of Jove himself,An eye like Mars’ to threaten and command,A station like the herald Mercury,New-lighted, on a heaven-kissing hill,A combination and a form indeedWhere every god did seem to set his sealTo give the world assurance of a man.This was your husband. Look you now what follows.Here is your husband, like a mildewed earBlasting his wholesome brother. Have you eyes?Could you on this fair mountain leave to feedAnd batten on this moor? Ha! Have you eyes?You cannot call it love, for at your ageThe heyday in the blood is tame, it’s humbleAnd waits upon the judgment; and what judgmentWould step from this to this? Sense sure you have,Else could you not have motion; but sure that senseIs apoplexed; for madness would not err,Nor sense to ecstasy was ne’er so thrilled,But it reserved some quantity of choiceTo serve in such a difference. What devil was’tThat thus hath cozened you at hoodman-blind?Eves without feeling, feeling without sight,Ears without hands or eyes, smelling sans all,Or but a sickly part of one true senseCould not so mope. O shame, where is thy blush?Rebellious hell,If thou canst mutine in a matron’s bones,To flaming youth let virtue be as waxAnd melt in her own fire. Proclaim no shameWhen the compulsive ardor gives the charge,Since frost itself as actively doth burn,And reason panders will.

Nay, but to liveIn the rank sweat of an enseamèd bed,Stewed in corruption, honeying and making loveOver the nasty sty?

Save me and hover o’er me with your wings,You heavenly guards!—What would your gracious

∞

HamletAct 2; Scene 2. Act 3; Scene 4. Act 5; Scene 2. (respectively)

Show Hamlet’sfather’s picture. Useold-photo effect… butstill maintain thedarkness.

Show Claudius’picture. Negative tonein voice. Same.

Refer to Hamlet’sportrait. Extremelyreverent voice.

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Hamlet slowlyopens his eyes. Hewakes up to his“bad dream.”

Hamlet has his eyesclosed, as if in a dream,until prompt.

Have old bw photo “lightup” upon specific cues toemphasize Hamlet’s father’sfeatures.

Refer to Hamlet’s Father.

Negative tone.Refer toClaudius likehe is thegreatestabominationcome to man.

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Show picture of eyesfading in and thenbecoming scarred foreveras out of nowhere theyare stabbed.Show Gertrude transform

into a mountain animaland start munching on thebarren side of the hills. Show picture of

Gertrude fadingunto an old andshriveled hag.

Show heart pumpingsteadily… then slowing…slowing… fade to abackground beat.

Show Gertrudesuddenly “pause” inmidair as if her hearthad stopped/stroke.Make thebackground beatsuddenly stop.

Show blind-foldedGertrude dancingwith some demonand then kissinghim.

Show pictures that match towords… Gertrude dances in frenzywith the “devil,” even though herblindfolds are now gone. But it isevident that her eyes are “withoutfeeling” and her heart is on thefloor, “feeling without sight.” Asthe devil cackles, the light playson the side of her face to show thatshe hasn’t ears. Then, it is seenthat her ears are on the floor, in abloody heap. The only “sense” shehas is that of smell, and she takesa deep breath, smelling her roastingbutt. (She turns into some cookingmountain animal, again –probably a donkey to symbolize

Suddenly… after a caesurabetween “mope” and “o shame”Gertrude is seen as her own formagain, but she is deathly pale.She does not move.

Image of Gertrude burns inliterary flames until end of thisscene’s soliloquy

Show silhouette of such nastybehavior amidst brightbackground of dancing flames,still not done eating throughGertrude’s image.

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figure?

O, I die, Horatio!The potent poison quite o’ercrows my spirit.ANALYSIS:

What makes this collection of somewhat not-so-soliloquies soliloquies a farce

overall? And for that matter, how exactly does this amalgam amount to fit the

adjective of “profound”?

Overall, this modicum is a satire of one interpretation of the solutions of

Schrödinger’s Equation. Hamlet’s reality as the bit above should eventually reveal is

really a part of his dream! He would be a “master of infinite space” – infinite space

being the whole of his reality, his universe – were it that he could control his dreams!

However, his mind is obviously beyond his control, so albeit he did “create” this

“infinite space,” he cannot quite control it. This perhaps alludes to a neo-biblical idea

that perhaps God has lost power over Creation. Perhaps God accidentally dreamt up

creation, and now, uncertain of his own supposedly omnipotent facilities, he cannot

quite control it all.

Anyhow, on with the quantum theory application of Hamlet: One

interpretation of the Equation suggests that there are multiple universes. A corollary

or whatever suggests that perhaps even our sub-consciousness creates sub-universes

adding to the mathematically un-defined “infinite span.” (Pretty punny in the Linear

Algebra way.) Well, Hamlet’s hell seems like a “version” of our hell. Similar

conflicts exist in his “hell,” so from a modern standpoint, the whole play is really to

state that no matter how much power we think we possess, we cannot quite control

our subconscious mind to force it to take hold of the dream that it created. No matter

how powerful, we’re ultimately powerless on some higher level. So, perhaps

Shakespeare just happened to have stolen Nostradamus’ clairvoyant abilities to

somehow be able to criticize this sub-growth of a core component supporting the

current view of “life, the universe, and everything.”

(I could have written a stronger conclusion, but this is really a platform

supporting the idea that “the author’s meaning, we can never know for sure.” You

can’t answer my question, “why not.”)

And Hamlet dies all as a figure in his dream. This brings us back to

Socrates-Plato’s “Cave.” The watchers of the cave are the Hamlets of the world –

those who are aware of the unbreakable illusions (virtual images) we live in – and

even they are powerless to change the course of normal life: they, too, die.

As Morpheus from The Matrix said, “The body cannot live without the

mind.” Hamlet, convinced that he is slain, forces his own death. Unlike The Matrix

83 --the rest is silence.

Bright fires clear away to ablu-ish tint like heaven. Hamlet’s “spirit” appears

as white silhouetteagainst blu-ish cold icyfrozen background…floats off and away.

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and “The Cave,” the “restraining environment” is purely subjective and individual –

that of our own minds.

In retrospect, this modicum might actually be taken as a further analysis of

the first monologue. One interpretation of Hamlet’s increasingly strange actions

starting in Act 4 – where the reader begins the question the plausibility of Hamlet’s

insanity as opposed to his feigning insanity, as earlier facts prompted – is that

perhaps there is something going on in his mind that even he (nor us) can

comprehend or explicitly cogitate. Well, this wacky “presentment” shows the

virtually-accessible part of it.

All right. It’s four into the wee hours (a nice timeframe to experience life in: the coffee’s long gone cold, the

weirdos on ICQ have awoken, the dogs are refereeing and gambling on the cat fights outside, and the spoon runs away

with the fork). I’ve finished nearly everything (all current AP English assignments!) I wanted to do over this long-

weekend. I didn’t get to re-read 1984, however, but it’s not like I want to. I didn’t want to read the book in the first place,

anyway. After reading it, of course, its unavoidable poison would send me back to the sickened mentality of late junior

year. Bleh. I became infinitely disillusioned, committed academic suicide for wants of maintaining personal integrity in

midst of so many opportunities to leverage my grade via the easier routes, and well, I guess hence the state of my

academic performance. I guess in truth, I’m still Stekel’s “immature mind,” I want to “die nobly for a cause,” because try

as I do, I can never – this doesn’t involve just my general condescending nonchalant attitude – ever view any cause

humbly. I don’t think I can ever become a “mature mind;” there’s just not much to live for if I do.

Well, Ms Lindsey, “It’s all right with me if you flunk me, though, as I am flunking everything else except

English, anyway.” Replace flunk with “B’ce” replace “flunking everything” with “C’cing or D’cing.” Bleh. I’m not even

sure if I’m going on to higher education, for Chrissake! I can’t take anymore courses at Ohlone because I’ve taken the

maximum number of units transferable to a UC/CSU, and now, it doesn’t seem like it’s worth it. It would be funny if I

end up failing Econ or something and not get a high school diploma. Funny how that would happen, albeit, I already

have an AA degree summa cum laude from Ohlone. Well, then, I suppose that would be fate forcing me to go for

shallow money rather than for profundity. Without an education, of course, I’ll probably become filthy rich before I’m of

legal drug-usage-age. And then, I would imagine my goddam self squandering my wealth via a big bang over illegal

drug usage. It’s really funny how the easiest thing that comes to you turns out to be the thing you don’t want to waste

your life on. I dunno. I guess I’m just a goddam masochist! I would prefer to hurt myself on some goddam arduous

odyssey than take the easier of roads, just because life wouldn’t really be living were I to just design and program my

goddam ass off. I’m the goddam beautiful dreamer drowning in the goddam phony carosel music as “Turning and

turning in the widening gyre / Things fall apart; the center cannot hold/ Mere anarchy is loosened upon the world.”

The funniest thing is I really don’t care. It’s difficult working for immoralists who would even consider doing

such a thing to me; it’s difficult caring for nothing like everyone else. I guess I’m just a goddam passionate fool. I really

want to take Latin over the summer, and as my goddam scholarship doesn’t cover living expenses, and my goddam

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miserly self (for fear of unofficial goddam future expenses) doesn’t want to pay for needless crumby dorm life over the

summer, I can’t possibly take Intensive Latin (Latin Workshop @ UCB) elsewhere. For most of my chosen required (AP

Bio / AP Chem) classes, it seems the added work we have is totally extraneous. You know the irony of my arguing this

to you or to any true goddam academiac? I want to grasp the first few semesters of Latin in an accelerated course so that

I can goddam read Virgil and get a bang out of the other bunch of dead guys. Even if I don’t take the Latin course, I’m

not sure if I can even focus on my current courses, as I’ve had goddam enough of this absolute pointlessness that spawns

such absurdities as “compulsive attendance” and “imprisonment of the seniors in the equivalent of a giant gas chamber

all based on the fundamental belief that ‘man is essentially bad’ and that no one can be trusted, even those who merely

want a quiet space to hermit out the time and get some goddam things done” and “physically hunting defenseless foot-

based seniors down, money-driven Nance driving down the creek as the vain little children, still enamored by life, try to

run away from Auschwitz.” On second thought, I think it might be good for me to sacrifice higher education. It doesn’t

seem like anyone I know value nobility greater than monetary gain (Well, excluding those goddam phony Hollywood

feelies. ), and thus unless I pooh-pooh the lives of everyone else I guess there is no greater goddam meaning in life. It’s

all petty. It’s all goddam good.

A dream is but a shadow, and so I guess my whole reality is “only that and nothing more.” When the sun sets, I

shall have lost my form, as did that brother who once had a “front like Jupiter himself” long before me. It is Claudius’

reign, and for the next era, Galt will continue hoarding the “prime-movers.”

P.S. It’s rather difficult aligning crocked 3d-model weaponry at night with sore eyes. I hope the mis-

aligned sword on the side of several pages isn’t too “crumby.” Also, how do you like my JD Salinger-

wannabe style?