BENGALURU: Who would have thought that after almost 400 years of Hamlet being written by William Shakespeare, the classic and character would help shine spotlight on living in the internet and social media age? Science Gallery Bangalore has come up with an online series on Shakespeare’s character Hamlet, where narrators take the audience through the journey of the famed character and question different moods like anger, fear etc.
Directed by theatre artiste Chanakya Vyas, some of the others who are coming together for the series are Padmavati Rao, Preetam Koilpillai, and Kavya Srinivasan. This series, Vyas says, is his way to give the audience a peek into the human mind. “A soliloquy is a good example of how Hamlet shares his innermost thoughts with the audience. We try to draw a parallel with social media where people post their thoughts at no one in particular,” explains Vyas.
Vyas says rather than picking the six soliloquies that would fit the series, it was ‘picked automatically’ considering the different moods of different episodes . “For example, one of the soliloquies is about how he lacks the will and courage to take revenge. If you don’t have the will to do a simple thing, it isn’t a sign of weakness or either a sign of strength,” explains Vyas, adding that the idea was to show Hamlet in today’s context.
While parts of the play were picked after much research, Vyas went by intuition while picking the characters. “While I was going through the mood of the characters, I would visualise as to who would fit the role best,” says Vyas.
The series explores the human mind and its complexities and has an aspect of mental health too. But the director didn’t want it to be at the forefront since he is not an “expert in the matter”. Meanwhile, Madhushree Kamak, programme manager, Science Gallery, says, “This is an interesting way to take literature and current social concerns and bring them together in this format.”