Set design Hamlet
The scenography of William Shakespeare's play starts with the key line of the play "Someting is rotten in Denmark", so the walls of the set are painted in a rotten green.
Year
2012
Category
ArtWork
Type of Work
Research
Set design
Visualisation
Hamlet feels trapped in his palace. He is unable to get out of the desire for revenge, so arcades are represented on the ground floor and first floor as in a prison, with dungeons all around. The decor is designed for the large hall of the National Theater, which has elevator hatches under the floor. Depending on the scene played, the scenery appears below. In the scene in which Hamlet wonders "To be or not to be?", three hatches with sand and tombstones appear to reproach a cemetery.
The throne at the back of the stage has the wheel of fortune beneath it, with chairs on which the characters turn as luck takes them, in the pursuit of power. The queen's room is in one of the hatches, where the statue of Lady Fortune foreshadows the death of Polonius hidden behind the curtain. The final scene of the duel is played at height, on open hatches. Hamlet's revenge sets the scene for the play, that renders a dark atmosphere, from which one can escape only at the cost of his own life, like from a dungeon.
