Staging+of+Hamlet+through+the+Years+-+Kathia,+Yadhu,+Andrea

The role of Hamlet has been passed over from actor to actor, and it began with Richard Burbage. He then coached second actor to play Hamlet: Joseph Taylor. Given that our knowledge of Shakespeare’s life is conjectural, and so is our impression of the way Burbage played the first Hamlet, from seventeenth century performances allusions to the play portrayed Hamlet in being a crazed avenger, energetically and even comically mad, but what remains unchanged is his decisiveness and bravery. However, the restoration age of this portrayal became a delicate one as David Garrick, the man who played the role from 1742 to 1776 came along. He disregarded all the impieties and indecencies of the character of Hamlet, and began a refined misconception which prevailed for the following two hundred years. In 1783 John Philip Kemble chose Hamlet for his London debut as a direct challenge to the leading actor of the day, John Henderson. After Henderson’s death he shun alone for the next thirty years. Although Kemble had a flamboyant style, his characterization was entirely orthodox and pleased the conversation of the age. In the late 19th century, the dramatic potential of Shakespeare’s original text was rediscovered and the production ethos centered on a charismatic star actor was toppled by William Poel. Poel devoted 50 years to the attempt to stage Shakespeare '//exactly as it was given the first time it was acted//' in Elizabethan costume, without sets, with musical accompaniment on original instruments. He used the shorter and more dynamic First Quarto of //Hamlet// as the text for his first historic production in 1881. He also started the tedious trend of staging Shakespeare uncut; the first 'complete text' production of Hamlet (a combination of everything from the three different texts) was produced by Francis Benson at the Lyceum in 1901.
 * __ Staging of Hamlet __**

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