Hamlet

The better known title for the original The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark by William Shakespeare, written and performed some time between 1599 and 1602.

It is believed that Shakespeare based the play on the legend of Amleth, preserved by 13th-century chronicler Saxo Grammaticus in his Gesta Danorum as subsequently retold by 16th-century scholar François de Belleforest.

Performance history in South Africa

As elsewhere in the world, this is one of the more popular of the tragedies and often performed in South Africa. The first time according to Jill Fletcher (1994, quoting Keeling and Bonner) was when Captain W. Keeling had it performed on board his ship the Dragon off the coast of Southern Africa in 1608, on his way to the Cape.

1854: According to F.C.L. Bosman (1928, p426) the first recorded performance of a substantial excerpt from Hamlet on land was only in 1854 in Cape Town, when Act 3 was performed by the City Amateur Theatrical Society on Wednesday, 26th July in the Dutch Company's Bree Street Theatre (corner of Dorp Street), Cape Town. (It was followed by A Race for Dinner (Rodwell), The Secret (Morris), and Ion (Talfourd).)

1858: The first recorded (semi-) professional performance of the full play came with the arrival of Sefton Parry and his 1858 season of Shakespeare plays,

1876: followed by Disney Roebuck's production of 1876.

1896: Done by the Ben Wheeler Theatre Company in Cape Town in 1896 (with Leonard Rayne), **.

Other notable productions were at Maynardville (Leslie French directing, 1964 and 1975), at the Johannesburg Civic in 1964 (by PACT, directed by Margaret Inglis with François Swart , Reinet Maasdorp, Joe Stewardson and Joan Blake). NAPAC (1964), **and CAPAB in association with PACOFS (1973, with Ralph Lawson, Cobus Rossouw, Pierre Knoesen, Errol Ross, directed by Robert Mohr). CAPAB at the Nico Malan Theatre from 29 August 1977 directed by Roy Sargeant starring Ralph Lawson, Peter Curtis, Helen Bourne, Lois Butlin, Roger Dwyer, Bill Jervis. PACT (198*, directed by Francois Swart, with Marius Weyers and **), Baxter Theatre (197*/8*? With Brumilda van Rensburg?*) *** (19**, with **, ** and Peter Butler); Loft Theatre Company in Durban (19**); Natal Performing Arts Council [NAPAC] Quartercentenary Festival (1988)? production of Hamlet, directed by Norman Marshall, with Pieter Scholtz as Hamlet and Carel Trichardt, Roger Orton, Fred Hageman and Ivor Kissin amongst others in the cast, signed by the cast; a NAPAC production in 1989 directed by Murray McGibbon with Frantz Dobrowsky as Hamlet, Baxter Theatre and National Arts Festival, (1992, directed by Chris Weare with Ralph Lawson, Diane Wilson, Michelle Scott, Gys de Villiers, Blaise Koch, Neels Coetzee; Ilse van Hemert directing at the Rhodes University Theatre 1992; and 2005, directed by Janet Suzman with John Kani, Dorothy-Ann Gould and Rajesh Gopie), **.

1978: Staged by PACT, directed by Robert Mohr, with Michael Richard (as Hamlet), Ron Smerczak, Michael McCabe, Diane Britz, Bobby Heaney, Charles Whaley, Clifford Lilley, David Sherwood, Alan Swerdlow, Ian Steadman, Jeff Shapiro, Vaughan Girdlestone, Frantz Dobrowsky, Nigel Vermaas, Ronald Wallace, Gillian Harris and Lesley Nott. Designed by Johan Engels and lighting by Jannie Swanepoel.

1987: The Eitemal Afrikaans translation was staged by PACT, directed by Francois Swart, with Marius Weyers (as Hamlet), Louis van Niekerk, Don Lamprecht, Ben Kruger, Wilna Snyman, Sandra Prinsloo, Richard van der Westhuizen, Bill Curry, William Cronje, Pierre Knoesen, Tobie Cronje, Tjaart Potgieter, Percy Pretorius, Frans Kalp, Andre Odendaal, Johan Malherbe, Usha Khan and Aletta Bosch.

Perhaps one of the most important Hamlet productions, however was the Afrikaans production in 1947, translated by L.I. Coertze, produced by André Huguenet in conjunction with African Consolidated Theatres, directed by Anna Neethling-Pohl and Siegfried Mynhardt, and featuring André Huguenet and Berdine Grünewald as Hamlet and Ophelia, alongside a stellar cast of Afrikaans performers, including Anna Neethling-Pohl as Gertrude, Gideon Roos, Olivier Burgers, Jan Schutte. It opened to enormous ovation in the Opera House, Pretoria on *** 1947, and the clamour surrounding its success led directly to the founding of the National Theatre Organisation. (The same Afrikaans version was used to open the Wynand Mouton Theatre in Bloemfontein on Thursday October 13 1983.) Notable other performances of this text were those of *** in 19**, Cobus Rossouw and Pieter Joubert for CAPAB and PACOFS in 19**? *** in 19**, Marius Weyers for PACT in 198*?, etc?? Hamlet has also been translated into a number of other South African languages, including Southern Sotho as Hamlet, kgosi ea Denmark by I. Mahloane. (Published by Mazenod in 1964).

In 2013 performed by the Port Elizabeth Shakespearean Festival (PESF) in the Noel Morgan Auditorium at the Little Theatre of the Port Elizabeth Musical and Dramatic Society (PEMADS). Directed by Linda-Louise Swain, with Andrew White, , Cameron Robertson, Lesley Barnard, Gift Buqa, Jessica Rijs, David Emery, Dennis Slattery and Ray Saunders.

Adaptations

Tom Stoppard's 1966 play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead.

There have also been the various adaptations and **s such as **, Dogg's Hamlet- Cahoot's Macbeth (PACOFS, 198*), **

The Marowitz Hamlet, written by American critic, theatre director, and playwright Charles Marowitz, was the U.S. Drama entry for the 2004 National Arts Festival Student Drama. It was directed by Floyed de Vaal.

Translations into South African languages

For performances in translation, see above "Performance history in South Africa"

Afrikaans

At least three published translations of Hamlet into Afrikaans exist, viz. that by Eitemal (published by Tafelberg, 1973), D.P. de Klerk (Tafelberg, 1959) and L.I. Coertze, (published by Stewart, Cape Town in 1945).

Southern Sotho

Translated into Southern Sotho as Hamlet, kgosi ea Denmark by I. Mahloane. Published by Mazenod in 1964.

Sources

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamlet

http://www.pe-express.co.za/articles/articledetails.aspx?id=45893

F.C.L. Bosman 1928

PACT theatre programme, 1978.

PACT theatre programme, 1987.

F.C.L. Bosman 1994

Jill Fletcher, 1994.

Return to

Return to H in Plays 1 Original SA Plays

Return to H in Plays 2 Foreign Plays

Return to South_African_Theatre/Plays

Return to Main Page