We all know Hamlet––to be or not to be, the iconic skull in the graveyard, everybody dying at the end––as a tragedy at its finest. Even today, the work remains as one of Shakespeare’s greatest masterpieces, boiling with themes such as pervasive madness and the pursuit of a succulent revenge. What more could one ask for in a piece that continues to rattle the brains of both distinguished literary scholars and jaded high school students alike?
One senior, Michael F. Myers, however, asked for more. In his production Wittgenstein's Hamlet, Myers gives Shakespeare's Hamlet a philosophical revamp.
From the title, we know who Hamlet is, but who the hell is Wittgenstein and what has he done with Shakespeare? Simply put, Ludwig Wittgenstein is a philosopher who focused on the philosophy of language and how the various contexts in which we speak language manifest in our behaviors and perceptions. For the past year, Wittgenstein's ideology has captivated Myers to the point that he was compelled to integrate his newfound fascination with the timeless Hamlet for his senior honors thesis.
Enter Wittgenstein's Hamlet.
A week ago, I meandered down to East Campus's Brody Theater––a building I only knew existed minutes before arriving––to observe Myers and his theater crew rehearse and tweak some of the final scenes of the play. On the stage, two actors were having a colorful dialogue, while a woman was wandering the room fixing a continuous stream of string from various ceiling fixtures––creating a spider web-like, yet oddly crystalline feel to the design. When I awkwardly walked through the door, everyone stopped and stared at me––and I know it wasn't because I was sexy. After Myers welcomed me with a full smile and motioned to the empty set of stadium rising chairs, I couldn't help but sit and enter the world of Hamlet through the eyes of Wittgenstein.
The basis of Myers' adaption derives from a long creative process. A year ago, after researching Wittgenstein's life by reading his works, watching biopics about the philosopher and, even, taking a class about Wittgenstein, Myers began to write a script with the vision of combining Wittgenstein and Hamlet.
Junior Faye Goodwin recalled that in the early days of the creative process, Myers was open to finding inspiration from those in his production.
"It was meant to be a devised work, which is sort of the idea--work with a group of people and the things you do in rehearsal turn out to be the script," she said.
As time progressed, the production evolved. What initially was intended to be a hybrid of Hamlet and Wittgenstein soon became an adaptation of Hamlet, in which the work of the philosopher influenced elements of the script, character physicality and themes. Wittgenstein manifested himself in some of the linguistics of the piece in the language that conveys the connection between Hamlet's internal conflict and the way he and others interact.
"Our first rehearsals became workshops, and we were looking for ways to construct this adaptation," Myers said. "When I was writing those [first] pages, I came across a variety of different ways the show could’ve turned out, but this final product is the closest to my original vision and the show that Wittgenstein would be happiest about. He was conservative about his artistic tastes."
The development of the Hamlet in Myers's production has striking similarities to Wittgenstein's behaviors and the way he conducted his own life over time.
"Wittgenstein had a lot of strange relationships with people," Goodwin said. "He had a ton of students, disciples, lovers who he interacted with––like he [Hamlet] had with Horatio and Ophelia."
Furthermore, Myers found that many characters in Hamlet were redolent to the few people prominent in Wittgenstein's life. Even so, these other characters retained traits similar to those in the original Shakespearean text.
From what little I saw that night, I noticed that the portrayal of Hamlet was a bit more pedantic and logical––to the extent a tragic hero is allowed. Unlike the Hamlet from my high school English class, this Wittgenstein-esque Hamlet fecklessly drew truth tables and physically illustrated his cognitive perplexity and inner-conflict.
While the cast took a 10 minute break, the actor who plays Hamlet, Thomas Kavanagh, scrawled a phrase encoded in logic symbols on the blackboard where Hamlet delivers many of his monologues. While I was staring off into space, Kavanagh interjected by asking me what I thought about his drawing––more importantly, if I could decode it. Upon the board were two "be"s sectioned off in parenthesis and connected by a zig-zag: it was the iconic "To be or not to be."
Kavanagh is no stranger to the stage. In addition to playing the lead in a variety of Duke theater productions, Kavanagh most recently portrayed Unabomber Ted Kaczynski in The Perfect Detonator. For Kavanagh, the process of playing Wittgenstein as Hamlet is multifaceted: he attempts to simultaneously play Wittgenstein while capturing "Hamlet's ingenious and lunatic quest for truth and justice."
"Playing someone like Hamlet can be a little intimidating, so when I think about playing the philosopher first, I can prove to myself that I’m bringing something new to the role," he said.
Towards the end of the rehearsal, when most of the cast had retired for the evening, Myers and Kavanagh remained on stage, trying to perfect the dynamic of Hamlet's soliloquy in front of the blackboard. The exchange of ideas was organic and constructive and, in some ways, esoteric.
Myers and Kavanagh have known each other since 5th grade. Kavanagh attributes this rich history between them as contributing positively to Myers's direction in this production.
"Since we have a long working relationship, there’s a great connection," Kavanagh said. "Mike is the mastermind of all that we’ve done, and he’s the one that truly understands Wittgenstein––he’s basically the translator. He’s really good at advocating for the drama of this philosopher’s life, and has made it a truly passionate biography."
Most of these actors have worked with Myers before in other productions. As senior Elizabeth Nadler relays, working with familiar faces is an opportunity to allow personality and camaraderie to influence the way the characters come to life on stage.
"The cast is very close...it’s become a part of my life," Nadler said. "In developing our characters, Mike asked us to put in so much of our own personal outlooks and experiences. I play emotional characters so you have to pour a decent amount of yourself into it [the role]."
For Myers, the camaraderie is certainly intentional,
"As a director you need to speak a lot of different dialects...Thomas and I, we don’t have to interpret each other very much. There’s just a lot of support for one another...and it’s really easy to experiment with each other because everyone is truly free to be their creative selves," Myers said. "My favorite moments as a director are when other people can teach me something about my vision that I didn’t know."
As the night came to close, I couldn't help but be enamored by the positive energy in the room. The direction of the scenes flowed so fluidly and the acting was equally fervent. Not to be cliché, but I was often kept on the edge of my seat.
This play features some of the extraordinary student talent at Duke. At one point, Myers told me that directing and working in theater was what he wanted to do for the rest of his life. A combination of his love for theater with innate talent, his production is destined to be a unique fusion of Shakespeare and philosophy.
End Scene.
Watch 'Wittgenstein's Hamlet' Thursday Feb. 5 through Sat. Feb 7 at 8.15 p.m., and Sunday Feb. 8 at 2.15 p.m. at Brody Theater. Free admission.
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