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Reflecting on Hamlet reveals new relevance

Adapting and directing a classic
By Cody Klyne, Arts Editor

play time at Douglas College.

If you didn’t catch last week’s
preview of the season’s first
production, the upcoming Hamlet
adaptation Denmark, dear readers,
you’re in luck. I recently got the
chance to sit down with Denmark's
director, Stephen Drover, who was
kind enough to walk me through his
role, the process and motivation of
adapting classic material, and his
experiences working with up-and-
coming acting talent at Douglas.

|: that time of year again. It’s

What’s your background?

Stephen Drover: I’m from
Newfoundland and I studied as

an actor at Memorial University.
About ten years ago I came to B.C.
to do a Masters Degree at UBC and
since then I’ve traveled around and
directed and taught both here and in
Newfoundland. Four or five years
ago I founded a theatre company
called Pound of Flesh Theatre
(www.poundofflesh net) which does
alternative productions of classical
plays and I’m about to direct a show
at The Arts Club.

How do you see your role as a
director?

SD: The director is the person who
has the idea for the show. I want to
spend two hours of public time in
this way and I want to gather a group
of people who have the same draw to
that desire. As the director I’m going
to help them tell that story and focus
everybody towards the same path in
order to bring the event to the public.
Does your role as a director change
working with students?

SD: It has to. Partially because if
I’m directing professionally, the
number one thing is the show; here,
the number thing is the student’s
education. If the show was the most
important thing I’d cast the best
actors and say “you know what
students, I’m going to get some
professionals in here,” and that’s just
not the point. The point is to give
them experience and the opportunity
to fail because they don’t get that
professionally. So that’s my job: to
give them the opportunity to fail. You
learn more from failing than you do

8

from anything else. So that’s what I

tell them, “Defend your right to fail’.

What’s the inspiration behind
adapting classic material for a
contemporary audience?

SD: A Shakespeare play is a big,
long, sprawling thing. There’s a lot
going on. It usually starts with one
particular aspect that I’m keenly
interested in. From that I go, “maybe
there’s a play in that,” a few years
ago I did the same thing with the
Merchant of Venice. I’m not very
interested in the rest of the play; I’m
just interested in this one segment.
So rather than just doing a scene
from it (like in a scene study), I

find out if maybe there’s a complete
narrative hidden in there.

Why adapt Hamlet?

SD: There are some things about
Hamlet that I’m more interested in
than others. I ask myself if I can

cut and get rid of the things I’m not
interested in. If the answer’s yes,
then it’s the question of looking at
the things I’m very interested in

and arranging them in a manner that
keeps it as, loosely, the same story
but presents a new perspective. It’s a
new approach.

More than any in the world this
play comes with baggage about what
it’s about, what it means, and how to
do it.

What is Denmark?

SD: It’s the story of a young man
who’s a philosophy student whose
father has died. He comes home
from the funeral and he’s (rightfully
So) very upset that his mother has
remarried to his uncle, his father’s
brother. He doesn’t quite know how
to deal with it and that’s when the
ghost of his father implores him to
take revenge. It’s essentially the
same premise of Hamlet.

How this is different is that
we’re looking at it from the point
of view of “what if this were to
happen today?” Hamlet is full of
issues of politics, issues of state, and
directly and indirectly, comments
on the Protestant Reformation, and I
thought “what if we get rid of all of
that stuff?” I don’t care about kings
and queens and courts. I don’t think
people can relate to it. Elizabethans
believed that the king was god’s
chosen representative on earth.

Stephen Drover

We don’t believe that anymore.

We don’t really care about the
Protestant Reformation. We don’t
even really care about politics that
much; at least not to the point when
we want to have it in our popular
entertainment.

Set today, Hamlet (in Denmark)
isn’t a prince, he’s just a guy. He’s a
university kid. Then all of a sudden
there’re a lot more people who go
“Oh! I know him!” and that’s kind
of what we want when we go to
the theatre, to say, “I know these
people,” even more than that “that’s
me.” We want to go to the theatre
and see ourselves.

Denmark’s opening night
is this Friday (November 5)
and production is set to run
until November 13 in the New

 

 

West campus Studio Theatre.
Performances are scheduled to
nightly for 7:30pm, as well as a
smattering of matinees taking place
throughout the week. Tickets are
$10.00 for students with valid ID
($15.00 for general) and will be
available at the door or through the

Massey Ticket Centre online or at
604-521-5050.

Stephen’s past productions
directed at Douglas College:

The Jury

Taming the Shrew
Oedipus Rex
The Diviners
Italian American Reconciliation