Film Treatment Gives Stage Hamlet Fresh Look
10 March 2011
The films we've created are designed to complement the play. It's hugely ambitious...
”Sean Ford
Hollywood-style film effects will give a new look to Shakespeare's 400-year-old play, Hamlet, at Derby Theatre.
The bloody tale of murder, betrayal and the supernatural will be on the theatre's main stage, 7.30pm nightly, from Tuesday 15 March to Saturday 19 March.
Skilled film directors and University of Derby film graduates, Sean Ford and Daniel Romero, have created a series of original short films. These will be projected behind the actors during the play and the stage characters will interact with those shown on film.
In one of the main scenes Prince Hamlet will talk to the ghost of his father onscreen, portrayed by a real actor but set against a background created using 'green screen' technology - the same process used for Hollywood blockbusters.
For another scene of the play, as one character describes how another died off stage the 'dead' person will be seen in a film projected behind the speaker.
Hamlet is the first production to be staged by the Derby Shakespeare Theatre Company at Derby Theatre, since the building was reopened under the management of the University in 2009.
Terry Smith, Director of Hamlet, said: "I was keen that we do something very different for our return to the theatre.
"The University wants Derby Theatre to be a 'learning theatre' and, knowing about the University's film and video courses, I spoke to the relevant tutors. They recommended Sean and Dan, and we've been working together on this for more than six months."
Dan and Sean are Derby-based, independent film-makers whose production company Rainfray Pictures has worked on a variety of short fictional and factual films.
Sean said: "The films we've created are designed to complement the play. It's hugely ambitious, especially the parts where the actors on stage have to interact with dialogue or scenes on the screen."
Dan added: "Technically it has been very difficult but the mix of live and filmed action will add enormously to the effect of the drama."
The duo's films can't be projected onto the front of the stage, as in a cinema, because the images would appear on the live actors. A special digital back projection system will be installed for the four days of the Hamlet production.
In the production Prince Hamlet will be played by Chris Scott, Ophelia by Elena Fox, King Claudius by Nick Hallam and Queen Gertrude by Jenny Earle.
To buy tickets for the production, priced £14, call the Derby Live Box Office on 01332 255800, or book online at www.derbylive.co.uk. For more information about the Hamlet production and Derby Shakespeare Theatre Company on their website www.derbyshakespeare.org.uk.
For further information please contact Press and PR Officer Sean Kirby on 01332 591891 or 07876 476103, or email s.kirby@derby.ac.uk.
