To adapt or not to adapt Hamlet — that is the question. Director Michael Almareyda may have just answered the question with his hi-tech 21st century remake.
Ethan Hawke’s Hamlet is an uptown slacker who loves hanging out with his funky East-village Ophelia. Bill Murray is hanger-on Polonius. Kyle MacLachlan is King Claudius, CEO of the Denmark Corporation. The court of Elsinore has become a city of luxurious penthouses, lush corporate offices and sleek limousines.
This Hamlet is a meditation on a world flooded with images, media, surveillance cameras and listening devices. Technology haunts Hamlet; Manhattan alienates him. There have been at least 43 silver-screen Hamlets, one for every generation and then some. The story is familiar, the dilemma is timeless. The play’s the thing.
(Hosted by Christopher Lydon)
Guests:
Marjorie Garber, Professor of English at Harvard University.