Behind Bars

People often wonder how the plays Shakespeare writes are supposed to turn out. One play, for example, would be Hamlet. There have been various interpretations by different people, and they all imagine it in a different way. In This American Life radio show, the program encounters one particular way of understanding the play, and that is by a production staged by prisoners sent to jail for terrible crimes. It’s obvious that these people will have a very particular way of reacting to Hamlet, due to their notoriously violent past. Hamlet seems to be the perfect play for a staging by cell mates, since it constantly deals with the issue of murder. It is very interesting to imagine the famous play, which involves nobility, the graciousness of a ruling court and other such terms of honor, combined with the brutality of cold blooded murderers, sent to prison for the most terrible crimes. This special way of interpreting the play certainly gives a very new perspective on how the audience can view the play.

The main bridge that connects Hamlet with top security jail convicts is the idea of murder. This topic is quite a delicate one, and it raises many different questions. For example, is murder ever justified? Do we have any right to end another person’s life, regardless of who it might be or what he has done?

Hamlet, for example, wonders deeply on this delicate ground. Claudius killed his father, and the ghost of him even entreats him to take revenge. But, then again, is Hamlet in the right to kill Claudius? Wouldn’t killing him turn him into the same monster he was? To kill or not to kill, that is the question.  The answer isn’t as simple as we can imagine. Our society has established its rules in order to create a community were everybody can live safely, without fearing its members. However, society hasn’t been able to eliminate that suppressed, wild feeling of violence that exists in every human being. Humans are after all, animals, and as well as any other living thing, they have savage instincts. Despite society’s effort to suppress these untamed impulses, many humans are indeed, prone to act in that savage way. Revenge, for example is nothing more than a feeling of rage that can drive some to terrible actions in order to get even with someone who might have hurt you.

These savage instincts are the ones responsible for the dreadful crimes some of the actors in this special Hamlet production were sent to prison. It is certainly very fascinating to observe how this performance will bring to the spotlight the bestial side of Hamlet, and how assertive they can make it be. There are so many ways to interpret Hamlet, that over the last 400 years, it's what has kept it alive.