Shakespeare in the Box:

Gregory Doran’s Hamlet (2009)

Abstract

A constant in the history of film since its inception, William Shakespeare’s Hamlet,
Prince of Denmark has been delivered to filmgoers throughout the twentieth and the
twenty-first centuries in various adaptation schemata of the three versions of the text
available for free interpretation and reprocessing. While Laurence Olivier’s, Franco
Zeffirelli’s and Kenneth Branagh’s acclaimed ‘multimodal rewritings’ seem to have
acquired critical consensus, tens of other Hamlet films are launched regularly, placing
the young Dane’s tragedy in the most unexpected settings or periods of time. A telling
example is Gregory Doran’s 2009 filmed theatrical performance, which places Elsinore
in a modern-day British society under constant surveillance, probably with a view to
transposing the old Elizabethan habits of espionage and control of the population in a
manner both accessible and relatable to the contemporary viewer. This paper contends
that, by using surveillance devices, such as CCTV or hand-held cameras, and by
redesigning King Hamlet’s ghost as the ultimate embodiment of the watchful eye of the
(divine?) authority, the film brings to the fore the timelessness of the Shakespearean
themes.