SURVEILLANCE & HAMLET

In recent years, notable productions of Hamlet in the UK and Washington DC have highlighted the topic of Surveillance: The picture below is from Shakespeare Magazine, issue 14, July 2018, with Andrew Scott as Hamlet at the Harold Pinter Theatre in London. Scott played Moriarty in the BBC series, Sherlock, with Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman.

—The king sends for Hamlet’s friends, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, to act as spies.
—In a particularly chilling scene, Polonius, whose son Laertes departed for France after listening to a long list of fatherly advice ending with “this above all: to thine own self be true,” sends a spy after his son to plant mildly scandalous rumors in order to discover news of his son’s scandalous exploits.
—Ophelia agrees to act as bait while Claudius and Polonius eavesdrop.

After 9/11/01, the USA and other governments used the events of that day to justify greatly increased spending on global surveillance, much of which violates rights to privacy. Sad to see how relevant the play remains in that way.

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#Shakespeare #Hamlet #Literature #LiteraryCriticism #Drama #Theatre #EarlyModern #Renaissance #EnglishLiterature #Surveillance