Hamlet

HAMLET is a story about revenge, a thirst for power, and the destruction of it. For this project we had to convert this incredible play into a landscape of our own. I decided to set my version of Hamlet, in an apocalyptic wasteland. I still wanted it to be inside a castle though and so I thought how about castle ruins. I started off with this rough sketch, wanting to move the castle walls around during the performance.

Meanwhile, I was designing costumes for my characters, which was incredibly fun. I have always loved designing clothes and so this project was perfect for me. I loved the idea that due to an apocalypse the characters would grab anything they could find to wear, however, I still wanted there to be a hierarchy shown throughout the costumes. I was inspired by a series that I recently watched called ‘The Shannara Chronicles’ which gave me the idea of adding armour to Hamlet’s costume and a corset to Ophelia’s costume.

For my actual set I again wanted to carry through the chaos of my costumes and the arch and so I kept the stone walls for structure, but I added graffiti to them to give a decayed look. I included an old armchair which could be a throne of some sort and other random objects that I felt didn’t belong, so the audience would be confused. For the focal point I added a huge fence which would divide the humans from the rest of the world, as it is an apocalypse, I would assume there would be zombies.

Here are my final pics of the model, I was so proud of this project and it was really fun to do.