runecestershire:

chrishemswag:

concept: a production of hamlet where none of the actors are younger than 65. everyone is old. specifically, hamlet is played by ian mckellen, and gertrude is played by betty white. nothing else about the play changes.

You know what? This is an awesome idea.

Youth and romance aren’t very big themes in the play, and having all the characters older wouldn’t interfere with these themes at all, but give them an interesting perspective. For one thing, it would make any romance between Hamlet and Ophelia or Hamlet and Horatio not all that different at all than that between Gertrude and Claudius.

And Hamlet’s judgemental attitude towards Gertrude and Claudius’ relationship would have a very different context. “For at

your
age the hey-day in the blood is tame, it’s humble, and waits upon the judgement” comes across rather differently if Hamlet himself is decidedly no longer a young man.

And Laertes and Ophelia as very much grown up siblings? Yes please!