Hamlet

Description

Hamlet

Original by William Shakespeare

Adapted by Mark Norfolk

Preface by Dr David Linton

Continues Aurora Metro Books’ partnership with Black Theatre Live, a pioneering national consortium of regional theatres led by Tara Arts (London), with the necessity of diversity in theatre at its core: committed to effecting change for BAME theatre, and audiences.

Remember me…

Denmark, a Black Empire of modern England, where an intelligent young student discovers the world he once knew has crumbled. Implored to defend what is left of his father’s decaying legacy, Hamlet now faces the greatest moral challenge: to kill or not to kill.

Adapted with Shakespeare’s text by award-winning playwright Mark Norfolk, this fast-moving version gets straight to the heart of a young man’s dilemma.

Contains interviews with adaptor, Mark Norfolk, and director Jeffery Kissoon (star of stage & screen: RSC, NT, Brook’s The Mahabharata, BBC’s Grange Hill, Star Wars: The Force Awakens; he also adapted and directed Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man).

An Education Resource Pack (CC) has been designed to give teachers and students information about the play, this production, and practical classroom games and exercises linked to the National Curriculum; presentation, discussing, role play and performance, improvisation, and writing.

Contents

Preface: Performing Dialogues of Race and Culture | Interviews: Jeffery Kissoon and Mark Norfolk | Hamlet playtext

Readership

This fast-paced, all-Black, contemporary version of Hamlet has appeal across audiences young and old, those studying English and Drama at school, those recently introduced to Hamlet through popular TV adaptations and classic drama audiences. In particular, lovers of traditional drama and Shakespeare, schools and Black African & Caribbean audiences (including previous Black Theatre Live tours). Students studying Shakespeare and/or drama studies.

Education

The Black Theatre Live co-production with Watford Palace Theatre & Stratford Circus Arts Centre of Shakespeare’s tragedy Hamlet is suitable for study at Key Stage 3 and 4 including teaching across the national curriculum in:

English & Theatre Studies: Critical Understanding

Music: Understanding musical traditions and the part music plays in global culture

Citizenship: Range and Content: Political, Legal and Human rights, responsibilities of citizens, morals and ethics

Education Resource Pack (produced using a Creative Commons (CC) copyright license, to enable free distribution) for teachers and students. Information about the play, this production, and practical classroom games and exercises linked to the National Curriculum; presentation, discussing, role play and performance, improvisation, and writing.

About the adaptor

Mark Norfolk writes for film, theatre and radio. His theatre work includes Blair’s Children (co-author; Cockpit Theatre); Wrong Place (Soho Theatre); Where The Flowers Grow, Naked Soldiers, Knock Down Ginger (Warehouse Theatre) and in 2015 he became the first recipient of the Alfred Fagon Award’s Roland Rees Bursary. His films Shadow Gene, Ham & The Piper and Crossing Bridges (as writer and director) have won many international awards including Best Film and Best Director at Festfilm Kosovo, SevenArt Best Film, Best Feature Film at the Peloponnesian Film Festival, Best Film at the Black International Film Festival, Best Feature at the Carmarthen Film Festival, a Screen Nation Award and a Silver Chris Award in Columbus. He lectures in Screenwriting at Birkbeck, University of London.