This is a sort of cutup rearrangement of several scenes in Hamlet. It was performed in sophomore English (high school) by myself and several friends (I don't remember who played who or I would mention it). The lighting cues are all for the IMSA AcPit lighting system. {LIGHTING--BACK--MARISA--10,10,3,2,2,2} KING CLAUDIUS Take thy fair hour, Laertes; time be thine, And thy best graces spend it at thy will! But now, my cousin Hamlet, and my son,-- HAMLET [Aside] A little more than kin, and less than kind. KING CLAUDIUS How is it that the clouds still hang on you? HAMLET Not so, my lord; I am too much i' the sun. QUEEN GERTRUDE Good Hamlet, cast thy nighted colour off, And let thine eye look like a friend on Denmark. Do not for ever with thy vailed lids Seek for thy noble father in the dust: Thou know'st 'tis common; all that lives must die, Passing through nature to eternity. HAMLET To be, or not to be: that is the question: Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep; No more; and by a sleep to say we end The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep; To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub; LORD POLONIUS I have found The very cause of Hamlet's lunacy. LORD POLONIUS This business is well ended. My liege, and madam, to expostulate What majesty should be, what duty is, Why day is day, night night, and time is time, Were nothing but to waste night, day and time. QUEEN GERTRUDE More matter, with less art. QUEEN GERTRUDE I doubt it is no other but the main; His father's death, and our o'erhasty marriage. {LIGHTING--MARISA--FADE OUT IN BACK} -------------------------------------------------------- {LIGHTING--EUNICE--SET TO M0,8,6,0,0,0,0} {LIGHTING--EUNICE--TAKE CONTROL} {LIGHTING--EUNICE--FADE IN} {LIGHTING--MARISA--SET TO 10,10,0,0,0,0} QUEEN GERTRUDE Come hither, my dear Hamlet, sit by me. HAMLET Now, mother, what's the matter? QUEEN GERTRUDE Hamlet, thou hast thy father much offended. HAMLET Mother, you have my father much offended. QUEEN GERTRUDE Come, come, you answer with an idle tongue. HAMLET Go, go, you question with a wicked tongue. QUEEN GERTRUDE Why, how now, Hamlet! HAMLET What's the matter now? QUEEN GERTRUDE Have you forgot me? HAMLET No, by the rood, not so: You are the queen, your husband's brother's wife; And--would it were not so!--you are my mother. QUEEN GERTRUDE Nay, then, I'll set those to you that can speak. HAMLET Come, come, and sit you down; you shall not budge; You go not till I set you up a glass Where you may see the inmost part of you. A bloody deed! almost as bad, good mother, As kill a king, and marry with his brother. QUEEN GERTRUDE As kill a king! {LIGHTING--EUNICE--FADE MASTER DOWN TO 5} Ghost Ay, that incestuous, that adulterate beast, With witchcraft of his wit, with traitorous gifts,-- O wicked wit and gifts, that have the power So to seduce!--won to his shameful lust The will of my most seeming-virtuous queen: what a falling-off was there! From me, whose love was of that dignity That it went hand in hand even with the vow I made to her in marriage, and to decline Upon a wretch whose natural gifts were poor To those of mine! But virtue, as it never will be moved, Though lewdness court it in a shape of heaven, So lust, though to a radiant angel link'd, Will sate itself in a celestial bed, And prey on garbage. QUEEN GERTRUDE O, speak to me no more; These words, like daggers, enter in mine ears; O, what a rash and bloody deed is this! GHOST Sleeping within my orchard, My custom always of the afternoon, Upon my secure hour thy uncle stole, With juice of cursed hebenon in a vial, And in the porches of my ears did pour The leperous distilment; whose effect Holds such an enmity with blood of man That swift as quicksilver it courses through The natural gates and alleys of the body, And with a sudden vigour doth posset And curd, like eager droppings into milk, The thin and wholesome blood: so did it mine; And a most instant tetter bark'd about, Most lazar-like, with vile and loathsome crust, All my smooth body. Thus was I, sleeping, by a brother's hand Of life, of crown, of queen, at once dispatch'd: Cut off even in the blossoms of my sin, Unhousel'd, disappointed, unanel'd, No reckoning made, but sent to my account With all my imperfections on my head: O, horrible! O, horrible! most horrible! If thou hast nature in thee, bear it not; Let not the royal bed of Denmark be A couch for luxury and damned incest. QUEEN GERTRUDE No more! QUEEN GERTRUDE O Hamlet, thou hast cleft my heart in twain. QUEEN GERTRUDE What shall I do? GHOST Taint not thy mind, nor let thy soul contrive Against thy mother aught: Leave her to heaven. HAMLET Good night, mother. {LIGHTING--MARISA--SET BACK TO M0,10,10,0,0,0,0} {LIGHTING--MARISA--TAKE CONTROL IN BACK} {EUNICE--SET FRONT TO 0,10,10,0,0,0,0} ---------------------------------------------------------------------- {LIGHTING--MARISA--FADE IN BACK QUICKLY} KING CLAUDIUS What, Gertrude? How does Hamlet? QUEEN GERTRUDE Ah, my good lord, what have I seen to-night! Mad as the sea and wind, when both contend HAMLET Frailty, thy name is woman! ----------------------------------------------------------------------- {ZACH--FADE IN FRONT (0,10,10,0,0,0)} Player Queen O, confound the rest! Such love must needs be treason in my breast: In second husband let me be accurst! None wed the second but who kill'd the first. Player Queen The instances that second marriage move Are base respects of thrift, but none of love: A second time I kill my husband dead, When second husband kisses me in bed. Player King I do believe you think what now you speak; But what we do determine oft we break. So think thou wilt no second husband wed; But die thy thoughts when thy first lord is dead. Player Queen Nor earth to me give food, nor heaven light! Sport and repose lock from me day and night! To desperation turn my trust and hope! An anchor's cheer in prison be my scope! Each opposite that blanks the face of joy Meet what I would have well and it destroy! Both here and hence pursue me lasting strife, If, once a widow, ever I be wife! HAMLET Madam, how like you this play? QUEEN GERTRUDE The lady protests too much, methinks. HAMLET O, but she'll keep her word. KING CLAUDIUS Have you heard the argument? Is there no offence in 't? HAMLET No, no, they do but jest, poison in jest; no offence i' the world. KING CLAUDIUS What do you call the play? HAMLET The Mouse-trap. {LIGHTING--ZACH KILL--FRONT} ------------------------------------------------------------------ {LIGTING--ZACH--FRONT--10,10,6,0,0,0} OPHELIA There's rosemary, that's for remembrance; pray, love, remember: and there is pansies. that's for thoughts. OPHELIA There's fennel for you, and columbines: there's rue for you; and here's some for me: we may call it herb-grace o' Sundays: O you must wear your rue with a difference. There's a daisy: I would give you some violets, but they withered all when my father died {LIGHTING--ZACH--FADE OUT} ------------------------------------------------------------------ {LIGHTING--MARISA--SET TO 10,10,10,0,0,0} {LIGHTING--MARISA--FADE IN} KING CLAUDIUS Give them the foils, young Osric. Cousin Hamlet, You know the wager? HAMLET Ay, my good lord. KING CLAUDIUS Set me the stoops of wine upon that table. QUEEN GERTRUDE He's fat, and scant of breath. Here, Hamlet, take my napkin, rub thy brows; The queen carouses to thy fortune, Hamlet. KING CLAUDIUS Gertrude do not drink. QUEEN GERTRUDE I will my lord. QUEEN GERTRUDE No, no, the drink, the drink,--O my dear Hamlet,-- The drink, the drink! I am poison'd. QUEEN GERTRUDE I pray you, pardon me. {LIGHTING--MARISA--VERY SLOW FADE OUT}