In a very simple answer to the question posed above, as with most, if not all of Shakespeare’s work, the stories are based not on specific times or places but on the emotions and human experiences of the characters. The poetic nature of his sentences allows for varying artistic interpretations, all in aid of trying to understand and purvey the core emotion at the centre of the story, in the best way it is possible. I have chosen to explore Hamlet as it bears so much connection to our contemporary world, providing a story of agony and hardship, in which the audience relate to the core emotion of the story. It’s the human experience, the yearning for pain and the release of anger, an emotion synonymous with the human race itself.

Hamlet’s soliloquy for example, is still so relevant as it is only focused on the individual, the person and their emotion with almost no production around it. My two of my favourite examples of deliveries of this soliloquy I feel were powerful with their almost bear minimal production design are The Globe’s production of Hamlet in 2018 and the Royal Shakespeare Company’s production of Hamlet in 2016.

Their designs are based on the people, centring them at the heart of the design, focusing us on a wider special or historical window but simply on them and how they are feeling, allowing the audience to immerse themselves within that special of emotion, without distraction.