Hamlet has been performed by many productions in different settings and time periods. If I had to choose an alternate time and place for Hamlet to be performed in I would choose a high school for troubled kids in the present day. To be more exact, in Denmark High School run by principal Claudius and vice principal Gertrude. This high school would be of high prestige and very well known to enforce good behavior on their students. Hamlet would be spending his senior year at Denmark high school as opposed to boarding school because he has been asked by his parents to serve as a model of the perfect student for the others. Polonius would serve as a counselor for the kids and a close friend of Claudius that he trusts very much. His daughter Ophelia would be one of the many trouble makers in the school that is obviously not good enough for Hamlet. Horatio, Rosencrantz, and Guildenstern would be students and friends of Hamlet.
An interesting part of the play to be performed in this time and place would be Act 3 Scene 1. In this scene Rosencrantz and Guildenstern would be meeting with Claudius in his office, ashamed of disappointing their dear principal because they failed to find out what was causing Hamlet's madness. Then to try to prove that Hamlet was going mad from his love for Ophelia, Polonius would set up a meeting between them. Ophelia would be all alone in a classroom pretending she is a hardworking student that is doing her homework. Hamlet would walk in and would find it suspicious that she is actually working for once. Meanwhile Claudius and Polonius would be spying on them through an air vent. Hamlet would become aware of the set up and make fun of poor Ophelia for thinking that he ever cared about her. Then Ophelia would run out of the classroom broken hearted. Claudius would then resolve that Hamlet is not mad for love and would then plan for Hamlet to go back to boarding school.
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