2. Hamlet Madness Project
Laurence Furman
Eugene Frenkel
Olga Venglovskaya
Kenteh Lees
Xiang Chen

4. Ghost Scene
The ghost scene in Kenneth Branagh’s Hamlet is staged in a way that it appears to be in Hamlet’s head. Only Hamlet actually communicates with the ghost, with Horatio and company barely getting a glimpse of the ghost. Furthermore, Hamlet appears to be imagining the flashbacks in his head, as if he is actually there. As that is not the case, it gives off the impression that Hamlet is schizophrenic. The ghost unintentionally becomes an important driving force as the audience decides which is harder to believe, Kenneth Branagh’s directing or Brian Blessed’s acting.

6. Hamlet Madness
Kenneth Branagh probably explored the antic disposition aspect of Hamlet. If this is so, he failed miserably. Kenneth Branagh’s Hamlet comes off as shifting between schizophrenia and downright dementia, and considering that he is both the director and the actor, that is rather embarrassing. Ironically, his Hamlet also perfectly fits into our theory that Hamlet is a schizophrenic. The first ghost scene with Brian Blessed and his various soliloquies are case in point, as Branagh’s over the top acting make it impossible to take Hamlet as sane. Lastly, you do have to have some mental misjudgment to think that throwing a rapier as a Joe Flacco laser pass is a smart way to kill your nemesis.

8. Hamlet’s comments about Polonius’ corpse reflect how Hamlet seems to act like this is all a game. Branagh’s Hamlet is not even trying to feign madness, as he is looks completely collected and sane in front of Claudius during the “where he is eaten” and “mother and father are but one thing” exchanges, aside form the fact that Hamlet is speaking nonsense. It may again be due to Kenneth’s poor acting, but it is hard to take an antic disposition Hamlet seriously in these scenes, especcially when clashed with Derek Jacobi’s superb acting.

9. Furman’s Request
Sit back and enjoy the 30 min speech he shall make on how this is one of his favorite shows