A Newberry Library adult education class. Winter 2026. Tuesdays 2:00-4:00pm (CT) by Zoom, February 17 through March 10. Registration information here.
“The play’s the thing” — So says the legendary title character of Shakespeare’s sublime tragedy of revenge. But how and why should we actually read a Shakespeare play these days? This class offers an engaging introduction to Shakespeare’s art through an accessible in-depth exploration of Hamlet, supplemented with engaging discussion of several interpretations of the play. Four sessions.
Materials List
Hamlet, by William Shakespeare. The Pelican Shakespeare edition. Penguin 2016. ISBN 978-0143128540
Hamlet (film). Directed by Kenneth Branagh (1996). Available on dvd or streaming at Amazon Video, Apple TV, Fandango, and Kanopy
For the first session, please watch the film, Hamlet, directed by Kenneth Branagh (1996). Note that the film is very good, four hours long, and you can watch it in portions.
Class Description
This class is structured around a text and a film, and this time we discuss the film first. Kenneth Branagh’s 1996 big-budget film version is very popular, very “cinematic,” and also very faithful to the words of its source material. By seeing the film first, students (those familiar with Hamlet and those seeing it for the first time) will arrive at the first session with 1) the overall story of the play in mind, 2) opinions about the play’s characters and themes, 3) differences of opinion regarding the play’s interpretations, and 4) questions, raves, and criticism. The following three sessions will then address each of these overlapping matters.
At the first session, we’ll consider the overall film and examine specific scenes in order to get a sense of how Branagh’s particular Hamlet-world is created. At this session, I will also introduce basic approaches to reading a Shakespeare text, in preparation for the next session.
The second session will focus on reading and interpreting Act One of the text of Hamlet. Throughout our progressive exploration of the play, we’ll do close readings of key scenes, comparing how those scenes are presented in the Branagh film, and see clips from performances by, among others, Laurence Olivier, David Tennant, Maxine Peake, Ethan Hawke, Adrian Lester, and Asta Nielsen, ranging from the 19th century to the present.
The third session will cover Acts Two and Three. By focusing on the events of those acts we will be able to more thoroughly investigate Hamlet’s themes of theatricality, religion, conscience, and sexuality. This session’s focus will also include lecture material on Shakespeare’s own life and key aspects of Elizabethan culture.
The final session, examining the text of Acts Four and Five, will extend our exploration of the issues from the previous sessions, and allow us to further focus on the character of Ophelia, who has been represented in many different ways, and for different reasons, since Shakespeare’s time. Slides of artwork and film clips will prompt and illustrate much of that discussion.
A final syllabus and the first of our weekly study guides will be emailed one week ahead of the first session. The study guides will offer suggestions for focal points in the upcoming reading, as well as insights from specific, relevant examples of Shakespeare criticism through the years. Slides in class will also highlight several works held by the Newberry Library Special Collections, including the fantastic First Folio.
No AI technology will be used in the development or presentation of lectures and class materials.
Schedule
Session One: Film discussion: Kenneth Branagh’s Hamlet (1996, four hours). Available on dvd and streaming at Amazon Video, Apple TV, Fandango, and Kanopy (Kanopy may be offered through your local public library system).
Session Two: Hamlet (text), Act I
Session Three: Hamlet (text), Acts II and III
Session Four: Hamlet (text), Acts IV and V
