OTI:one poem and notes:7/17/16

Open To Interpretation

Hamlet

So, Narcissus, were you surprised
When Ophelia floated by,
Echo of a future time?

DolphinWords

Notes:  Hamlet is Narcissus, and Ophelia, Echo...a wonder if the scholar critics picked this up...brb...lots see the connection...it jumps out when Ophelia is looking into the river...having myself been considering Ovid's tale of Narcissus and Echo, it just makes sense...instead of being fixated on his own beauty, like Narcissus, Hamlet becomes fixated on revenge for the murder of his father, King Hamlet...and Ophelia's lament is the same as Echo's...they express their love, but are rebuffed by Narcissus' and Hamlet's preoccupations!...the whole tragic play of Hamlet tumbles out from this 'deafness'...ral...I just returned from watching Hamlet performed in the little out door theater in the old town park next to the old Gem theater...the old part of Garden Grove, the main street, has been kept as it was when I knew it as a kid...oddly, it's not very popular, as many town's old restored centers are, probably because there are no swinging night spots...anyway, I'd  been back and forth to Home Depot getting materials and parts, fixing up the porch for Maya, my dog, and me!...I always pass Main Street when I return, and this evening took note of folk filing into the outdoor theater...oh!, my thought, Hamlet is about to start!...so I parked by the Gem, and went over to buy a ticket...I was hardly dressed for the occasion, t-shirt and levis, all dusty from working about the house, but I had my long sleeve plaid shirt in Silver, my jeep, so went back for that, and my Valley hoodie, which I didn't need, evening very warm...theater is really cool...big old time pine trees above the stage's ceiling with its lighting fixtures, and a three quarter moon...and, and I was much bemused by the stage set...maybe I can find pic...brb...okay, here's link to Summerfest Orange County facebook Hamlet...scroll down a bit and there's a pic of the stage set...in the very center it was a double deck stage...a kind of small balcony...when the ghost appears, he comes out of the lower part, and above on the balcony patio part King Claudius and Queen Gertrude were carrying on in pantomime...it was just like I imagined in my Two Hamlets poem!...ral...and there's more!...to either side there were dark doorways, and stairs going up to second level doorways, everything black, of course...but to indicate snow having fallen, I guess, the upper edges of the walls and such...it's supposed to be a castle interior and exterior...were splattered with white wash...and it actually looked like 'white wash', poop from birds...from Ravens and Gulls!...the whole dammed set up looked like the Black Ship!...and with morose Hamlet sitting stage, my left, by a simulated grave, his father's, later to be Ophelia's, dressed all in black, of course, it was perfect!...below Decks too!...at the end of the performance, I stood right up, giving my standing ovation!...and after a bit, sat down, chagrined...I was the only one standing...what can I say, I had a beer at intermission...I was so sleepy from old house tasks that I needed something to stay awake!...it was all very nicely down, I thought...the players within the play did a Vietnamese dance number, which was touching, as Town now has many Vietnamese...didn't see any in audience, which had that wine and cheese old hippies ambience!...hmmph...anyway...I haven't seen a live stage play in decades...next play in the summer series is the Pirates of Penzance!...I might go to each one to hark back to when I was a stage hand for that play at Melodyland, 1966 or so!...oh, when Hamlet sends a falsified letter to the King of England in secret, disparaging R&G as traitors, insuring their execution, that's right out of Bellerophon...Shakespeare knew his old Greek tales, and his audience too!

:)

DavidDavid