Huynh Thieu Dinh (Felix)
Eng4U
Mr. Burton
October 31th, 2013
Hamlet Act 1 Scene 5: Pirate of the Caribbean Curse of the Black Pearl
Hamlet is a story take place around the 14th to 15th century in the land of Denmark. The ghost scene from act 1 scene 5 is a crucial scene since it is the beginning of Hamlet’s plot for revenge. It is also one of Shakespeare “signature” scenes because most of his plays always include a supernatural figure manipulates and affects the plot. Then how could anything make the scene any better than it is now? The answer is changes the scene to an adaptation of the movie “Pirate of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl”. The adaptation would change the setting, costumes and makeups, dialogue, lighting, and figure placement.
Setting:
In the adaptation, I want to add in an ominous atmosphere for the setting of the scene because it would fit the supernatural event. First the time setting is at a starless night along with a crescent moon. Hamlet runs through a dark forest toward the ghost voice beyond the luminous light. Then, Hamlet reaches a sea shore covered in thick layers of mists. The dark forest, luminous light and misty sea shore are the factors that contribute to the mysterious setting. The reason I create this part of the setting is to enhance the meeting between Hamlet and the ghost. When Hamlet reaches the seashore, the voice stops and he then sees a ghost ship floats into a cave. Again, the cave also acts as a factor generates the haunting feeling of the story. The reason I choose the cave as the location for the conversation is because I think the cave is isolated from the outside world. In the cave, there will be sound of the bat flying out of the cave because of Hamlet’s present. The cave would also be cover in mist to create a fading effect for the ship. Under the cellar entrance on the ship are squeaky noises of rat scurry under with their red eyes blinking in the dark. Additionally, the isolation meaning of the cave is corresponding to the characteristic of a ghost, which is separation from the human world.
Costumes and Makeups:
Since the adaptation is from “Pirate of the Caribbean”, obviously Hamlet and his father costumes will be pirate clothes to match with the setting. To begin with the basic, Hamlet has a leather tri-corner hat along with a pirate traditional red bandanna around his head. Additionally, Hamlet hairstyle is long and messy covers with some trinkets to represent the wild and carefree aspect of a pirate. Hamlet wears kohl around his eyes as a reference to the nomad. I relate the nomad with pirate also because of their free spirit. In addition to the detail, Hamlet has several gold teeth as a traditional pirate characteristic. He has a goatee in two braids just simply add to the wild characteristic of a pirate. He also wears several rings for accessories. As for clothing, Hamlet wears a white billowing shirt with a brown leather trouser. He wears a lightweight silk tweed frock coat over the billowing shirt. Around the waist is a striped scarf over his belt to add in a youthful personality for the young pirate prince. Finally, he wears a pair of thick brown boots because a pirate must travel on a lot of adventure.
Then as for Hamlet’s father, he would have two costumes throughout the scene. One is for his appearance before death and the other one is his ghost-like appearance. First, his human like appearance will be somewhat similar to Hamlet characteristic but reflect a more experience and older version. He wears a round leather hat that is decorates with some feathers on top of it. His hairstyle is also long and unfix with the same reason as Hamlet’s hairstyle. However unlike Hamlet, he does not have a lot of accessories to showcases a man that aims for efficiency. He also have a scar below his right eyes as a demonstration to shows that he been through a lot of battles. As for clothing he wears a long dark blue silk jacket over his brown leather shirt inside. Around his waist is a worn out orange scarf to reflect his old age. Finally he wears a black boot that gives a sturdy look overall. As for his ghost like appearance, his clothes got all torn up with holes and scratches. The feathers on the hat are half cut off and wither down to his back. Most important of all is the makeups. Hamlet’s father face is completely pale and covers in cracks. His crooked teeth are always visible since the skins around that area are missing. His beard turns from black to white.
Dialogue
I also change the dialogue of the story to fit the pirate theme. I change some of the words to represent a pirate accent. For examples, I change “to” to “ t’ ”, “and” to “ an’ “, “the” to “ th’ “, “no” to “nay”, “you” to “ye”, and “my” to “me”. I change these simple words because it gives pirate accent for the characters. Then I change some of other words to pirate common phrases like “bed” to “bunk”, “eye” to “one good eye”, and “goodbye” to “godspeed matey”. Additionally, I add in some details to make the dialogue stick to the theme even more. First, in the last few line when Hamlet’s father asks him to spare his mother and leave her to god judgment, I replace god with Davy Jones. I use Davy Jones because he is a supernatural figure that most pirates believe to have the ultimate power that no one can defeat. Therefore Davy Jones images can be seen as god in pirates’ perspective. Then, I add in a quote from captain Barbossa in the movie when he suffers from the curse of the Black Pearl. He says “For too long I've been parched with thirst and unable to quench it. Too long I've been starving to death and haven't died. I feel nothing... not the wind on my face nor the spray of the sea, nor the warmth of a woman's flesh.” I choose this quote because it fits with the content of the conversation. The quote shows the common desires of a pirate: drink, food, women, and the sea. Furthermore, the quote is also in the perspective of an undead which fit in very well with Hamlet’s father role.

Lighting
The lighting of the scene will mostly be dark to enhance the dire atmosphere. First, there will be a luminous light behind the forest to shows Hamlet the direction. The light cannot be too bright but pale to represent it is more of a dark supernatural light rather than the heaven or angle light. Then at the scene at the seashore, the ship barely visible from the mist, there will be some gloomy lantern light hanging over the deck. The light in the cave is a fuzzy yellow light. The ceiling of the cave and cellar of the boat will have several bright red dots light to represent eyes of the bats and rats. Then there will be dark red light centers the ghost at his appearance. Finally the lights slowly dim to black as the ghost says his last words and turn out completely to end the scene.
Figure Placement
The conversation between Hamlet and his father will takes place on the deck. I imagine Hamlet would stand on the low deck and Hamlet’s father would stand above at the steering wheel of the ship. Then Hamlet’s father would have the higher placement than Hamlet. First, I choose this placement because in the adaptation Hamlet’s father is the captain of the ship. Therefore he would stand at the steering wheel to showcases his superiority of his life before death. Furthermore the placement creates a separation between Hamlet and his father as human and ghost. Finally, at the end before Hamlet’s father disappears, he changes his placement to behind Hamlet to whisper his last desire, “revenge”.