Play Time

Shakespeare is daunting. Whether it's the iambic pentameter, the archaic language, or the sheer volume of the works, some synapse in student's minds translates the name to "torture." Why? Because it is, more often than not, tough, boring, and silent work to read an annotate. Even with the margin notes, it is sometimes impossible to comprehend. So, it is no wonder that my English class let out a collective groan when we heard that our next book was Hamlet. I could see, sitting in my desk, book in hand, how the next month or so would play out. I could picture the late nights (I tend to do any reading homework last, for no apparent reason) staring alternately at the black and white page and the clock, watching the lines on both blur in and out of focus. I would contemplate just spark-noting the thing and having done with it. I would decide that it wasn't worth it. Then, I would keep going  until I was too tired or too frustrated to continue, whereupon I would throw the book onto my backpack and leave the fate of my performance on the quiz to some higher power.
This year, however, it is not so. Hamlet is, above all things, a play. And this is something my teacher has recognized. Therefore, we are reading it (for the most part) aloud, together. Now, seemingly meaningless phrases take on life. The characters have passion and fear. The audience (our class) has interest. It is still slow work, finding the right emphasis, using the right tone, but it is engaging. Shakespeare reaches its full potential not when it is read, but when it is performed. It should, above all things, be entertaining. It is not a lecture or a brief or a textbook passage. It's active and fun to watch and perform. That's why it's called a "play."