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Royal Shakespeare Company casts Black actor as Hamlet

Absolutely brilliant. I thought Hamlet was Danish. How can a Danish person be Black? Yet another attempt by the anti-white lobby to wipe out not only White people but also the history of White people.
Bit awkward, as he has family also featured in the play.

What's the point in pissing around with PC casting, when Othello is right there for the takinng?
Original post by Tomorrow123
Absolutely brilliant. I thought Hamlet was Danish. How can a Danish person be Black? Yet another attempt by the anti-white lobby to wipe out not only White people but also the history of White people.

And here I also thought that Ophelia was a woman, and yet she would have originally been played by a young male. Yet another attempt by the anti-women lobby of the time to wipe out women and the history of women! And to have Hamlet played by an English thespian and not a proud Dane! Yet another attempt by the English imperial lobby to wipe out Danish people and the history of the Danish people!

*cough* Sorry, that was a tad facetious. In a more polite answer, Shakespeare has a very long and proud tradition of different types of anacronistic casting. As I said when it began women would have been played by men. Not until recently did white actors stop 'blacking up' to play Othello. David Oyelowo played King Henry back at the turn of the century and there has since been an all asian cast of one of his comedies, Julius Caesar has been placed in modern Africa, there was an LGBT version of Romeo & Juliet, Hamlet itself had a cross-gendered cast! This is hardly anything new, not to mention that this is a modern adaptation where its perfectly possible for Hamlet to be a black male.

My rather belabored point is that doing Shakespeare is not about keeping perfectly to the text, to do so ignores the uniqueness of theatre, where texts are adapted and appropriated to different situations, peoples and times. This isn't about the destruction of white people, its just how theatre works, both with Shakespeare and other texts. People the world over come to see Shakespeare and its where many actors make their name and for only one main character to be available for black men in Othello (not to mention then a lack for other BME groups and women) does a great disservice to those acting communities.
Ha you lot are as bad as the SJWs now :rofl: it's confirmed.

Would you like to be taken to a safe space dear?
Reply 4
I have actually seen this production, my first theatre experience in fact, and it was brilliant.

It's important to note that Hamlet, given he is a literary character, didn't actually exist. He is/was a figment of Shakespeare's imagination, a figment that is open to interpretation, and thus adaptation.

It's quite amazing that of all the injustices of the world you pick this one . Quite amazing indeed.
It's not a big deal at all.
Original post by Tomorrow123
Absolutely brilliant. I thought Hamlet was Danish. How can a Danish person be Black? Yet another attempt by the anti-white lobby to wipe out not only White people but also the history of White people.


I'd have a problem with this if it was a historical play, but it's not, so it doesn't matter at all.
Gotta wonder why the ethnicity of actors is suddenly such a big deal around here :unsure:

Original post by KingBradly
I'd have a problem with this if it was a historical play, but it's not, so it doesn't matter at all.


even so a play is a play - it's supposed to be an entertainment, a play isn't a reconstruction on crimewatch where it'd clearly be the wrong casting decision to have a Chinese grandmother representing a Black teenager (or vice versa)
it's a completely fictional story brought to life by the most suitable actor who happens to be black, I could understand your qualm if it were meant to be a depiction of real historical event but this is just petty.
I admit it might seem unusual given the fictitious historical context and the fact that Gertrude and Claudius are presumably white but I don't think it matters.

We all know that boys were cast to play the women in his plays :beard:.
Original post by Tomorrow123
I thought Hamlet was Danish.


And I thought he was fictional...

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