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[an error occurred while processing this directive] (none) Choosing from many possible sources By Maggie McGehee Ashland Daily Tidings "To be, or not to be, that is the question, ..." - or at least it is for OSF's Shakespeare Dramaturg Barry Kraft when it came to the 2000 OSF production of Hamlet. In one of Shakespeare's most famed tragedies, producers of the play find the task far more complicated than the fates of its characters. In sitting down to discuss the play and the speech, Kraft dumped 11 copies of the play on the table. "`Hamlet' - What do you mean by `Hamlet?' Not one of these is the same," he said. The twisted tale of murder and revenge, rage and passion in Denmark may have seemed to remain constant since it was originally written. But it only seems that way. The reason for that dates back to 1603, when Quarto I of "Hamlet" was published. In a performance of that publication, the audience could expect to hear Hamlet's famous "To be, or not to be," speech in the seventh scene of the play (Quarto I is not divided into Acts). Therefore, just after the King and Polonius (named "Corambis" in Quarto I) conspire to set Ophelia up with Hamlet, the play continues: "Corambis: And here Ophelia, read you on this book, and walk aloof, the King shall be unseen. Hamlet: To be, or not to be, aye, there's the point, to die, to sleep, is that all? Aye all: No, to sleep, to dream, I marry there it goes..." Is it possible that "Hamlet" would be as popular in the present day had this been the only version of the play? Fortunately, a year or two later, Quarto II of "Hamlet" was published, with the famous speech in Act 3 Scene 1, where it is also found in the Folio of "Hamlet," published in 1623. There we find the more commonly known speech by Hamlet: "To be, or not to be, that is the question, whether tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or take arms against a sea of troubles, and by opposing, end them, to die to sleep no more and by a sleep, to say we end the heartache ..." "In that one speech there are half a dozen textual decisions for actors to make," Kraft said. All three versions of "Hamlet" published between 1603 and 1623 were shown on stage during their time, each with some dialogue that didn't exist in the other two, but it was a century later that the works began to be combined on the stage. Starting in the 18th century, directors began combining Quarto II and the Folio, resulting in longer "conflated" productions of "Hamlet." The conflated version was used in Kenneth Branagh's film version of the play. For the 1994 OSF production of "Hamlet," the Folio was used, Kraft said. However, for this year's production of the play, Kraft and OSF Artistic Director Libby Appel sat down and went through their options. "We worked through the two quartos and the folio," Appel said. "All three versions are very very different, so we had word choices and punctuation and placement choices from all three." [an error occurred while processing this directive] (none) [an error occurred while processing this directive] (none) [an error occurred while processing this directive] (none) Ashland Daily Tidings 1661 Siskiyou Blvd. Ashland, OR 97520 Telephone 541-482-3456 © Copyright 2000 Lee Northwest Publishing