SHAKESPEARE

Synopsis

US radio documentary series hosted by Ira Glass. This episode is devoted to one story. Over the course of six months, reporter Jack Hitt followed a group of inmates at a high-security prison as they rehearsed and staged a production of the last act of Hamlet. Hitt believes Hamlet is a play about murder and its consequences, performed here by murderers living out the consequences.

Prologue (4 mins): Host Ira Glass surveys various productions of Hamlet being staged around the country: at community colleges in Brooklyn and Honolulu, on a professional stage in Boston, and at a Shakespeare camp for children in San Francisco—where all the scenes are death scenes.

Act One. Act V, Scene 1. (30mins). Jack Hitt introduces his report about a group of prisoners at the Missouri Eastern Correctional Centre, a high-security prison. The man who plays Hamlet gets into character by recalling the times when he has wanted to hurt people, like the crime that sent him to prison, when he shot two people and left them for dead. Also, Big Hutch, who plays Horatio, explains how it would work if you set Hamlet in a prison—and why it would actually improve a flaw in the plot.

Act Two. Act V, Scene 2 (21 mins). Jack Hitt discovers that almost all of the actors draw on their pasts in some way or another to get into character, that some of them have committed crimes even worse than he’d imagined, and that cast parties in prison don’t take very long.

Series

This American Life

Language

English

Country

United States

Medium

Radio

Transmission details

8 Sep 2002 (Channel: Chicago Public Radio)

Duration

55 mins

Credits

Contributor

Ira Glass; Jack Hitt

Additional Details

Production type

Documentary/Educational/News

Plays

Hamlet

Keywords

prisoners; prisons; Shakespeare, William (1564-1616); Rehearsals; Untrained actors

Notes

Notes

The programme may be listened to online at http://www.thislife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?episode=218 (accessed 10/2007). It can also be downloaded or purchased on CD.

History

Episode 218

Production Company

Name

Chicago Public Radio

Online Retailer

Name

thislife.org

Email

web@thislife.org

Web

http://www.thislife.org External site opens in new window

Phone

312 948 4680

Address

This American Life
153 West 27 Street 1104
New York, New York 10001