Results: "The Play's The Thing" -- And Hamlet's The Play
Published on 04/15/2021
If you know where this quote comes from, you may enjoy this series of surveys, based on the works of William Shakespeare. This famous quote is from Hamlet. And just like this quote, there is much more to Shakespeare's works than you might think.
QUESTIONS
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1.
1.
And, Hamlet is where we will start. Probably one of the best known plays, with 4,042 lines and 29,551 words, Hamlet is the longest Shakespearean play, and the character of Hamlet speaks for 37 percent of that entire script. Have you ever:
Read Hamlet in school
34%
785 votes
Read Hamlet on your own
8%
195 votes
Seen a live performance of Hamlet
11%
260 votes
Appeared in a live performance of Hamlet (in school plays, community theatre, etc.)
3%
79 votes
Seen one of the many movie adaptions of Hamlet
15%
350 votes
Know of the play, but not familiar with it
42%
965 votes
Have never heard of Hamlet
9%
215 votes
2.
2.
Hamlet is believed to be Shakespeare's most produced play, having never fallen out of popularity since it was first performed with Richard Burbage in the title role in 1601. Over fifty films of William Shakespeare's Hamlet have been made since 1900.Many of these have been movies based on the story of Hamlet, and not direct adaptations. Which of these adaptions have you seen (of course I can not list all 50 of these, so please feel free to mention your favourite if I missed it)?
David Tennant Hamlet (2009)
4%
90 votes
Grigori Kozintsev Hamlet (1964)
2%
54 votes
Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet (1996)
8%
182 votes
Laurence Olivier's Hamlet (1948)
14%
319 votes
Campbell Scott's Hamlet (2001)
3%
71 votes
Ethan Hawke's Hamlet (2000)
4%
103 votes
Mel Gibson's Hamlet (1990)
9%
216 votes
Bruce Ramsay's Hamlet (2011)
1%
31 votes
The Lion King (1994) -- this has been a topic of debate, but let's call it a loose adaption
19%
429 votes
Ophelia (I) (2018)
3%
75 votes
Beautiful Girls (1996)
2%
48 votes
Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead (1990)
4%
84 votes
Haider (2014)
1%
14 votes
None
58%
1332 votes
3.
3.
How many of these trivia facts about the play Hamlet did you already know?
Exact dating of when the play was written is impossible, but most historians estimate sometime in 1601.
6%
127 votes
In 2012, Guinness World Records declared Hamlet the second most portrayed human character on film and TV, after Sherlock Holmes (but both fall far short of the non-human Dracula).
7%
150 votes
At 29, Ethan Hawke is the youngest actor to play Hamlet in a film. He did so in the 2000, modern-day New York City adaptation. It is also close to the age Hamlet is supposed to be in the original text - 30.
7%
156 votes
The oldest person to play Hamlet on screen is thought to be Johnston Forbes-Robertson, who was 60 when his performance was filmed in 1913.
4%
83 votes
Women have occasionally played the lead since back when Sarah Siddons played the famous Danish prince at least nine times over a thirty-year span (1775-1805). In 2000, Angela Winkler played Hamlet at the Edinburgh Festival to critical acclaim.
4%
103 votes
The character of Hamlet played a critical role in Sigmund Freud's explanation of the Oedipus complex and thus influenced modern psychology. In Freud's view, Hamlet is torn largely because he has repressed sexual desire for his mother, which is being acted out by and challenged by Claudius.
8%
184 votes
Hamlet has been translated into Klingon (the fictional language from the television series Star Trek) and has also been done as an all pug production, aptly named "Pug-let"
3%
69 votes
All of it
2%
57 votes
None
75%
1721 votes
4.
4.
Hamlet has given us a host of famous phrases, many of which we still use to this day. How many of these expressions --all used for the first time in Hamlet-- have you heard (or even spoken)?
'the primrose path'
14%
312 votes
'neither a borrower nor a lender be'
34%
773 votes
'more honoured in the breach than the observance'
3%
75 votes
'more things in heaven and earth'
18%
415 votes
'the time is out of joint'
5%
119 votes
'brevity is the soul of wit'
12%
284 votes
'this mortal coil'
13%
299 votes
'hoist with one's own petard'
11%
263 votes
'the lady doth protest too much, methinks'.
34%
774 votes
'something is rotten (in the state of Denmark)'
32%
742 votes
'to the manner born'
12%
275 votes
'cruel to be kind'
24%
544 votes
All
3%
69 votes
None
42%
968 votes
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