Shakespeare’s Hamlet is one of the most widely known and loved pieces in all of literature. Covering a sundry of dark human emotions and themes, the play is a task to reproduce, as a movie adaptation word-for-word can be quite lengthy. Many have tried, and many have failed. However, with the aid of virtual reality technology, Hamlet 360 gives us a literal new view on the classic work. Hamlet 360 spins Shakespeare’s Hamlet into the modern world through emotional performances by the actors, both creative (and some distracting) technological choices, and alterations that would make Shakespeare accepting of his surviving work. Diving into the man himself, Jack Cutmore-Scott, or perhaps better known as Hamlet, played his role just as Shakespeare …show more content…
Hamlet’s two very best childhood friends who turned on him at his darkest hour in hopes of being in good graces with the criminal King played a supporting role in Hamlet to aid in setting up Claudius’s master plans. When Rosenkrantz is sent to find out what is troubling Hamlet, obviously besides the death of his father and his uncle’s unsettling relationship with his mother, Rosenkrantz loses any trust that Hamlet once had in him as he inquires, “How can that be, when you have the voice of the King himself for your succession in Denmark?” (III, II). The concern for the throne rather than his friend seals his fate as Hamlet unapologetically states, “They are not near my conscience. Their defeat Does by their insinuation grow” (V, II). Joining them in their absence of Hamlet 360 is Shakespeare’s themes of corruption and lack of loyalty. Shakespeare would be rolling in his secondhand grave to know that his symbolic characters were left behind in 1600. Thankfully, some key portions are kept unharmed, like Hamlet’s soliloquy in Act 3, scene 1, or from 12:10 to 15:50. Delivering the infamous line while sitting fully clothed in the bathtub, “To be or not to be, that is the question” (12:10), Hamlet 360 plays this verbatim and Cutmore-Scott takes a pause after the first stanza to drown himself, while his voice is played in the background continuing the lines. As both a reader and a viewer, Hamlet 360 conveyed the insanity, indecision, and instability masterfully during this