Although we did get on our feet the main bulk of the session was taken up
in discussion.

Having been on a fairly directional path with T.C over the last few weeks,
and as we are getting closer to a more intensive period of work the group
have begun to grasp the bigger picture in T.C's idea of a production that
is true to Shakespeare's verse pattern.

We spent much time establishing further what this meant and thus confirming
'the rules of the game' within which we would be trying to play our production
of Hamlet. - This may sound odd, as, surely all productions of Shakespeare are striving to
be true to the verse pattern, we thought; but when looking at our famous
speeches we realised how far from this many, including some of the most
memorable readings, stray from what Shakespeare was intending. (In our opinion.)





Here then is an attempt to catalogue the rules of engagement.
(This list will be added to, and refined, as discoveries prove fit.)

* We should assume that a line is to be said in the regular iambic dee dum
unless it would be ludicrous. E.g. galLOP a pace.

* In this instance we should not then simply give over this foot to the first
syllable, but attempt to make it at least less than or equal to the second.
So not-GALlop, but at least-gallop.

* It is helpful in these cases to aim at the fourth syllable in the line.
-Gallop a PACE.

* The unstressed syllable need only be weaker than it's following
stressed one thatmakes up the foot. It can be heavier than any of the
other stressed ones in the line, just not the one in its foot.

* The last stress in the line often holds the key to the line, or the idea
to aim at.

* Despite the stresses one may, nay should, vary the tempo and pitch
of a line.
The stressing should not be in a monotonous and soporific rhythm
which is why we choose to call it a pattern, as this suggests nothing
about the tempos or, indeed rhythm of the line.

* One may use pitch to emphasize a syllable that is in the
unstressed position.

* One may slow down or speed up within a line as much as one wants
but pausing should be limited to when suggested in the text; that is,
at the end of a line, in missing beats, at an epic caesura, or possibly
when a sentence ends on a stressed syllable in the middle of the line,
thus not breaking a foot. This may seem one of the harder and more
frequently ignored rules but one that bears beautiful and unexpected
fruit if adhered to.

* If a sentence ends mid foot, mid sentence then this suggests
one should push through with the new thought and not pause to find it.

* Personal pronouns are only to be used when in stressed positions.
The same goes with 'not's. This is basically a reminder to keep
to the first rule.

* Assume that Shakespeare is cleverer and better than us so attempt
to speak his lines as he suggests and then make sense of them,
not enforce our interpretation of their sense onto the verse, mangling it to fit.

* Start with the text and it's clues, not an idea.

I have resisted explaining the ways in which one could deal with these rules
in the playing, as that is up to the individual, these are merely rules that the
text and the iambic pattern seem to suggest.