Q. The Dark Lady Players are doing a newproduction of

Hamlet

in New York this summer. Itis called

Hamlet’s Apocalypse.

What does Hamlethave to do with the Apocalypse?

Research has shown that the play is actually a comicparody of the Last Day, the Apocalypse, in the Book of Revelation. Many of the characters are allegories forfigures in the Book of Revelation. But in

Hamlet

,unlike in the Bible, the Last Day goes terribly wrongand everyone dies—including Christ and his Bride.There is no new heavenly city of Jerusalem at the end, just a Fort-in-Brass. So it’s a parody and that is whatour production will show.

Q. So lets start with the Ghost of old Hamlet. Who is he and why ishe in hell?

The reason Hamlet’s father is in Hell at the beginning of the play is thathe is Hyperion, the Greek god of light who was similar to Apollo—the godof the sun, fire and plagues—who was imprisoned in the pit Tartarus.His equivalent in the

Book of Revelation

is Apollyon, the destroyer—who was the king of Hell. Hamlet isvery clear that his father may be theDevil and says about his ghost that“The spirit that I have seen/May be thedevil: and the devil hath power/ Toassume a pleasing shape.”This is how he was illustrated in awoodcut from Pilgrim’s Progress; asthe Devil with big wings.

Q. So is it because Hamlet is the son of the Devil that he wears black?

Yes. As Hamlet says “let the devil wear blackfor I'll have a suit of sables”. Ophelia says thatwhen he visited her he looked “As if he hadbeen loosed out of hell”.His first identity is as Hyperion’s firery son, thesun god Helios. We see him here in thebackground looking at Ophelia and wearing alarge sun symbol.

But in addition to being the son of the devil he is also the Anti-Christand in fact his character borrows from THREE different Anti-Christs.Firstly in the beginning of the play Hamlet’smelancholy and the references to Wittenbergallude to the so-called second Anti-Christ,Martin Luther. That’s what he is in the famousGraveyard scene.Then in the middle of the play Hamlet’s oddinterests in the theater and acting, and the killingof Claudius echo the first Anti-Christ, theEmperor Nero. Thirdly in the last part of the play,his return from the sea and his attack on theChrist figure Laertes echo the original Anti-Christ, the Beast from the Sea,from the

Book of Revelation.

Except in

Hamlet

the Beast kills the Christfigure.

Q. So Hamlet is the son of the Devil andrepresents a triple anti-Christ. Thatexplains why his character is sounpleasant. What about his motherGertrude?

Shakespeare scholar Linda Hoff has shownthat Gertrude is the character of the Whoreof Babylon, who is drunk on blood and isseated on the Beast from the Land. Like theWhore of Babylon, Gertrude is holding upher cup and killed by drinking from it.Then King Claudius is the scarlet Beast fromthe Land, which is associated with Rome.That is why Claudius has the name of a Caesar and is identified as a beastcovered head to toe in ‘gules’ which is a word meaning blood. So we willcostume Gertrude in a way that makes her identity very obvious. We cantgive Claudius 7 heads, but we try to make him look beastly.

Q.What about the other characters? Take Osric. He comes at the endof the play in a very odd way. Why does he have such an odd name?

His name means the Rule of God. In the Book of Revelation there is acharacter who will rule the new world with a rod of iron, which comesstraight out of Psalm 27. But in

Hamlet

Osric is not a terrifying figure at