The University of Memphis's theater department premiered Hamlet: Fall of the Sparrow, a modern adaptation of Shakespeare's classic play and the department's first production of the spring semester, Feb. 13.
Director Holly L. Derr said she often takes adaptations of classic works and adds a modern twist to them.
"I take a lot of pleasure in borrowing from writers and trying to put their work in contemporary packages,” Derr said.
This adaptation followed the characters of Hamlet through an online world while they were being controlled by outside forces.
Al'Rasyah Fairley, who plays Hamlet, said this adaptation is meant to appeal to a modern audience.
"The storyline is pretty much the same as every production of Hamlet, except we're doing a twist where the main characters are being played by players in a video game," Fairley said.
Derr said she chose a virtual setting to express the ideas of humanism and Calvinism.
"Humanism is this belief that we can improve our lives through education and change our fates," Derr said. "It was in stark contrast with Calvinism, the kind that arose from protestant Christianity, which said there’s something called predestination and we have no control over our fate."
Derr said Shakespeare's work frequently intersects these two ideologies, so she wanted to imitate that using virtual reality.
"I was looking for a construct that would get at the notion of maybe somebody else is actually in charge of all of this," Derr said. "Maybe there’s some other force making all of the decision.”
Derr alluded to this idea in the title as well. She pulled "fall of the sparrow" from a quote in the original text of Hamlet.
"Hamlet is referring to a Bible verse which says something along the lines of God is aware even of the death of a sparrow," Derr said. "That got at this central idea of a god, according to the protestant reformation happening at the time, who has a plan for us all and knows everything that’s going on.”
Derr's adaptation also utilized modern ideas of gender expression. The titular character was written as non-binary, and women played several traditionally male characters. Derr said she wanted to expound upon the idea of Shakespeare's work being universal.
"I wanted to create a world in which the binary isn’t quite such a big deal, and there are identities represented that exist between the binary," Derr said. "When you change a role written for a man to be played by a woman, it maintains some of its masculine qualities and thereby becomes less binary.”
Fairley said she was excited by the idea of playing a traditionally male character.
"It makes me feel very empowered as a woman to play in a world like this," Fairley said. "Women don't typically get to be as masculine as Hamlet is or act the way that he acts."
Zoe Perrock, a stage management major, said she followed the development of the play up behind the scenes.
"I got to see the process up until this point, and they brought everything together really well," Perrock said. "I was most impressed with the sound design, and I thought the fight choreography was well done."
