The actors stood all around him. Sean gestured for silence, and silent they were. David Miller was stood, hefting the weight of a prop sword in his hands.

“Looks almost real, this one!” he said, delightedly.

“Well,” said Sean “We’re not doing that scene yet. Although I am getting this weird sense of deja-vu. Anyway, let’s carry on, eh?”
David grinned slyly towards Sean.
“David, put the sword down.”
“Ah, OK.”

-------

Hamlet: Act II, scene (ii), verses 197-221

Polonius – David Miller
Hamlet – Sean Oliveson
Guildenstern – Danny Oliveson
Rosencrantz – Mick Poultice

HAMLET: Slanders, sir. For the satirical rogue says here
that old men have grey beards, that their faces are
wrinkled, their eyes purging thick anmer and plum-tree
gum, and that they have a plentiful lack of wit, together
with most weak hams; all which, sir, though I most
powerfully and potently believe, yet I hold it not
honestly to have it thus set down. For yourself, sir, shall
grow old as I am – if, like a crab, you could go backward.
POLONIUS: (Aside) Though this be madness, yet there is
method in’t.– Will you walk out of the air, my lord?
HAMLET: Into my grave?
POLONIUS: Indeed, that’s out of the air. (Aside) How
pregnant sometimes his replies are! A happiness that
often madness hits on, which reason and sanity could
not so prosperously be delivered of. I will leave him
and suddenly contrive the means of meeting between
him and my daughter. – My honourable lord, I will
most humble take my leave of you.
HAMLET: You cannot, sir, take from me anything that I
will not more willingly part withal – except my life,
except my life, except my life.
POLONIUS: Fare you well, my lord.
HAMLET: These tedious old fools!

Enter Guildenstern and Rosencrantz

POLONIUS: You go to seek the Lord Hamlet. There he is.
ROSENCRANTZ: (to Polonius) God save you, sir!

Exit Polonius

GUILDENSTERN: My honoured lord!
ROSENCRANTZ: My most dear lord!…. hang on a minute….
HAMLET: Hang on a minute!

-------

Danny looked at Sean quizically, and with no small degree of wonder. He knew what Sean had been through.

“Danny, who are all these people?”
“What?” Danny said, innocently.

Sean stared on as a host of teenagers entered the building whilst Mick opened the door, before looking back at Danny.

“Ah, you mean these people? We asked them to come along after they’d had their dinner.” “But… what am I supposed to do with them?”
“They’re extras aren’t they.” explained Mick, joining in.
“But, that means they’ll all know…”
“Everyone knows Sean,” said Mick “it was in the paper.”
“Surely not everyone believes that drunken bum?”
“Ah, no, guv. He works for the press. Didn’t you know? They all do.”
“Right.” said Sean, with some concern.

Sean appraised the situation. Things couldn’t get much worse, not really. What harm could half a dozen sniggering teenage lads do?

“But… who’s that?” Sean asked again.

Claire’s sister Sophie had accompanied the group, chatting chirpily with one of the prettiest girls Sean had ever seen in his life. Her hair glistened softly in the half-light of the basement. Her mouth turned upwards in a perfect arch smile. She could read his mind, Sean was sure. Sophie noticed his gaze, and helped him out.

“this is my friend Katie, she wanted to come along.”
“Right… ouch!”
“I saw you” Claire growled in his ear.

Betty peered at the new arrivals over her knitting. She was always knitting.

“Mum, what are you knitting?” asked Sean, swiftly changing the subject.
“I’m knitting you a nice new cardie, dear” Betty replied.
“Mum, what do I need a cardigan for? We’re on a fully air-conditioned spacecraft in the middle of an endless empty void. We’ll never set foot on a planet or face a change in season or atmosphere again in our lives. Unless something goes wrong. Then we’re all dead anyway.” he ranted.

The room was silenced.

“Well, you never know when it’ll get chilly, dear.” Betty replied, edgily. “ungrateful little turd” she added, under her breath.

Sean stood silent for a few seconds. It was probably time to crack on.

-------

Hamlet: Act II, scene (ii), verses 520-535

Polonius – David Miller
Hamlet – Sean Oliveson
Guildenstern – Danny Oliveson Rosencrantz – Mick Poultice

HAMLET: Good my lord, will you see the players well
bestowed? Do you hear? Let them be well used, for
they are abstract and brief chronicles of the time.
After your death you were better have a bad epitaph
than their ill report while you live.
POLONIUS: My lord, I will use them according to their
desert.
HAMLET: od’s bodkin, man, much better! Use every
man after his desert, and who shall ‘scape whipping?
Use them after your own honour and dignity. The less
they deserve, the more merit is in your bounty. Take
them in.

POLONIUS: Come, sirs.
HAMLET: Follow him, friends. We’ll hear a play to
morrow. (Aside to First Player) Dost thou hear me, old
friend? Can you play The Murderer of Gonzalo?

-------

“Oh, no, not another play…” Stanley complained.
“It’ll be a play within a play.” Mick stepped in
“A meta-play, tee hee” Everyone stared at Sophie’s friend. Particularly Sean.

Mick took Sean to one side.

“Sean, you’ll have to cast some of these lads here. We don’t have any players yet.” Sean surveyed his cast of extras ‘Oh god’ he thought.
“Can’t you and Danny do it?”
“We’re Rozencrantz and Guildenstern..”
“Right?” said Sean, not seeing the point.
“Well, we’re on the stage at the same time as…”
“Look, just wear a beard and no-one will notice, or something.”
Mick slowly shook his head.

“Right.” He addressed the mob of teenage boys. “We may as well make use of you lot. You can be the players.”
“What do we do then?” One particularly spotty teen asked.
“Well, you just stand there looking actory. You know full of energy, and life, and…”

The lads all stood gawping at him with their hands in their pockets.

“They could be Fortinbras’ army too” Mick suggested
“Army, yeah, swords” the little group mumbled.
“Thanks Mick” said Sean, with an unfair degree of sarcasm.
“Shall we?” Mick asked, grinning.
“OK, well… this chap here… erm….”
“He’s called Mike”
“Mike?” Sean was getting confused.
“My name’s Mike” the spotty lad said.
“Right, well Mike can wear a beard and play the First Player in this scene, and all he has to do is say ‘Ay, my lord’. And the rest of them can stand around looking… well… actory. Then you and Danny can wear beards and perform the play in the next scene, and no-one will know you’re Rozencrantz and Guildenstern as well”
“Right” said Mick, dubiously
“Right” said Mike, unconvincingly
“Right!” said Sean, finally.
“Can I point something else out?” Mick asked

Sean looked up, resignation writ across his increasingly furrowed brow, in big letters.

“There are 3 players with speaking parts, and one’s a female.”
“Right”
“so we need another player....”
“I’ll do it!” Katie volunteered. Lovely Katie.
‘Oh god’ Sean thought, yet again. Very quietly, to himself.
“Did you know, guv, that in Elizabethan times even the female characters were played by men or boys? The reason….”
“Fascinating, Mick.. where were we?”

Mick stared at Sean in a surly way. But with a hint of a smile. In case it wasn’t already apparent, he’s a smart lad is Mick.
“Was it the soliloquy, Sean?”
“No I think we got to the bit where Hamlet talks to himself”
“right.”
“Can I?”
“Go right ahead!” Mick was almost goading Sean, now, and enjoying himself into the bargain. ‘One day..’ Mick thought to himself ‘One day I will play the Dane.’

-------

Hamlet: Act II, scene (ii), verses 547-554

Hamlet – Sean Oliveson

HAMLET: O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I!
Is it not monstrous that this player here,
But in a fiction, in a dream of passion,
Could force his soul so to his own conceit
That from her working all his visage wanned,
Tears in his eyes, distraction in his aspect,
A broken voice, and his whole function suiting
With forms to his conceit? And all for nothing.

-------

Impassioned, Sean read on, feeling every word as if he’d written it himself. The resonance of the scene was strong with him; his own tangled web was not far from his mind.

-------

verses 592-596

HAMLET: I’ll have these players
Play something like the murder of my father
Before mine uncle. I’ll observe his looks.
I’ll tent him to the quick. If ‘a do blench,
I know my course.

-------

Once Sean had finished, Claire had to subtly spend a few minutes walking around the room, prodding all of the players who had fallen asleep. Sean was looking down at the floor, feeling empowered.

“How was it?” he asked. He had been practising all day.

Most of the cast looked blearily back at him, rubbing their eyes. Mike gave him an extravagant, beaming thumbs-up.