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{{Short description|Virtual theatre group}}
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'''The Hamnet Players''' is a [[Cyberformance|virtual theater]] group, founded in 1993 by Stuart Harris, an English writer living in [[San Diego, California]]. There have been six Hamnet Players productions, beginning in 1993 with a virtual theatre performance using [[IRC|Internet Relay Chat]] (IRC), based on [[William Shakespeare]]'s ''[[Hamlet]]''.<ref name=":1" /> The show "Hamnet" is cited as the first-ever experiment with virtual theater.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Hamnet Players |url=http://wn.com/The_Hamnet_Players |accessdate=29 October 2011 |work=World News}}</ref>
'''The Hamnet Players''', founded in 1993, carried out the first experimental virtual theatre cyberperformance. It was a parody of Shakespeare's [[Hamlet]] using [[IRC]] chat on 12 December 1993.


==Overview==
==History==
===''Hamnet''===
The Hamnet Players were founded in 1993 by [[Stuart Harris (author)|Stuart Harris]], an English actor, computer consultant, and expert on [[IRC]] living in [[San Diego, California]].<ref>Stuart Harris:, [http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=527027 Manual on Internet Relay Chat].</ref><ref>[https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/624419378 WorldCat]</ref>


On December 12, 1993, the Players debuted the concept of internet theater with their production of "Hamnet," an 80-line parody of William Shakespeare's ''Hamlet'' performed via [[Internet Relay Chat]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Wunderer |first=Monika |url=http://www.hayseed.net/MOO/roleaud.htm |title=Theatre in Cyberspace: Issues of Teaching, Acting and Directing |chapter=Presence in Front of the Fourth Wall of Cyberspace|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081007000933/http://www.hayseed.net/MOO/roleaud.htm |archive-date=7 October 2008 }}</ref> The group takes its name from this production.<ref name="danet">{{cite journal |last1=Danet |first1=Brenda |last2=Bechar-Israeli |first2=Tsameret |last3=Cividalli |first3=Amos |last4=Rosenbaum-Tamari |first4=Yehudit |year=2006 |title=Curtain Time 20:00 GMT: Experiments with Virtual Theater on Internet Relay Chat |journal=Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication |volume=1 |issue=2 |pages=0 |doi=10.1111/j.1083-6101.1995.tb00326.x}}</ref>
On 12 December 1993, a dozen people gathered at an event which made cyber-history: an experimental performance on IRC–[[Internet Relay Chat]] of a parody of [[Shakespeare's]] [[Hamlet]], irreverently renamed "Hamnet." The event was the first ever experiment with virtual theatre.<ref>{{cite web|title=The Hamnet Players|url=http://wn.com/The_Hamnet_Players|work=World News|accessdate=29 October 2011}}</ref>


Harris created a designated chat channel on IRC named #hamnet, where actors and spectators could meet, with casting carried out on the day of the performance. The show had a cast of 19 and a crew of 4. The script includes reactions performed by a character called 'Audience.'<ref name=":0" /> Since the show took place on an IRC channel, users were anonymous and could interact in any way they wished. The creative team did not take action to counter this.<ref name=":0" /> The play was performed a second time three months later on 6 February 1994, featuring the [[Royal Shakespeare Company]]'s Ian Taylor as the principal character.<ref name="anglin"/> During that production, a bot killed Hamlet in the middle of the show.<ref name="anglin"/> The cast of Players changes from one performance to another.
The performance took place in a specially designated channel on IRC called #hamnet. After the name of the group engaged in this experiment in virtual theatre, The Hamnet Players had its first production.<ref name="onlinelibrary.wiley.com">{{cite journal|doi=10.1111/j.1083-6101.1995.tb00326.x |title=Curtain Time 20:00 GMT: Experiments with Virtual Theater on Internet Relay Chat |journal=Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication |volume=1 |issue=2 |pages=0 |year=2006 |last1=Danet |first1=Brenda |last2=Bechar-Israeli |first2=Tsameret |last3=Cividalli |first3=Amos |last4=Rosenbaum-Tamari |first4=Yehudit }}</ref>


===Further productions===
==General history==


On 23 April 1994, The Hamnet Players premiered their second production called "PCbeth: an IBM clone of Macbeth", a 160-line parody of the Shakespeare play ''[[Macbeth]]'', with 21 cast and crew members based across the world. It was re-staged on 10 July 1994, as a festival production.<ref name="hambule.co.uk">{{cite web |date=1994-04-23 |title=About the Hamnet Players |url=http://www.marmot.org.uk/hamnet/about.htm |accessdate=2011-10-27 |publisher=Hambule.co.uk}}</ref>
The Hamnet Players are a form of virtual theatre. The theater was founded in 1993 by [[Stuart Harris (author)|Stuart Harris]], an Englishman living in San Diego, California. In December 1993, they debuted the concept of internet theatre with their debut production of "Hamnet", a parody of William Shakespeare's play "Hamlet", followed later in April 1994 with their second production of "PCbeth: an IBM clone of Macbeth," another parody of a Shakespeare play, this time using "[[Macbeth]]". In February 1995, they used the plot of the [[Tennessee Williams]]'s play "A Streetcar Named Desire", to create their third original piece "An IRC Channel Named #desire". Participants could not see one another, were not co-present and cooperated to sustain a single focus of attention, taking turns at talking.


In February 1995, the plot of [[Tennessee Williams]]' play ''[[A Streetcar Named Desire]]'' was used to create their third original piece, "An IRC Channel Named #desire." As with other theatrical productions, the shows happened in real-time.<ref name="hambule.co.uk" /> It was performed twice, once on 30 October 1994, and again on 12 February 1995. The performances consisted of 28 cast and crew members.
The name "Hamnet Players" is derived from the term "ham": "an ineffective or overemphatic actor, one who rants or overacts".<ref>{{cite web|title=Ham|url=http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/ham|work=Dictionary.com|accessdate=29 October 2011}}</ref> with a pun on "Hamlet" also inviting association to "hamming it up on the Net."


==Performance and language==
==Stuart Harris==
Every performance by The Hamnet Players uses Internet Relay Chat (IRC) software and worldwide links. Each line of the full script is numbered in sequence. After casting, actors are given their lines and cues by email, and no rehearsal is allowed. This ensures that it is only the production team that knows how the performance will unfold when presented in IRC.<ref name="hambule.co.uk"/>
Stuart Harris gained three years of experience as a semi-professional actor on the festival circuit and an additional two years as a professional in both London and provincial repertory theatre. He gained further experience as a director in television. Harris' background and combination of talents led him to recognize the dramatic and theatrical potential of IRC. In December 1993, Harris made use of IRC by creating a chat channel named Hamnet, where actors and spectators could meet online.<ref name="onlinelibrary.wiley.com"/>


The scripts were adaptations that significantly changed the dialogue from the source texts. The Hamnet Players replaced the archaic and literary language of William Shakespeare with colloquial Anglo-American English and internet slang. The shows were short, simplified versions of the original shows. "Hamnet" is only 80 lines long and there are only ten named characters, as opposed to the eighteen named in Shakespeare's original play.
There has been considerable turnover from one performance to another. Although there have been a few "faithful’s", by and large, "fresh faces" turned up at succeeding performances. This added to the success of IRC as it maintained theatrical creativity and improvisation. In a retrospective comment,, Harris wrote:


Both the "Hamlet" and "Macbeth" parodies spoofed IRC, email, and other Internet conventions and practices. An example in "Hamnet" was the line:
{{blockquote|I intend to resist this temptation [of having a stable company]… We need the pain of recruiting new people–to keep up the all- important international mix, and to keep things growing. That's not to say I'll ever insist on a totally fresh cast, just continue to keep a balance.<ref name="onlinelibrary.wiley.com"/>}}


{{sxhl|lang=irc|<Hamlet> Oph: suggest}}
Harris has many names for the activities of his group. On various occasions he has used "Internet Theatre," "participatory performance art forum," "an emerging art form," "a "romp," an "extravaganza," "an obscene pastiche," "virtual theater," and even "virtual reality drama".


Instead of "get thee to a nunnery," Hamlet tells Ophelia to join an [[IRC channel]] named #nunnery. The script cites the IRC command/join. Ordinarily, the slash is necessary to activate the command online; here, of course its only function is to make a joke.
Like classic farces, Hamnet scripts do away with psychological depth of characterization, reducing plots to such an extent that a mere shell of the main characters survives.


The "PCbeth" script was mainly rewritten in IRC-ese and contemporary colloquial English. Only rarely did Gayle Kidder, the writer, use both original and modern language together, as in:
==Past productions==
* Hamnet, 1st production (12 December 1993)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.marmot.org.uk/hamnet/hscript.htm|title=Script for Hamnet|author=|date=|website=www.marmot.org.uk|accessdate=16 August 2018}}</ref>
* Hamnet, 2nd production (6 February 1994)
* PCBeth (an IBM clone of Macbeth), 1st production (23 April 1994)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.marmot.org.uk/hamnet/pscript.htm|title=PCbeth:An IBM clone of Macbeth|author=|date=|website=www.marmot.org.uk|accessdate=16 August 2018}}</ref>
* PCBeth (an IBM clone of Macbeth), 2nd production (10 July 1994)
* An IRC channel named #desire, 1st production (30 October 1994)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.marmot.org.uk/hamnet/dscript.htm|title=Script, An irc Channel Named #desire|author=|date=|website=www.marmot.org.uk|accessdate=16 August 2018}}</ref>
* An IRC channel named #desire, 2nd production (12 February 1995)

'''Hamnet'''

The world premiere of Hamnet opened to audiences on 12 December 1993 at 20:25 universal time, on channel #hamnet.

The play consisted of 80 lines, it had a cast of 19 and crew of 4. The lead role of Hamlet was played by "El_lngles" from [[San Diego]], not only was he the lead he also wrote it directed and produced it, also the leading lady Ophelia was played by "Karen" from [[Fairbanks, Alaska]]. Due to popularity, it was shown a second time 3 months later on 6 February 1994.

'''PCBeth (an IBM clone of Macbeth)'''

The second Hamnet Players production, "PCBeth," premiered on 23 April 1994. The production was a 160-line pastiche which pioneered the use of virtual images in the form of JPEG files. The images were offered by the producers for those who had the ability to receive and display them. PCBeth was re-staged on 10 July 1994, as a 'festival' production.

The first production of PCBeth had 21 members of cast and crew who were based all across the world ranging from [[London]], UK, to [[Tel Aviv]], and [[South Africa]]. The starring roles of "PCBeth" and "LadyM" were played by "Gazza" based in [[Bath, Somerset]], and "Fem" who was based in Fairbanks. While the plot was preserved, the script was modernized. The second production had 15 members of cast and crew, with the lead role of "PCBeth" played by "Cubby" based in Vancouver, and LadyM was played by "AlmaW" based in [[Lexington, Virginia]].<ref name="hambule.co.uk">{{cite web |date=1994-04-23 |title=About the Hamnet Players |url=http://www.marmot.org.uk/hamnet/about.htm |accessdate=2011-10-27 |publisher=Hambule.co.uk}}</ref>

'''An IRC channel named #desire'''

"An IRC channel named #desire" was the 3rd performance produced by The Hamnet Players. It was performed twice, once in October,1994 and again in February, 1995. The performances consisted of 28 members of cast and crew. The three starring roles were played by Heather Wagner who played Blanche, Gayle Kidder, who played Stella, and Gary 'Gazza' Hunt, who played 'Big Slob Stanley'.

For this performance, The Hamnet Players moved away from Shakespeare for the first time, and this time used the Tennessee Williams play 'A Streetcar Named Desire', as the plot basis for their performance.<ref name="hambule.co.uk"/>

==Creative process==
Harris used two different strategies to cast the various roles. For the performances of "Hamnet," Harris tried to do all casting more or less at the last minute, inviting all, ahead of time, to convene in the #hamnet channel several hours before performance time. During preparations online, he loaded what he called his"/pora" file, which asked the users to select whether they would like to be audience (a), or performers (p).

This system proved too slow, and with the performances of "PCbeth," Harris switched to pre-casting at least the major roles a few days ahead. To maintain as much spontaneity as possible, he generally sent people only their own lines by email, not the entire script.

Harris explicitly composed the reaction of the audience. He chose traditional places for this feedback: the character named "audience" has a line at the beginning and at the end of the play. With this inclusion, he made certain that all dimensions were included in his performance. Harris gained publicized the performances by announcements on USENET newsgroups, appearances on American National Public Radio, and local television interviews and newspaper coverage.

Harris did not try to prevent negative behaviour found on IRC channels. He allowed this way had to be included in his idea of Theatre performance in this environment. He even wrote lines in his script similar to the language that is used in an IRC chat. But he was also concerned about telling a part of the audience how to behave and react in certain moments. This idea saved a clever guideline to guarantee audience interaction, including at least some of the response that is necessary for a Theatre performance. However, he did receive a genuine, positive response to his work from an audience who had no premade script in front of them.<ref>[http://www.hayseed.net/MOO/roleaud.htm] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081007000933/http://www.hayseed.net/MOO/roleaud.htm|date=October 7, 2008}}</ref>

==Language of the performances==

The Hamnet Players activities were performances in two distinct but complementary senses. First, they were scheduled, programmed events, whose centrepiece was the theatre-like performances of a script. There were roles, cues, "sets", and a plot to be realized from beginning to end. The pieces also had a producer, director and stage manager to keep things in hand, which are all components we associate with conventional theatre. The style of the performance means that there is not so much "acting" happening on the screen, but more pieces the different parts of the script coming together.

The most obvious contrast between "Hament" scripts and that of Shakespeares' was the archaic literary language of the Renaissance English from Shakespeare's original plays, and the colloquial, often slang, register of contemporary Anglo-American English. The "Hamnet" scripts contained, not only parts for leading characters, but also for "Enter", "Exit", "Prologue", "Scene", and even inanimate objects like "Drums" and "Colours". Among these "textual" roles, that of "Prologue," at least, was not entirely Harris’s invention. The script includes these "roles" because the players actually perform, not only the play but the text as well. When all actors perform their lines, they recreate the text online. One of the characters in the play-within-a-play in the original "Hamlet" is also called "Prologue." Due to the nature of the online IRC performance, the number of named characters in "Hamnet" is greatly smaller to the original number in the Shakespeare play. There were only 7 named characters "Hamnet" whereas there were 8 more in the original. Some characters are limited to one or two lines, for example "Polonius" is reduced to a single death cry.

The "PCbeth" script was mainly rewritten in IRC-ese and contemporary colloquial English. Only rarely did Gayle Kidder, the writer, contrast the original with contemporary language, as in:


{{sxhl|lang=irc|Is this a dagger I see before me? Crikes this castle’s spooky at night! [34]}}
{{sxhl|lang=irc|Is this a dagger I see before me? Crikes this castle’s spooky at night! [34]}}


In Scene 1 of "PCbeth," PCbeth and Banquo enter, "armored for KICK/BAN/DE-OP wars." Their wars are fought with three IRC commands: /kick removes a person temporarily from a channel; /ban prevents him or her from returning; and /de-op, a variant of the notion chanop or "channel operator," which is a person given certain privileges in managing a channel. To drop someone is to deprive them of these privileges.
Both the "Hamlet" and "Macbeth" parodies relayed by The Hamnet Players, spoofed, IRC, email, and other Internet conventions and practices. A striking example in "Hamnet" was the line:


The players often cited snippets from plays other than the one being performed. In the first performance of "Hamnet," the user Gazza announced that he would have to sign off, drive home from university, and then log on again. His execution of the sign-off command in IRC appeared on the screen as follows:
{{sxhl|lang=irc|<Hamlet> Oph: suggest}}

Instead of "get thee to a nunnery", Hamlet is made to tell Ophelia to join an IRC channel named #nunnery. The script cites the IRC command/join. Ordinarily, the slash is necessary to activate the command online; here, of course its only function is to make a joke.

In Scene 1 of "PCbeth", PCbeth and Banquo enter, "armoured for KICK/BAN/DE-OP wars." Their wars are fought with three IRC commands; /kick removes a person temporarily from a channel, /ban prevents him or her from returning and de-op is a variant of the notion chanop or "channel operator", which is a person given certain privileges in managing a channel. To de-op someone is to deprive them of these privileges.

The players often cited snippets from plays other than the one being performed. Therefore, in the first performance of "Hamnet" (gazza), popped in during the preparations, and announced that he would have to sign off, drive home from university, and then log on again. His execution of the sign off command in IRC appeared on the screen as follows:


{{sxhl|lang=irc|
{{sxhl|lang=irc|
Line 91: Line 47:
}}
}}


Citing the most famous line in Richard III was a humorous way to comment on his need to go home. Another variation is to pretend to be a character from another Shakespearean play. For instance, during December preparations for "Hamnet" someone suddenly changed their nick from <Spectator> to <MacBeth>. The move did not go unnoticed:
This is a reference to a well-known line in Richard III. Sometimes people would pretend to be characters from other Shakespeare plays. For instance, during preparations for "Hamnet," someone suddenly changed their nickname from <Spectator> to <MacBeth>. The move did not go unnoticed:


{{sxhl|lang=irc| <Recorder> Wrong play Spectator. ;-)}}<ref name="ReferenceA"/>
{{sxhl|lang=irc| <Recorder> Wrong play Spectator. ;-)}}<ref name="ReferenceA">Danet, B., 2001: ''Cyberpl@y: communicating online'' (Oxford: Berg.)</ref>


== Reception ==
==Style of performance==


In her paper "''Curtain Time 20:00 GMT; Experiments with Virtual Theater on Internet Relay Chat''", Brenda Danet says of "Hamnet" that the "...gross reduction of the length of the text and caricaturization of plot and action, along with transformation of hallowed Renaissance poetry into late 20th century colloquial prose and even lowly slang ... transform the play into a kind of typed Punch and Judy show".<ref name="danet"/>
Every performance which The Hamnet Players produce uses Internet Relay Chat (IRC) software and worldwide links. Each line of the full script is numbered in sequence. After casting, actors are given their own lines and cues by email, and no rehearsal is allowed. This ensures that it is only the production team that knows how the performance will unfold when presented in IRC. In previous productions inventive performers, delivering their lines via keyboard, have found ways of not only suggesting theatrical emotion, but adapting also their lines.<ref name="hambule.co.uk"/>


Reviewing "Hamnet" in her thesis on internet performance, Mary Anglin wrote that: "The usual script-based format of IRC, and its use of dialogue as the primary communication method, present the facility as an ideal platform for performing text-based drama experimentally. The online potential for spontaneity and improvisation was both realised and cursed, however, when a bot unintentionally killed Hamlet halfway through the production."<ref name="anglin">Mary L Anglin, Her Thesis on Internet Performance http://marylanglin.com/Wholethesis.pdf</ref>
The Hamnet Players were of the first groups to challenge the conventional dichotomy between "live" and "mediated" performances. The Hamnet Players performances shared most of the characteristics that an acclaimed practitioner, [[Richard Schechner]] ascribes to "live unmediated performance", as is attested by this public relations statement prepared by Stuart Harris:


==List of productions==
{{blockquote|True to the concept of theatre, the production is presented in real time with live performers and audience, with all the opportunities for spontaneous genius and imminent disaster that entails. The debut performance of "Hamnet" was interrupted by a thunderstorm which cut the producers’ online access; the play had to be restarted after the producers logged back on via [[Taiwan]]. The second performance was enlivened by a "bot" which accidentally killed Hamlet halfway through the production.<ref name="hambule.co.uk"/>}}
* Hamnet, 1st production (12 December 1993)<ref name=":1">{{cite web|url=http://www.marmot.org.uk/hamnet/hscript.htm|title=Script for Hamnet|author=|date=|website=www.marmot.org.uk|accessdate=16 August 2018}}</ref>

* Hamnet, 2nd production (6 February 1994)
The Hamnet Players performances were characterized by contingency and suspense. The challenge to maintain the focus online may be greater than in a conventional theatre space, but perhaps not more so than in outdoor theatre. Two main factors foster, this sense of contingency, the vulnerability of the technology to breakdown, evident in Harris’s comments, and the distractions of other conversations, of people "coming and going."<ref name="ReferenceA">Danet, B., 2001: ''Cyberpl@y: communicating online'' (Oxford: Berg.)</ref>
* PCBeth (an IBM clone of Macbeth), 1st production (23 April 1994)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.marmot.org.uk/hamnet/pscript.htm|title=PCbeth:An IBM clone of Macbeth|author=|date=|website=www.marmot.org.uk|accessdate=16 August 2018}}</ref>
* PCBeth (an IBM clone of Macbeth), 2nd production (10 July 1994)
* An IRC channel named #desire, 1st production (30 October 1994)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.marmot.org.uk/hamnet/dscript.htm|title=Script, An irc Channel Named #desire|author=|date=|website=www.marmot.org.uk|accessdate=16 August 2018}}</ref>
* An IRC channel named #desire, 2nd production (12 February 1995)


==See also==
==See also==
* [[Internet Relay Chat]]
* [[Cyberformance]]
* [[Cyberformance]]
* [[Plaintext Players]]
* [[Stuart Harris (author)|Stuart Harris]]
* [[William Shakespeare]]
* [[Antoinette LaFarge]]
* [[Desktop Theater]]


==References==
==References==
{{Reflist}}
{{Reflist}}

{{Reflist|group=hamnet players}}

{{Reflist|group=Dictionary}}

{{Reflist|group=The Hamnet Players}}


==External links==
==External links==
* [http://www.marmot.org.uk/hamnet/ The Hamnet Players website]
* [http://www.marmot.org.uk/hamnet/ The Hamnet Players website]
* [http://www.marmot.org.uk/hamnet/h1log.htm The hamnet script]
* [http://www.marmot.org.uk/hamnet/h1log.htm The Hamnet script]
* [http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1083-6101.1995.tb00326.x/full Wiley online library, Curtain Time 20:00 GMT: Experiments with Virtual Theater on Internet Relay Chat]
* [http://www.interactiveimprov.com/onlinedr.html The Internet as a Dramatic Medium]
* [http://www.interactiveimprov.com/onlinedr.html The Internet as a Dramatic Medium]
* [https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:BbZ5FYeJkJ0J:www.marylanglin.com/Wholethesis.pdf+hamnet+players+and+stuart+harris&hl=en&gl=uk&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEEShQvissZaFHGutqV6mdeb5n0LXtMpQWRdyVNNTv3Mhu_01yUcg3KlG17MwXN93xr71QyQ1y6mhi9Ewbre5ChlfOQdZ-NVYtOpy43Gt3s-wNt1oJ4EomDB63E4_GGzMOf9t76oYu&sig=AHIEtbTXLS3YfbL6uPtN0U4NcliDYW9q4Q Google document]
* [http://www.hayseed.net/MOO/roleaud.htm Presence in Front of the Fourth Wall of Cyberspace]
* [https://www.wired.com/wired/archive/2.10/eword.html?pg=12 Hamming it up on the Net] by Brenda Danet
* [https://www.wired.com/wired/archive/2.10/eword.html?pg=12 Hamming it up on the Net] by Brenda Danet
* [http://www.marmot.org.uk/hamnet/about.htm About Internet theatre & the Hamnet Players]


{{DEFAULTSORT:Hamnet Players}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hamnet Players}}
[[Category:Organizations established in 1993]]
[[Category:Organizations established in 1993]]
[[Category:Theatre companies]]
[[Category:Theatre companies]]
[[Category:Internet Relay Chat]]
[[Category:IRC]]
{{Authority control}}

Latest revision as of 15:34, 24 June 2024

The Hamnet Players is a virtual theater group, founded in 1993 by Stuart Harris, an English writer living in San Diego, California. There have been six Hamnet Players productions, beginning in 1993 with a virtual theatre performance using Internet Relay Chat (IRC), based on William Shakespeare's Hamlet.[1] The show "Hamnet" is cited as the first-ever experiment with virtual theater.[2]

History

[edit]

Hamnet

[edit]

The Hamnet Players were founded in 1993 by Stuart Harris, an English actor, computer consultant, and expert on IRC living in San Diego, California.[3][4]

On December 12, 1993, the Players debuted the concept of internet theater with their production of "Hamnet," an 80-line parody of William Shakespeare's Hamlet performed via Internet Relay Chat.[5] The group takes its name from this production.[6]

Harris created a designated chat channel on IRC named #hamnet, where actors and spectators could meet, with casting carried out on the day of the performance. The show had a cast of 19 and a crew of 4. The script includes reactions performed by a character called 'Audience.'[5] Since the show took place on an IRC channel, users were anonymous and could interact in any way they wished. The creative team did not take action to counter this.[5] The play was performed a second time three months later on 6 February 1994, featuring the Royal Shakespeare Company's Ian Taylor as the principal character.[7] During that production, a bot killed Hamlet in the middle of the show.[7] The cast of Players changes from one performance to another.

Further productions

[edit]

On 23 April 1994, The Hamnet Players premiered their second production called "PCbeth: an IBM clone of Macbeth", a 160-line parody of the Shakespeare play Macbeth, with 21 cast and crew members based across the world. It was re-staged on 10 July 1994, as a festival production.[8]

In February 1995, the plot of Tennessee Williams' play A Streetcar Named Desire was used to create their third original piece, "An IRC Channel Named #desire." As with other theatrical productions, the shows happened in real-time.[8] It was performed twice, once on 30 October 1994, and again on 12 February 1995. The performances consisted of 28 cast and crew members.

Performance and language

[edit]

Every performance by The Hamnet Players uses Internet Relay Chat (IRC) software and worldwide links. Each line of the full script is numbered in sequence. After casting, actors are given their lines and cues by email, and no rehearsal is allowed. This ensures that it is only the production team that knows how the performance will unfold when presented in IRC.[8]

The scripts were adaptations that significantly changed the dialogue from the source texts. The Hamnet Players replaced the archaic and literary language of William Shakespeare with colloquial Anglo-American English and internet slang. The shows were short, simplified versions of the original shows. "Hamnet" is only 80 lines long and there are only ten named characters, as opposed to the eighteen named in Shakespeare's original play.

Both the "Hamlet" and "Macbeth" parodies spoofed IRC, email, and other Internet conventions and practices. An example in "Hamnet" was the line: 

<Hamlet> Oph: suggest

Instead of "get thee to a nunnery," Hamlet tells Ophelia to join an IRC channel named #nunnery. The script cites the IRC command/join. Ordinarily, the slash is necessary to activate the command online; here, of course its only function is to make a joke.

The "PCbeth" script was mainly rewritten in IRC-ese and contemporary colloquial English. Only rarely did Gayle Kidder, the writer, use both original and modern language together, as in: 

Is this a dagger I see before me? Crikes this castle’s spooky at night! [34]

In Scene 1 of "PCbeth," PCbeth and Banquo enter, "armored for KICK/BAN/DE-OP wars." Their wars are fought with three IRC commands: /kick removes a person temporarily from a channel; /ban prevents him or her from returning; and /de-op, a variant of the notion chanop or "channel operator," which is a person given certain privileges in managing a channel. To drop someone is to deprive them of these privileges.

The players often cited snippets from plays other than the one being performed. In the first performance of "Hamnet," the user Gazza announced that he would have to sign off, drive home from university, and then log on again. His execution of the sign-off command in IRC appeared on the screen as follows: 

*** Signoff: Gazza (A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse….)

This is a reference to a well-known line in Richard III. Sometimes people would pretend to be characters from other Shakespeare plays. For instance, during preparations for "Hamnet," someone suddenly changed their nickname from <Spectator> to <MacBeth>. The move did not go unnoticed: 

 <Recorder> Wrong play Spectator. ;-)

[9]

Reception

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In her paper "Curtain Time 20:00 GMT; Experiments with Virtual Theater on Internet Relay Chat", Brenda Danet says of "Hamnet" that the "...gross reduction of the length of the text and caricaturization of plot and action, along with transformation of hallowed Renaissance poetry into late 20th century colloquial prose and even lowly slang ... transform the play into a kind of typed Punch and Judy show".[6]

Reviewing "Hamnet" in her thesis on internet performance, Mary Anglin wrote that: "The usual script-based format of IRC, and its use of dialogue as the primary communication method, present the facility as an ideal platform for performing text-based drama experimentally. The online potential for spontaneity and improvisation was both realised and cursed, however, when a bot unintentionally killed Hamlet halfway through the production."[7]

List of productions

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  • Hamnet, 1st production (12 December 1993)[1]
  • Hamnet, 2nd production (6 February 1994)
  • PCBeth (an IBM clone of Macbeth), 1st production (23 April 1994)[10]
  • PCBeth (an IBM clone of Macbeth), 2nd production (10 July 1994)
  • An IRC channel named #desire, 1st production (30 October 1994)[11]
  • An IRC channel named #desire, 2nd production (12 February 1995)

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b "Script for Hamnet". www.marmot.org.uk. Retrieved 16 August 2018.
  2. ^ "The Hamnet Players". World News. Retrieved 29 October 2011.
  3. ^ Stuart Harris:, Manual on Internet Relay Chat.
  4. ^ WorldCat
  5. ^ a b c Wunderer, Monika. "Presence in Front of the Fourth Wall of Cyberspace". Theatre in Cyberspace: Issues of Teaching, Acting and Directing. Archived from the original on 7 October 2008.
  6. ^ a b Danet, Brenda; Bechar-Israeli, Tsameret; Cividalli, Amos; Rosenbaum-Tamari, Yehudit (2006). "Curtain Time 20:00 GMT: Experiments with Virtual Theater on Internet Relay Chat". Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication. 1 (2): 0. doi:10.1111/j.1083-6101.1995.tb00326.x.
  7. ^ a b c Mary L Anglin, Her Thesis on Internet Performance http://marylanglin.com/Wholethesis.pdf
  8. ^ a b c "About the Hamnet Players". Hambule.co.uk. 23 April 1994. Retrieved 27 October 2011.
  9. ^ Danet, B., 2001: Cyberpl@y: communicating online (Oxford: Berg.)
  10. ^ "PCbeth:An IBM clone of Macbeth". www.marmot.org.uk. Retrieved 16 August 2018.
  11. ^ "Script, An irc Channel Named #desire". www.marmot.org.uk. Retrieved 16 August 2018.
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