Same Text; Different Staging

Here are some examples of different stagings of the play scene. In the first two, the directors, Franco Zeffirelli and Laurence Olivier both share a common basis in interpretation for two different stagings.  In both, it is clear that the conscience of the king is caught in the mousetrap.  Zeffirelli's version also makes it clear that Hamlet appears to both Gertrude and to the courtiers somewhat emotionally overwrought at the least; possibly dangerous.

As it so often happens in comparing the two, the Olivier version seems to have provided the mold for the Zeffirelli version.  On the other hand, the staging seems sparcer and more focused than the later production.

From the force of wearing the mask, the face begins to fit the mask.  In Rodney Bennett's BBC production of Hamlet, Derek Jacobi portrays Hamlet as so obnoxiously agitated in the Mousetrap scene that Claudius (Patrick Stewart) appears to depart out of contempt for Hamlet's disruption of the play. To the audience's viewpoint, as to the courtiers in the scene, it is Hamlet whose foibles appears revealed by the action, not Claudius'.  In this case, Claudius seems not to have revealed any guilt, and Hamlet appears to be deluded by his own intentions if he concludes otherwise.  

In effect, what we have illustrated here are two opposing sets of responses to the questions posed on the previous page.  Nonetheless, both interpretations are staged in such a way that they are both dramatically viable in their consistency with the rest of the play, and both make strong and engaging theatrical choices.