The other day I saw a discussion about how you think a modern Hamlet’s ghost should be staged. My first thought was, “I was the ghost popping up randomly, in the audience, in a way that makes them think it’s impossible for that to be happening.”
My first thought was, “Hologram?” But I put that off as too expensive, but also because the evidence about what was to happen (such as a mini pedestal/stage where he’d appear) would ruin the effect.
Then I thought, “Just have multiple actors dressed as the ghost, so when one exits, another one can appear elsewhere.” But if they don’t look identical, the effect isn’t the same.
Twins! Comedy of Errors had twins. Ok, fine, maybe Shakespeare didn’t actually have twins to work with (did he?) I know that I’ve yet to see a Comedy of Errors with actual twins.
But that brings me to our question. What if you did have twins in your group? How would you use them? On the drive in to work today I was thinking about the difference between doubling an actor (Theseus / Oberon anybody?) versus how you’d do it with twins. If you never have them on stage at the same time there’s no point, so how would you change the staging to take advantage?
How about two Hamlets? One that devolves slowly into madness (complete with costume change), while the other remains his normal self, silently watching the proceedings. Until at some crucial point late in the play the good Hamlet disappears. (I saw a high school production once with five Hamlets, all on stage at once, all delivering the lines. It was weird.)
King Lear where Goneril and Regan are twins? Not sure how much that really changes the story, but it strengthens the bond between them versus Cordelia, and later shows how big a deal it is when they split.
A Tempest where Ariel and Caliban are twins? I saw a production once where they were handled like conjoined twins, and at the end Prospero separated them.
I’m clearly no director, but I know many of you are. What better ideas can you come up with? Assume that you can have access to a set of twins of whatever type you need, young or old, male or female.
Filmed at The Lillian Booth Actors Home just outside New York City, where a group of long-retired Broadway entertainers dive into a production of Shakespeare’s 
My co-director, Jilann Spitzmiller and I went in with the idea of 
At one point in the discussion, a long time pro from film, tv, and theater, who was by far the most experienced actor in the room, spoke up and added, “We have no sets, no costumes, no lights or tech crew. How would we ever do this? And to do it half-ass-ugh, no thanks.” This was met by a prolonged and sinking silence, and it felt like the entire idea of the production was going down right before us. I could sense many of the seniors in the room thinking, “Well if she doesn’t want to do it, then how could we ever go on without her…”
With Easter approaching, what do you say we go hunting for eggs in Shakespeare’s work? I’m not going to list them all here (since it’s easy to hunt them down with a search engine where’s the fun in that?) but I’ll hit the most famous ones. Add more in the comments!