According to psychological research on acting the histrionic personality consists of a compulsive tendency to play-act exaggerate emotions succumb to illusions to seek attention through speech body language and costume to be seductive and impulsive. An original intervention in the critical history of Shakespeare’s most famous play Histrionic Hamlet argues that the Danish Prince is a stage representation of just such a personality-a born actor and a drama queen rather than a politician-incongruously thrown in the middle of ruthless high-stakes power struggle requiring pragmatic rather than theatrical skills. Uniquely among other English revenge tragedies in Hamlet a histrionic protagonist striking a series of gratuitous baffling self-indulgent and counterproductive poses is called upon to carry out a challenging and brutal political task which he spectacularly and tragically mismanages. Unable to perform on a theatrical stage as a professional actor the Clown Prince bitterly play-acts anyway turning all situations into opportunities of pretend play rather than effective political action. In consequence he wastes tactical advantages over his enemies endangers himself and jeopardizes his revenge plan if ever there was one. Histrionic Hamlet should be of interest to students of Shakespeare theater practitioners and anyone interested in human dysfunctional and maladaptive behavior. |Histrionic Hamlet Shakespeare's Ultimate Metatheatrical Experiment
