Hamlet my lords Polonius and Polonius my lords him right back.
I’d like to see Polonius’ acting. I’m developing a real jones to see collegiate Polonius in his toga saying, “E tu, Brute.”
I imagine it like the flashback scenes in Harry Potter where we see young Potter parents, young Professors, young Villains, before the current moment.
We see the whole college scene – all the people who account Polonius as a good actor – the collegiate audience, the reviews in the college newspaper. And I’m sure someone has noted this already but it just struck me now that both Polonius and Caesar meet their ends with a blade to the vitals. We don’t know which of the many wounds on Caesar is the fatal one but one assumes it to be the most emotional as well, the blade of Brutus.
It is interesting to me that Polonius dies in the same way his theatrical counterpoint did. Does he think of it as he dies? As Polonius says, “O I am slain” does he remember his death as Caesar? Does he indulge it a little?
I’d like to see a version where Polonius returns to his Caesar-ness at that moment. He could even say “E tu, Brute” after he realizes what’s happening. I’d enjoy those meta-theatrical echoes, I think.
The Hamlet Project 