I played this line a little impersonally, I think.
I thought of it a little like looking at my kitchen someone made a mess of. Horrified, regretful and a little astonished.
Now I think, if I were to play Gertrude again, I might play with finding how Gertrude scolded Hamlet in his youth. It occurs to me now that there’s a way that parents rarely stop trying to school their children – no matter how old they are.
I taught a class for senior Citizens and there was a mother and her daughter in the class – both senior citizens – and while I did not witness any schooling between those two – I imagine that it is very possible. The 90 year old scolds the 70 year old for how she replaced the salt or something.
And this line – this line could be that primal parental response to seeing a horrible mistake made by your son. She might say it in the same tone she once discovered magic marker all over the bathroom walls.
The Hamlet Project 