I had heard a lot of great things about Shenandoah Shakespeare Express before going to see them for the first time on Monday night.  I was expecting them to be really good, and I wasn’t disappointed.  Their explanation for their performance of modern music before and during the show and for their performing with the lights on was interesting.  I wouldn’t have thought about those aspects of the play and how they relate to Shakespeare’s time if they had not been pointed out.
    Since I’m pretty familiar with the plot of “Hamlet,” I was able to pay more attention to the way each actor portrayed his or her character.  All of the actors made Shakespeare’s language understandable; they made the words come to life.  Some scenes were portrayed differently than the way I interpreted them from reading the play.  The one that seemed the most different was the “Get thee to a nunnery” scene between Hamlet and Ophelia.  When I read the scene, I thought of Hamlet as much more harsh than the actor portrayed him.  When the actor came close to Ophelia, he grabbed her violently, but looked at her tenderly and longingly.  It also seemed as if he knew Polonius was listening in on their conversation, causing him to choose his words accordingly.  This made Hamlet seem much more likeable than the way I interpreted him.  Seeing the play acted out made it much more enjoyable.  The expressions of the actors and their emphasis of certain lines brought out the humor in the play and brought many things to my attention that I had overlooked during my reading.