Who are North-North-West, Part IV: Erika/Bernardo and Osric

I'm Erika, 17 years old, and beside theatre, I love singing, writing, reading, drawing, play the piano and all sorts of stuff. The biggest part of who I am is, to me, to create things. My acting, singing, writing and drawings isn't something I just create, but something that describes who I am. Ugh that sounded cliché! Anyway, when I don't create things I eat sorbet and watch Detective Conan.



Me, playing a role based on
Ophelia in another play!

When I first was asked to join Hamlet, I said no! It all sounded fun and so, but English has never really been my thing. I love the language but can not for my life pronounce anything! I also had never ever read Hamlet and didn't know the story. But mostly, I was scared to do or say something wrong in front of some of my best friends. But why would you be scared of that, when they are all there to help you? Eventually, I gave in and said that I could be a part of it if I could get a really small role that didn't say much. That's how I became Bernardo!

How I then chose to be Osric (I don't understand a word of what he's saying) was because I fell in love with Laurence Olivier's version of him. And for some reason we thought it would be fun if Osric was Irish, so now I'm trying to write all his lines in some sort of pronunciation-help-in-Irish. Do you think I know Irish? No! Do you think that will stop me? Of course not!!! I will make Irish Osric a thing!

But now I have bored you enough with this text long! So long, and see you ~

Who are North-North-West, part III: Hedda/Hamlet

Good e'en! My name is Hedda and I am a 17 year old dork who likes to dress in stripes. I have a large interest for theatre (well duh) and Shakespeare; my favourite plays being the tragedies of Hamlet and Richard II. When I am not reading Shakespeare I often read other stuff (mostly fiction and poetry), write, photograph, watch films/TV-series/stage footage (though mostly Doctor Who), draw, craft, play ukulele etc.

Me, wearing particularly fancy clothes

In this production I play the part of the famously moody (and possibly schizophrenic) prince, Hamlet; the son of the previous king of Denmark, nephew to the current king Claudius, son of the queen Getrude, betrothed to Ophelia.

As he is one of my very favourite characters in literature I am very glad to have the opportunity to play him. It also involves a certain strain, but I suppose that's part of the fun. What makes me so interested in the character is partly his madness (how much of it is pretend; how much is not? etc.) and therein the opportunity to act as weird as one pleases, while still portraying a very intelligent and thoughtful character.

This is only one of the many aspects that makes the character so interesting, but if I were to deal with all of them in this text I would probably bore you to death, and I would rather wait with doing that until I am on the stage.

In playing such a well-known and studied character there is both lots of fun and lots of difficulties; for example, try to say "To be or not to be" without sounding like a cliché; at least I find it difficult, so I try to sort of remove myself from all that fame of the character and just do my own thing (well, I say "try"). I do, however, take inspiration from David Tennant's and Kenneth Branagh's Hamlets (and try to stay as far away from Laurence Olivier's Hamlet as possible).

I suppose you will see lots more of me here later on, and therefore will leave you for now. Adieu~

Who are North-North-West, part II: Maja/Ophelia

Hello there!

My name is Maja, I'm seventeen and probably the most boring person you'll ever meet. I'm here, so you could guess that I like theatre. Well, I do. I've played theatre for about eight years - add or take - and theatre have introduced me to some of the greatest people I know, and I mean, without it, I would never have ended up in this fantastic production. Marvellous, isn't it?

Me, when my hair was the colour of the blood of angry men.

Besides from theatre, I love to write, paint and read (my favourite books are Les Misérables and The Book Thief). I also have a weak spot for the sea, cats, videos of cats doing stupid things, plants, flowers and celery. If I could choose, I probably would live during the Edwardian era (or, I say this, then I hear some pretty song and realise I would not be able to hear all those wonderful songs if I lived during the early 20th century). I like Welcome To Night Vale, a lot. I also listen to music basically all the time but this is a blog about theatre and not the very long list of bands I happen to like (my favourites are The 1975, if you had to know).

In this production, I play Ophelia, who is a darling. I have wanted to play her for a while (since I read Hamlet for the first time, to be precise) (this was ages ago) and she is one of my favourite characters of all time, so I'm very excited about this. Ophelia is very different from previous parts I have played, it is a bit of a challenge because of this, but I also have tons of fun when playing her. When playing a character that has been done so many times, there are so many places to find inspiration in, which both makes it easier and so much more difficult to play her; so I just try to do what feels right, and hopefully, all will turn out well. (and even if I fail misearbly, I will get to wear a nice dress and throw flowers around me, what else do you need in your life?)

I also sort of-kind of-maybe play Marcellus, who is this Scottish guard dude who probably has a bagpipe hidden somewhere, and since I don't really play him I won't speak anymore about him.

And yeah, that is the end of this lovely story about me. 

Who are North-North-West, part I: The group

It was the 29th of March 2014 as two friends sat on a couch, and one of them said "Hey, didn't we speak about doing Hamlet?"; and thus, a theatre group was born. We begun as three mere members, and since then have expanded to our current eight members (though still growing).

We all met through our common interest for theatre and are all experienced in the field as we have practised the art together, some for many years, some for fewer years; and thus we now saw fit to take on the challenge of setting up the great tragedy of Hamlet.

As we are not connected to any theatrical companies, we stand for all parts of the production ourselves; that includes everything from acting and directing to costume, to managing, amongst other things.

We have decided to give the play sort of a different twist by moving it from its original Elizabethan to a more Victorian setting (though still with one or two streaks of Elizabethan). This will show most in the costume, which you will see more about later on.

Hitherto we have mostly read through the script, practised a few scenes and brainstormed ideas; the more serious practise will commence by the end of the summer. (Then there will also be weekly posts about our progress.)

Stay tuned for introductions of the ensemble and their characters, as well as lots of other stuff.~