Creator and performer Emily Carding, who we spoke with on our most recent podcast along with a few other Edinburgh Festival Fringe-bound artists, is bringing their one-person interactive show back to the biggest performing arts festival in the world.

In Hamlet (an experience) the audience becomes the Players — the troupe of actors who Hamlet enlists to catch the conscience of the King — and casts them as the various members of the court of Elsinore. What then transpires is a Hamlet like no other, wherein the Prince is both director and protagonist of their own story, with the audience the very fabric of the tale.

Quite exciting, really.

We convinced Carding, who has a whole trilogy of these solo/interactive Shakespearean works, to tell us more about their take on the melancholy Dane which runs August 7th - 17th at the Scottish Storytelling Centre.

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NO PROSCENIUM: Tell us a little bit about your experience! What’s it about? What makes it immersive?


Emily Carding: In Hamlet (an experience), I play Hamlet and you, the audience, are the players arriving at Elsinore. The space is set up like a rehearsal room, we’re all equal, and Hamlet asks if you will do the honour of taking on the roles of the most important people from his life. We then take time to look over the simple cue scripts you’ve been given, rehearse a bit of mimed fight choreography, make sure we’re all ready and then we’re off! There’s enough guidance to feel safe and secure and enough creative freedom to feel that you’ve made original choices. It’s a special kind of alchemy where we’re all co-creating something beautiful together. I won’t spoil the ending, but there is a framework that justifies the whole premise in-world so even though it’s a meta structure it’s completely immersive. It’s an intimate and accessible experience of one of the most famous plays in the world which is completely unique to each individual as well as to each audience as a whole. 

Emily Carding in the 2019 performance of Hamlet (an experience) at Babel Fast in Targoviste, Romania. (Photo credit: Augustina Iohan)

NP: What was the inspiration for your upcoming experience? 


EC: We’d had great international success with our first solo interactive Shakespeare, Richard III (a one person show) and were keen to push the idea of audience involvement further. In Richard III, I played Richard and the audience played the other characters, I greeted them as they came into the space as if they were those people, they’d get a name tag and then as the play went on, I’d simply manipulate them into doing whatever they needed to do- which was directly inspired by how Richard operates in the play. Our original source of inspiration to work in this way was studying Early Modern theatre practice, including residencies at Shakespeare’s Globe in London, and the connection with audience that comes with direct address and shared light. We wanted to create the feeling of Early Modern practice in a post-modern way and see how far we could take it. Hamlet (an experience) uses cue scripts, another Early Modern technique, where each player only knows their own cues, lines and actions. Whereas Richard III is influencing everyone around him, Hamlet is famously reflective rather than active, so the approach to immersion is different- I’m often stood watching as events unfold around me. We also decided to trust the audience a great deal more…and boy, did it pay off.

Emily Carding (left) and an audience member (right) in the 2019 performance of Hamlet (an experience) at Babel Fast in Targoviste, Romania. (Photo credit: Augustina Iohan)

NP: What do you think fans of immersive will find most interesting about this latest experience? 


EC: It’s all about the connection between performer and audience, as well as making a classical text feel immediate and alive. You don’t just get to see the action up close or encounter a character, you are the action. And it’s completely minimalist. The immersion is in the energetic connection between us all as we tell the story together. It’s a powerful, transformative and, above all, fun experience.

NP: Once you started designing and testing what did you discover about this experience that was unexpected?


EC: How incredibly moving the choices that audiences make can be. I’ve frequently been moved to tears.

 An audience member (left) and Emily Carding (right) in the 2019 performance of Hamlet (an experience) at Babel Fast in Targoviste, Romania. (Photo credit: Augustina Iohan)

NP: What can fans who are coming to this, or thinking about coming to this, do to get into the mood of the experience? 

EC: There’s no need to be familiar with Shakespeare, but if you did want to prep, just spending some time watching and reading Shakespeare and getting used to the rhythm of the text so it feels comfortable, and either reading the play or at least a summary so you know what your role is likely to involve when you volunteer to take it on.

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