THE TROUBLE WITH HAMLET
Present-day Danes have no particular argument with Shakespeare, and are as grateful as the rest of the world for the great tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. It's even possible that they appreciate the play more than others, for Elsinore draws excited visitors to their country by the hundreds.
Where the Danes do have a bone to pick is in the mistaken notion that Hamlet's gloom is a national characteristic. The idea that Denmark is a dour, grey little country, inhabited by gaunt citizens marked for melancholy and unable to make up their minds could scarcely be more at odds with the true picture.
The trouble with Hamlet, say the Danes, was that he didn't know how to have fun. Other Danes, they protest, have been having fun for a long, long time; they are experts at it. In fact, and they have created one of the World's best places for it - the famous Tivoli Gardens, right in the heart of wonderful, wonderful Copenhagen.
Unfortunately, Tivoli was not there when Hamlet was wondering whether or not to be. It would have made the decision a snap, for its designer was convinced (and used the argument on Christian VIII who paid for the project) that “if only people are allowed to amuse themselves, they will forget to talk politics.”
Today, the Gardens welcome well over 4 million visitors a year, and falling right in with the gay crowd this summer will be the CARONIA passengers, as the ship calls at the Danish capital during the North Cape Cruise. If any of them talk politics in Tivoli, it will certainly be in a lighthearted-mood. Chances are they won't, though, for there are too many other, more pleasant things to do.
There's the Pantomime Theatre, the Crazy House; there are concerts, acrobatic shows, dancing pavilions. And there are the excellent restaurants - each with music, the delectable smorgasbord spreads, the fine beer, or something a little headier. Too bad Hamlet and Ophelia couldn't have had a romp in Tivoli when the time was out of joint. Things, certainly, would never have seemed so rotten in Denmark.
[Produced for the North Cape Cruise departing New York 01 July 1966]]