Mabinogi, a game that combines Irish Mythology with adventures of fantasy life, surprises its audience by including the works of Shakespeare. While the works of Shakespeare can be unappealing for the youth audience of today, Mabinogi changes this view by making Shakespeare a grand part of the player’s experience. Likewise, the director Sung June Moon creates a version of Hamlet that appeals to a young audience of gamers by simplifying the play for the audience, creating symbolism in the setting, and presenting a different interpretation of the play. With these important characteristics applied by the director, the scene that best shows his works is Hamlet’s soliloquy in Act 3, Scene 1.
The director Sung June Moon, appeals to the young audience by simplifying the soliloquy in Act 3, Scene 1. He does this by summarizing Hamlet’s speech into 12 lines. Some might think that shortening the speech will ruin the famous soliloquy, but the director keeps the most important lines and summarizes the other lines:
To be? / Or not to be? / That is the question. / Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune / or to take arms against a sea of troubles and by opposing end them? / To die, to sleep. And by sleep end the heart-ache… / ‘Tis a consummation Devoutly to be wished. / A single swing of the sword could end this torment! / To sleep: perchance to dream. Ay, there’s the rub. / For in that sleep of death what dreams may come? / Thus conscience does make cowards of us all. (Mabinogi)
Making the soliloquy under a minute allows the young audience to understand and enjoy the speech. This is true as statistics say the average length of a single internet video watched is 2.7 minutes as well as the average attention span is 8 seconds. (Harold Weinreich) Furthermore, shortening 35 lines into 12 lines is significant because, it copes with the impatient mentality of youth gamers. With this new script, this version of Hamlet appeals to the gamers with its simplicity. As well as summarizing the lines, Sung June Moon effectively uses setting to attract his audience. As the cut scene is black all around Hamlet, it emphasizes the outline of the character which ultimately focuses the eye to the character. Furthermore, the background creates emphasis on Hamlet’s actions, such as striking the mirror with his sword. The director also uses the black colour to symbolize mystery, evil, and anger. (Symbolism of Color) These elements appeal to the player because it emphasizes the dark environment, giving it the feeling of gloom and evil. The colour black, surrounding Hamlet will help support the audience’s experience with the use of symbolism and emphasis. After the great use of background comes the director’s interpretation of the soliloquy in Act 3, Scene 1. Sung Jung Moon takes action to appeal to the audience by using a new interpretation of Hamlet. He introduces a new aspect of Hamlet’s monologue to add originality, rather than the original soliloquy that stage productions use. To accomplish this, the director captures the interest of the audience by having Hamlet perform actions. By performing these actions, it emphasizes the symbols in the background of mystery, evil, and anger. Sung Jung Moon creates these emotions by having him fall down in grief and strike the mirror with anger. Sung Jung