My ideas fluctuated a lot through this process, I didn't come up with my final idea until week 5, but I think ditching my first idea and going with something more thought out worked.
Here are all my brainstorm sessions (sorry there is a lot). I had to do a lot of interpretations of the text, so the meal is subjective, but I think the vibe of each plot point is conveyed.
I decided to retell Hamlet through a 7-course meal. Hamlet lends itself well to an intense multi-course meal because both require a lot of drama. I believe dinner parties and fancy dinners have a certain sort of theatricalness to them and I thought that same energy is embodied in Shakespearian plays, so why not combine the two? I picked Hamlet because its the only Shakespeare play I have read in its entirety, plus it has the word "ham" in it. I am hoping I can convey Hamlet through the color, texture, taste, smell, and arrangement of food in way that makes you thinking critically about the play and the major themes. There is potential to incorporate this idea into high schools as an engaging way of learning classic literature. The audience's experience is straddling the line between active participant and observer; the audience is observing the story through the aesthetics of the food, but they also engage by eating it. Hopefully, by eating black bean soup the audience gets a taste of the loneliness Hamlet felt.
If I could fully implement this experience, I would stage an elaborate table setting with somber lighting and Baroque styled dish-ware to emphasize the drama of Shakespearian plays. Before each course, the chef would come out and explain the parallels between the food and that section of the play.
This is what I would have the chef say:
Meal One: The Deviled Eggs Hath Power
I chose deviled eggs because they are a comfort food commonly served at funerals and they have a ghoulish sounding name. Hamlet starts with him returning home from school and one of his first encounters is with a ghost telling him his father has been murdered and that his mother has married his uncle, hence the deviled eggs. This came as a shock to Hamlet, which is why I pickled the eggs: to give it a shocking after taste. The bacon crumbles were a bonus touch to play off the name HAMlet.
Meal Two: To Bean or Not to Bean
In this part of the story Hamlet’s behavior starts to become erratic as he is plagued with doubt about having to revenge his father and murder Claudius. I tried to capture Hamlet’s emotions through a soup because soups are for the sick and depressed. I chose black bean soup for its color; black has connotations of depression, grief, and mourning. I wanted the soup to look barren and black to illustrate the loneliness Hamlet is experiencing and, its packed with competing flavors to try and show how erratic Hamlet is acting.
Meal Three: I Must be Coulis Only to be Kind
Hamlet is still unsure about whether or not Claudius killed his father, but luckily a troop of traveling actors come to town. Hamlet decides to stage a reenactment of his father’s death in order to see Claudius’ reaction. To translate this into food, I tried to create a stage with the seared polenta and shrimp “actors” on top. I chose a yellow pepper coulis because yellow has the connotation of deceit, which is how I would describe Hamlet’s actions in this scene.
Meal Four: There is Special Prosciutto in the Fall of a Sparrow
Claudius’ reaction to the play is enough to convince Hamlet to kill him, so Hamlet goes to confront his mother. In Gertrude’s chamber, Hamlet hears someone hiding behind a tapestry, thinking it is Claudius, Hamlet strikes. Alas, Polonius was behind the tapestry, as a result Hamlet is banished from Denmark. I decided to top the salad with a melon skewer because the skewer represents the sword that slayed Polonius, the melon representing Polonius, and the prosciutto is the tapestry he hid behind. The red wine vinaigrette represents the blood shed by Polonius.
Meal Five: Alas, Pork Yorick!
A lot happens in this scene: Ophelia dies, Hamlet’s ship is attacked by pirates en route to England, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern die, Laertes mourns the deaths of his father and sister and inevitably blames Hamlet, but the main plot point is Claudius leveraging Laertes’ pain into a plan to kill Hamlet. I tried to pull from every character to create this meal, which is why so much is going on and at the center is Hamlet (a pork tenderloin). The meal is laying in a bed of port sauce to represent water: the river Ophelia died in and the sea Hamlet sailed. The puree and vegetables surrounding the pork tenderloin are there to illustrate all the remaining characters turning their back on Hamlet.
Meal Six: Sweets to the Sweet
In the goriest part of the play, Claudius plans Hamlet’s murder by setting up a duel between Hamlet and Laertes. Claudius has poisoned Laertes’ sword, so if he were to strike Hamlet it would kill him. On top of that, Claudius has also poisoned a goblet. During the fencing match Gertrude drinks out of the poisoned goblet and dies, Laertes cuts himself and Hamlet with the poisoned sword, he then proceeds to tell Hamlet Claudius’ plan. Hamlet is furious, he stabs Claudius and forces him to drink out of the poisoned goblet, he dies. Hamlet has finally revenged his father and he then dies. I used caramel skewers and a raspberry reduction to depict the blood and violence in an appetizing way. The lemon meringue is there as a response to the events, providing a shocking aftertaste.
Meal Seven: The Licorice doth Protest too Much
The play resolves with Fortinbras (a Norwegian prince, hence the Norwegian candy) swooping in, giving Hamlet a proper funeral, and taking over Denmark.
Here is my storyboard through a series of photoshopped meals. This isn't exactly what I would want the meals to look like, but you get a general idea.
Here is my main artifact: a fine dining menu.
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