The Soul of Wit (2007)

Edward Folger

Edward Folger studied physics at Columbia University in New York City but opted to become an artist rather than a scientist, after becoming depressed by Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem. He has worked as a director, writer, editor, still photographer and filmmaker, he has apprenticed in feature films, with positions as assistant directors, or second unit directors. He has also created his own films, working as director, writer and producer, such as Nanook Taxi (1977) and The Soul of Wit (2006). Notably, Folger lived on Baffin Island, and produced some of the earliest Inuktitut TV programming, and utilized his skills to assist in the struggle for Inuit land claims, and the creation of the Nunavut territory. He now lives in Ottawa.

Still from The Soul of Wit

The eleven minute adaptation of Hamlet, The Soul of Wit was written, directed, produced and edited by Folger, who states that the “piece grew out of years of mulling” concerning the experiences of Folger and his acquaintances “in mental hospitals during the nineteen-sixties and seventies”(Mad Ramblings 1). Furthermore, Folger’s discovery of Professor Hugh Kenner’s “Travesty” program in the 1980s added function to the inspiration of this production. Kenner’s program “produc[es] nonsense from an input text, but retain[s] the sound patterns and letter grouping frequency of the original” (Mad Ramblings 1). Regarding this, Folger states in his ‘Mad Ramblings about the Genesis and Evolution of The Soul of Wit, “After running my own writing through Travesty, I naturally tried it on Shakespeare, who wouldn’t? The result was hilarious – random words and phrases that only occasionally resolved into coherence, but still sounded like the flowing lines of the Bard” (Mad Ramblings 1). These two ideas; mental hospitals, and the disjointed texts of Shakespeare under the Travesty program, resulted in Folger receiving a video production grant in 2005 on “the basis of a very sketchy proposal about “Shakespeare and Mental Hospitals” (Mad Ramblings 1).

The Soul of Wit was filmed in 2006 in Ottawa, members of a Youth Training Program comprised the crew, and the cast of actors were largely selected from a local improv group. The actors were shown documentaries on schizophrenia and psychiatric institutions, and were given reign to improvise movements, speech, and actions, as long as they remained within the scope of schizophrenia and their characters. In this way, The Soul of Wit is an ideal adaptation for CASP as it utilized, and incorporated its all-Canadian, amateur cast into the adaptation process making it a multi-faceted and unique approach to Hamlet.

Hamlet is an ideal Shakespearean play for adaptation, as it actively demonstrates a wide spectrum of human themes and emotions, including revenge, love, justice, good vs. evil, and most notably, madness. These themes have become universal, which allows for a multitude of adaptations focusing on the play as a whole, or specific ideas, speeches, or characters. Currently the CASP archives have over 80 adaptations of Hamlet, some are forthright and follow the basic storyline, or use similar language, whereas, other like Ghosts and Monsters (Dan Bell), and Giving Notes (Michele Siebler) are cryptic and intricate in how they apply back to Shakespeare’s work. Folger’s short film follows the discourse of the latter, as the production adapts around the general theme of madness and how it can be interpreted for the three main characters (Hamlet, Ophelia, and Polonius). Additionally, Folger also utilizes one specific speech by Polonius to demonstrate the chaotic breakdown of sanity within the film. In his ‘Project Description’, Folger writes, “Polonius declares brevity to be the soul of wit and then proceeds to ramble on ad nauseam, explaining to the King and Queen that Hamlet is mad”. The speech is in the original as follows: (Playscript 11)

Therefore, since brevity is the soul of wit,

And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes,

I will be brief: your noble son is mad:

Mad call I it; for, to define true madness,

What is’t but to be nothing else but mad?

But let that go.

Subsequently, within the script Dr. Polon (Polonius) performs the speech eight times in a multitude of diverging ways; speaking directly to the camera, to the mysterious guest who is alluded to throughout the film and also as distorted ghost-like voiceovers that are representative of auditory hallucinations. The first seven are “travesty” interpretations that not only emphasize Dr. Polon’s role as a hebephrenic schizophrenic, but also reiterate one of Folger’s central goals for the video, “to impart a fleeting uncomfortable experience of what it’s like to be schizophrenic” (Final Project Description 1).

To understand the vast differentiation, and incoherence within the travesty program, here is one of the seven interpretations of the speech above: (Playscript 6)

But to expostulate at night, day is

the business, is the soul of will.

My limbs and time. Therefor, to

expostulate my liege, what majesty

should be but madness? This well

ended. Why day is but let liege,

and time.

The travesty interpretations, while excellent for exemplifying the manifestations of schizophrenia, and the outward speech of madness, held the additional threat of dissolving the film in to an array of disjointed ranting. Regarding this, Folger comments, “I felt more and more that the piece should be an interpretation of Shakespeare’s characters rather than a collection of mental patients spouting iambic gibberish” (Mad Ramblings 1). To achieve this, each character Willard [Hamlet], Ophelia, and Dr. Polon (Polonius) was assigned a specific type of schizophrenia; paranoid, catatonic, and hebephrenic respectively. This disposition took into account their characters in the play, and governed their physical movements, mode of speech, and actions within the film.

Dr. Polon, at first glance appears to be of a different social class than Willard and Ophelia, who from their hospital gowns are established as psychiatric patients. However, it soon becomes poignantly clear that Dr. Polon also suffers from a mental disorder, as his hebephrenic mannerisms become obvious within his repetitive, incoherent and rambling monologues. Correspondingly, Madd Harold’s adaptation, The Tempest: Forecast Disorder also interprets the theme of madness and features two groups at an insane asylum one dressed as patients, the other as doctors. However, in both adaptations these distinctions become noticeably superficial as both groups appear equally mad. Therefore, within the institutionalized setting the audience is left to question if any group “can be credited with sanity?” (Let's go Crazy). This breakdown of hierarchy is an additional mode of adaptation that mirrors the disruption of royal power structures within Hamlet.

Catatonic Ophelia is “helplessly controlled by the whims of others, and does not speak or move under her own will” (Project Description 1). Ophelia’s lack of volition echoes her bewilderment within Shakespeare’s play. As she is shunted between differing, ever changing directives from her father and Hamlet, this situation becomes more disconcerting as Hamlet delves into (feigned?) insanity. At the onset of The Soul of Wit Ophelia’s progression into madness has already occurred, and all that remains is the disjointed, and convoluted ramblings of her father within her head, which we are able to experience as Folger uses “nested points of view,” which effectively pull the viewer into the character’s head (Mad Ramblings 1-2).

Hamlet is presented as paranoid Willard, whose physical movements, skulking around corners, constant checks around his shoulder, distrust of any person, and obsession over his plate of fruit demonstrate his paranoid schizophrenia. Hamlet is filled with conflicting ideas and traits, and unnerved by melancholy and cynicism. This state of internal contradiction is interpreted in the film by Willard alternating between violent moments of excitement and minutes of hushed calm. Hamlet’s famous ‘to be or not to be’ speech is put through the travesty program, and while it is recognizable, its incoherent meaning is demonstrative of the theme of insanity, and the confusion of the characters. Willard, compulsively organizing fruit, states, “To be or not to seed; this quietus makes us rather’s brother” (Playscript 5).

The film concludes with several important lines. Dr. Polon delivers his final ‘brevity is the soul of wit’ speech, yet unlike the previous seven ‘Travesty’ versions it is delivered in the original Shakespearean. The line, “your noble son is mad” allows the audience to presume the identity of the mysterious off-screen character, who had been alluded to throughout the film, as Hamlet’s mother, Gertrude. Directly after this speech, Willard pushes past Dr. Polon, and with his face filling the screen states, “Have some fruit … its poison!” and his “smile which seemed friendly to start turns sour and demented” (Playscript 11). This final line is taken from a conversation Folger once had with Willard Maas, an experimental filmmaker, while Maas was confined in a psychiatric institute. Folger stated in an interview with CASP that that line was “the original inspiration for the whole thing”, and that line combined with the “magnificent poetry of Shakespeare” allowed him to “neatly sum up the thrust of …. Hamlet” (Interview 3).

Danielle Van Wagner

Link to video The Soul of Wit

Link to Interview with Edward Folger

Link to The Soul of Wit shooting script & actors' notes

Link to Mad Ramblings about the Genesis and Evolution of The Soul of Wit by Edward Folger

Link to Project Description by Edward Folger

Link to images of production in Image Section

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