L - “Lights”

 

When Claudius stands up during the Gonzago play, “struck so to the soul” by the action before him, he says “Give me some light. Away!” As implied by the play’s text, this scene in the film is set in the evening, and the normally brightly lit grand hall is vaguely dimmed, the small stage illuminated by gaslights in cages. By the mid 19th century—the era in which Branagh’s film is vaguely set—gas lighting was the well-established standard in cities, homes, and theatre houses.

When originally performed at The Globe Theatre, Hamlet (like every other play) was staged outdoors during the daytime to provide sufficient light. To indicate nighttime scenes, actors would be carrying torches or lamps or make explicit references to darkness in the dialogue. Indoor theatres in Elizabethan times were intimate and more comfortable, catering to only a few hundred well-paying patrons at a time, as opposed to The Globe’s 3,000. They were lit by candles in sconces and chandeliers, which provided meager illumination. 

Gas lighting was being experimented with in the late 18th century, and became more viable as a widespread utility in the early 19th. By the 1850s, almost all theatres throughout the United States and Europe were using gaslighting of some sort, as it proved far brighter and easier to maintain—no more constant tending to candles and wax dripping onto actors below chandeliers. Limelights consisted of a gas-powered flame directed at cylinders of calcium oxide (quicklime), which produced bright spotlights for stage use, hence the age-old idiom about famous actors being “in the limelight.”

Gas lighting, however, proved too dim for the exposure of the first film cameras, and many early films were shot outdoors, but unpredictable inclement weather often complicated production. When filmmakers on the east coast of America heard about the year-round mild climate and abundant light out west, they began flocking to the orange groves of Hollywood and set up studios. Silent film stages were open-air three-walled constructions with skylights or entirely constructed outdoors, taking advantage of the high quality light of southern California. When electric lighting and sound technology became viable, the well-established studios—RKO, Paramount, Warner Bros., Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 20th-Century Fox—began erecting indoor soundstages on their backlots to have more control of environments for their productions. 

Alex Thompson, Hamlet’s director of photography, explained that due to all the mirrors in the hall stage, they had to suspend all the fill lamps high above in the ceiling of the studio so as to be out of sight of every shot. The-top-down direction of the light presented the challenge of making sure light was properly directed into actors’ faces using cleverly mounted reflective screens and spotlights to eliminate the shadows in their eyes. 

For a time, before optics were properly understood, people believed light emanated from their eyes in order to see (Emission theory), as described by Ophelia:

And, with his head over his shoulder turn'd,

He seem'd to find his way without his eyes;

For out o' doors he went without their helps,

And, to the last, bended their light on me. (Hamlet, 2.1.96-99)

Sources:

Arnold, Catharine. Globe: Life in Shakespeare’s London.  Simon and Schuster UK Limited, 2015.

Wikipedia: Gas lighting

Wikipedia: Emission theory (vision)