Wonderful play, which I've been lucky enough to see three times, and a marvelous movie--one of the best films Gary Oldman's ever done, IMHO.

~Definitly an amazing movie...one of my favorites!

] Hamlet has known them all his life, but they were "sent for" -- from where? If Hamlet's always known them, wouldn't they live where he grew up?

~Aren't they schoolmates of Hamlet's? I don't know where they are from, but he was sent away to school, so it's reasonable to assume they were too.

] So why is it that they cannot figure out anything whatever about what's going on? If a childhood friend of yours was acting so strangely that his uncle sent for you, wouldn't it occur to you that the reason was his mother had married his uncle within a few weeks of his father's death?

~The weird thing about this play is that no one can figure this out about Hamlet, not even Ophelia who should be the person closest to him at this point. Plus, the King and Queen obviously don't think this is a problem at all, and as you stated before, R & G are very smart, they probably know that the King and Queen wouldn't buy this because they don't want to see it.

] Why does it never occur to them to turn back to Elsinore after Hamlet has left the ship? Are they afraid of Claudius being angry that they lost him? I sure think I'd have either turned back or read the letter.