Robbie Robertson Robertson

DENMARK – Limited Series Bible

By Robbie Robertson

THE PREMISE: William Shakespeare’s most famous tragedy gets the Tennessee Williams’s treatment in DENMARK, a limited six-episode adaptation of Hamlet set in rural, gothic 1940s South Carolina. DENMARK departs from Shakespeare to also look at underlying issues of racism, class disparity, subjugated women, repressed sexuality and post traumatic stress disorder that was rampant in a World War II era, small southern town. With homage to the lyrical language and flawed southern women of Tennessee William’s most classic works, DENMARK delivers an engrossing and addictive period drama that reimagines classic miniseries from the 1980s (Rich Man, Poor Man; The Thorn Birds, North and South) up to today’s most popular limited series (Netflix’s The Queen’s Gambit, HBO’s The Watchmen and AMC’s The Night Manager.)

THE SETTING: DENMARK is set in 1940s South Carolina, with the primary action taking place on a working tobacco plantation called Elsinore, a beautiful relic that survived the Civil War. Along with the central town of Denmark—a small, manicured municipality—the bucolic countryside frames the series, along with the surrounding swamp land, rolling fields and the luxurious trappings of one of the old south’s last picturesque locales.

WHO’S WATCHING: Once a ratings juggernaut in the 1980s, the limited series format has once again appealed to mass audiences because of the short commitment needed to ingest a long format story. Everyone from streaming giant Netflix to HBO and AMC have had huge successes with limited series in the last few year with many new ones on the horizon.

THE CHARACTERS:

The characters that populate DENMARK are products of their time, their region, and their class. Their language and attitudes are of a particular moment in history and they most certainly are not politically correct by today’s standards. By honestly portraying these individuals, we see the ramifications of their behaviors and see how the so-called accepted social norms of the era leads to their personal downfall. However, every attempt is made to explore everyone’s unique point of view in the complicated, repressed southern behaviors of families and society at-large in the late 1940s.

HAMILTON or “H” (male, 27 years old): An introspective young lieutenant in the US Army who has seen the worst atrocities of World War II. The vagaries of war have left Hamilton quite emotionally fragile and moody, words to describe the then unknown condition of post-traumatic stress disorder. Hamilton is from a monied family in Denmark, South Carolina, and his father was an important tobacco farmer and state senator. Hamilton is grief stricken to learn his father has died of a stroke, forcing Hamilton to return from war torn Europe to attend the funeral in South Carolina.

CLAUDE HAMILTON (male 60s): A large, athletic man that goes from friend to foe in five seconds flat, Claude is a powerful man in this part of South Carolina, He has taken over running his recently deceased brother’s cotton plantation, and assumed the patriarchal role in the Hamilton family as well. He is quickly shoring up a fast relationship with his sister-in-law, Gertrude, who is the legal heir to the Hamilton fortune. Claude has a duplicitous relationship with the farm’s business manager, Bernie Riley, and only shows sincere affection for his two small dogs, lovingly referred to as the “farm poodles.”

GERTRUDE "GERTIE" HAMILTON (female, 52): Gertrude Hamilton is a strong willed, iron maiden in padded shoulders and a-line skirt. She has enjoyed a privileged life as the wife of a tobacco farmer and state senator and her blood runs blue and cold. She shows a sadistic side when it comes to the “help” and her only affection appears to be for her son, Hamilton. Gertie's world is shattered with the death of her husband and she is willing to make a deal with the devil himself—brother in law Claude—in order to maintain her wealth and social status.

PAUL RILEY (male, 45): As the business manager of the Hamilton plantation, Paul has enjoyed the social status and financial compensation that comes with such an important role. Paul is a widower and has hoped for a marriage between his daughter, Maddie, and Hamilton, heir to the tobacco fortune. On the surface he is a seemingly affable man, but he is desperate to keep his status upon the death of his employer, Senator Hamilton. He has secretly been in collusion with Claude Hamilton, with the two men working hard to get what they think they rightfully deserve.

MADOLYN “MADDIE” RILEY (female, 23): Maddie is back at home in Denmark after a mysterious incident at her all female college in the northeast. The truth is that Maddie has begun exploring her sexuality while away at college and her father, Paul, made her return to the family compound. Prior to college, Maddie dated Hamilton before he went into service and the two enjoyed a respectful—but passionless—relationship.

BERNIE RILEY (male 29): Bernie is the son of Paul and an all around good guy, if not an over grown college student. His intuition is lacking, however, and only sees the world, as others want him to see. Bernie was a friend of Hamilton back when times were more innocent, but with the passing of time, the old friends have more of a surface relationship. Family is important to Bernie, however, and his loyalty to his father and sister shine through.

HARRY PRICE (male, 29): Harry is a thin, balding man whose good looks peaked in high school. He has a quiet sadness to him that actually serves him well as the heir to the town’s largest funeral parlor. Harry is very observant and he, Hamilton and Mattie were all close friends before the war. As someone who works so closely with the dead, he literally has a pulse on the comings and goings of most people in Denmark.

CLARITA (female, 25): Clarita is a strong, beautiful, black woman who suffers the indignities of living in a small southern, white dominated town. Forced to work as a subservient at Elsinore, she has a keen eye on the machinations of the Hamilton family—particularly Gertrude—and provides an insider’s point of view to the returning Hamilton.

G’Maw (female, 60s): G’Maw is Clarita’s grandmother, who lives in the servants’ quarters on the Elsinore Plantation. G’Maw claims to possess psychic abilities and can serve as a conduit to the spiritual world. Whether her “gift” is real or not cannot be proven.

Jon Rosen (male, 28): One of two Jewish doctors in town, Jon is a self-deprecating physician and a childhood friend of Hamilton. His humor hides his disdain for the treatment of Jews in the current world war, and the minority status he holds in a small, southern town.

Dorrie Stern (male, 28): Like Jon, Dorrie is a physician and childhood friend of Hamilton. As one of the only Jewish people in a small southern town, Dorrie is in a minority status, but he is still a southerner at heart and must deal with issues of self-acceptance in a town known for exclusivity. Like Jon, family money and being a physician has bought Dorrie a place at the table.

PETER (male, 25): Peter is a German prisoner of war, serving time in a labor camp in Denmark. The local authorities hire the POWs out as day laborers and Peter is forced to work in the cotton fields of Elsinore. He is inherently prejudice and is apoplectic at having to take orders from the African American workers at the plantation.

ERNEST LEE GREEN (male, 55): After years of being slightly higher than slave labor, Ernest Lee has risen to a position of authority on the Elsinore Plantation. He is in charge of supervising the German prisoners of war and relishes the opportunity of authority—especially over white men. He plays the “yes” man but is secretly disdainful of his superiors—including Claude Hamilton.

HOSKINS (male, 45): An African American working two jobs to make ends meet, Hoskins is a night watchman at the Price Funeral Home who has been hired to watch over Senator Hamilton, whose body lies in state until his impending funeral.

MARCUS CORLEY (male 20s): Like Hoskins, Marcus is the second night watchman at the Price Funeral Home.

JUANITA (female, 33): Juanita is the young maid and cook at the Riley household, and has more than a passing interest in Mattie, particularly since she has returned from an all female college.

PILOT: In 1945, Lt. Hamilton returns from World War II to his South Carolina plantation home of Elsinore to attend the funeral of his father, the recently deceased state Senator Thomas Hamilton. While suffering from extreme grief and having ghostly visions, Hamilton begins to question the cause of his father’s death, particularly as his Uncle Claude seeks to take over the family tobacco plantation and be appointed to the senate seat vacated by his dead brother. Hamilton is further incensed when he sees the burgeoning relationship his Uncle Claude is having with his mother, Gertrude. Claude is secretly working with the plantation business owner, Paul Riley, to ensure that his brother’s will is kept secret so he can edge Gertrude and Hamilton out of their inheritance. On his return, Hamilton is also reintroduced to his childhood love, Mattie Riley—Paul’s daughter—along with housemaid Clarita, who aids Hamilton in his search for the truth.

EPISODE BREAKDOWN:

Episode 2: Hamilton begins his quest for the truth behind his father’s death while questioning Paul Riley, the plantation’s business manager. As Hamilton begins to exhibit more paranoid behavior, Claude begins to sow seeds of doubt about Hamilton’s sanity to his mother, Gertrude. Gertrude thinks it’s nonsense and thinks that all Hamilton needs is a good woman, and so she urges a marital union between Hamilton and Paul’s daughter, Mattie. The two women discuss the importance of marriage while sacrificing their own needs, including Mattie’s questioning of her sexuality. Meanwhile, Paul and Claude discuss that the senator had made two wills—one leaving his estate to Gertrude and an updated will where Hamilton received everything. At Claude’s request, Paul has made sure that no one sees the updated will, so that Gertrude will receive everything and upon her marriage, that Claude will have it all.

Episode 3: As Hamilton begins to reconnect with Mattie, he begins to press her about her real yearnings. He takes her to Clarita’s church where the participants are reenacting a Biblical scene and Hamilton sees Maddie’s flirtation with her maid, Juanita, who is attendance at the church. The duplicity he sees all around him infuriates Hamilton and he forces Mattie to confront her own troubled sexuality. But Mattie isn’t quite ready to face the truth and has a temporary break from sanity at the mention of what she really knows to be the truth. Bernie Riley is incensed to see how Hamilton has rattled his sister.

Episode 4: Hamilton, sensing the growing suspicion about his investigation into his father’s death, pretends to play along with Claude, and offers to hold an engagement party for his uncle and mother. At the party—and working with Clarita—Hamilton has arranged for a special entertainment from the “colored” church, replete with gospel music and a little play—the tale of Cain and Abel. Claude is incensed at the show but is racked with guilt. As the funeral of Senator Hamilton finally happens, Claude has a plan to have the increasingly paranoid Hamilton taken to the state mental hospital, by Hamilton’s physician friends—Jon Rosen and Dorrie Stern—and getting rid of him to marry Gertrude. Paul, suddenly getting cold feet about helping Claude, does not want to be implicated in the senator’s death. He confronts Gertrude to see if she played any part in her husband’s demise—because he honestly doesn’t know the truth. He also takes the opportunity to ask for Gertrude’s help in a Hamilton/Mattie union and promises to reveal all he knows about the two sets of wills. Frightened that Claude will find him talking to Gertie, Paul hides in the closet when Hamilton enters. He believes his mother is not only hiding the truth behind her role in the senator’s death, but that she is hiding Claude in her bedroom. Hamilton fires a shot into the closet only to discover he has killed Paul—scooping up both copies of his father’s will before anyone else discovers them.

Episode 5: Gertrude wastes no time in covering up Paul’s murder as an accident. Claude, seeing the “accident” as an opportunity to rid himself of Hamilton, arranges for his nephew to be taken to the state mental hospital to deal with the many ramifications of his obvious “battle fatigue.” Hamilton learns of the plan and pleads with his friends—Jon and Dorrie—to help him but they trick Hamilton and have him committed anyway. Mattie, learning Hamilton has killed her father, goes off the deep end and takes a bath while she drinks straight liquor. Surrounded by photographs of her dead family members floating in her tub, Mattie sinks into the water and passes away. Claude, thinking that Hamilton is gone and out of the way, goes to the Riley mansion in search of the senator’s wills—only to discover a dead Mattie. At the state mental hospital, Hamilton is thrown into a lunatic asylum, where he once again hears the voice of his dead father. Bernie then discovers his dead sister and, urged on by Claude, vows the ultimate revenge on Hamilton.

Episode 6: After days in the insane asylum, Hamilton makes an escape and heads back to Elsinore. Upon arrival back in Denmark, he sees a long procession of cars coming from Harry’s funeral home. Hamilton sees a distraught Bernie and makes his way to Clarita who informs him that Mattie has taken her own life. Back at Denmark, Claude and Gertie receive the news that Hamilton has escaped the hospital. Claude tells Gertie the only antidote for such bad times is to create joy and he demands they be married as soon as possible. Claude walks into his brother’s study, carrying a vial of arsenic while looking at a picture of Hamilton. Hamilton, who is staying with Clarita, finally makes love to the only person who has helped him, and he plots the ultimate revenge at the wedding of Claude and Gertrude. At the soiree, things are in high gear as Gertie puts on her wedding dress—as Hamilton watches in the shadows. Downstairs the party is in full swing, when Gertie and Claude share a dance before the nuptials begin. She finally confesses she will never love him and that the marriage is one of practicality. Hamilton then makes his appearance and confronts his mother about her role in the senator’s death. Claude, standing on the side, manages to put arsenic in champagne that he offers to Hamilton. Before he takes the drink, Bernie rushes in and pummels Hamilton to the ground. It’s an epic beating, but Hamilton perseveres. Gertie, relieved at the end of the fight, takes the champagne meant for Hamilton. But suddenly Bernie is back on his feet and brandishing a gun. He runs to Hamilton and the men struggle as a second shot rings out. Hamilton turns over and Bernie is dead. Gertie screams out, but from her own pain—the poison acting fast. Hamilton knows at last his mother was not complicit in killing his father, and rushes to Claude. He shoots Claude in both legs and holds the remainder of the champagne to his lips, forcing him to drink. As he finally admits his guilt in killing both Hamilton’s father and mother, Claude gags on the champagne and dies a grisly death. Hamilton, finally vindicated, looks over at Clarita, before succumbing to his own wounds.