Hamlet Opening Night, July 24, 2008, Courtyard Theater, Stratford-upon-Avon
First off, I want to apologize profusely for taking, like, 3 weeks to do this. I promised dt_mad a full writeup, and I feel horrible for not getting it up faster. I did get my notes down quickly after seeing it, but then traveling, and returning home, and life got away from me a bit.
This is...long. As you might expect from me. 11 pages in word. Single spaced. I threw a few pictures in there to break it up, but not many. And I do a lot of commenting on the text, because, you know, I just spent a month studying Shakespeare. It's kind of habit at this point.
The Setting
Let’s start with the time period. Because it often had a very ageless feel to it, but it was definitely set in a more modern period. Characters wore jeans at times. David wore t-shirts in some scenes. It was only in the very obvious “court” scenes where people dressed up, and then it was typically in very classic looking suits. But you know...I liked it. It felt both timeless and like our own modern world, all at once, and it worked for me. There were swordfights AND gun-killings. They didn’t pick one or the other in order to maintain a timeline. Some of the arrival/departure sound effects signified modernity - helicopter sounds, truck back-up beeps, etc. The only Shakespearean garb we saw was in the Mousetrap scene, and that worked for me.
The Sets
It was a very sparsely decorated set. Plain black stage. But the cool thing: the backdrop was mirrored. Which added some very cool effects with reflections, and enabling the actors to address themselves in some of the monologues. Plus, obviously, it set a very interesting theme and mood to the whole feel of the production, which I found very interesting. Metaphors and symbolism and all that - which, of course, seeing as I’m an English major, got me thinking about the mirrored effect within the play. Hamlet and Old Hamlet. The murder and the Mousetrap. There’s really a lot of it there.
The Costumes
Well, this is tied in a bit to the setting of course. I talked about it a bit there. But after seeing the rehearsal pics and the poster, I was very curious about the costumes. And I have to admit, it was interesting. During the first act it was all stuffy suits in the court, and at that point in time, I really couldn’t tell if it was a period production or not. But then Ophelia came out in jeans and a blouse for her second scene. And in Act Three, David wore a t-shirt and jeans the entire time. And at that point ended up in his bare feet for the bulk of the play, which I found intensely distracting since I could see the smudge of dirt on his heel. Lol.
But I have to say, the t-shirt he wore was ridiculous. It was a red muscle shirt. You know, printed with fake muscles. It made me laugh out loud when he walked out. And I realize there was probably a metaphor there too, because that was the “Get thee to a nunnery” scene, which is typically one of Hamlet’s most violent scenes. But what leads into the “get thee to a nunnery scene”? The “to be or not to be” speech. Which David preformed in a red muscle shirt. I found it to be a strange choice, and really, in the grand scheme of things, it’s probably my only criticism of the production.
But really, he spent most of the production in some form of suit. The perfectly manicured suit pretty much only showed up in Act One, and from that point on it was usually a messy, half undone tux. With bare feet. Up until his banishment to England, at which point he ended up in traveling clothes (and a beanie!). And I have to admit, the Who fan in me was distracted by his shoes. Which were New Balance or Adidas or something. Normal sneakers on him looked weird to me. Lol.
Okay, moving on to other people. Patrick Stewart as Claudius was always in a very proper stuffy looking suit. Gertrude had some gorgeous silk dresses, etc. Ophelia, lots of sundresses and skirts. And the rest of the cast really mostly in suits. The only really “period” looking costumes were the soldiers, and as I mentioned earlier, the Shakespearean garb worn by the players during the Mousetrap sequence.
The Play!
I was so afraid that I’d forget to talk about something, that I decided to do this kinda like my obscenely long Doctor Who write-ups that I sometimes do. And I sat down, on my train ride back from Stratford, and my flight to Prague, with my copy of Hamlet, and started going through it scene by scene and writing down notes and thoughts about what I remember from that particular scene.
So this is going to be another long, rambly thing. And it helps to be somewhat familiar with Hamlet. And I’m warning you in advance that this is going to be a mix of David-talk, and talk about the play and the story itself, because I’m an English major and I simply can’t help talking about it from a literary angle at the same time as talking about it from a fannish angle.
Act 1, Scene 1
-The opening was purposefully slow. It was a really interesting directorial decision that I found kinda fascinating. The watchman slowly walked the length of the stage silently three or four times. With a good minute or two offstage in between each appearance. My reasons for finding this so interesting: 1. Purely the audience’s attention factor. Every time he walked on stage, the audience fell silent. But then he stayed offstage JUST long enough for the audience to get antsy and start talking again. It was almost like a game. 2. Time. Hamlet is such a LONG play, and I went in expecting this to be a LONG play, even with the edits. But the nature of this opening to me almost made a statement about the fact that they were NOT trying to rush it. That they were going to give this play the time they felt it deserved. Which is interesting. And by the way, in case you’re curious, it has a running time of 3 and a half hours. With a 20 minute intermission. So basically, 4 hours at the theater watching David Tennant. Utterly awesome, people. And I don’t know if other people felt this or not - but to me, I could have easily sat there for another hour. The play ended, and I wanted it to keep going. It was just that good.
-They used some interesting light affects in the opening. Plunging the audience into darkness to establish the night, with the only lighting coming from flashlights (torches?) that the watchmen were holding. It was very aesthetically cool.
-They did a very cool effect on the disappearance of the ghost at the end of the scene. 4 different actors in the ghosts costume all walked onto the stage and off in a different direction in the dark, so that you couldn’t tell exactly where and how the ghost disappeared. Plus, it gave the ghost a feeling of power that wasn’t there before. I liked it. A lot.
Act I, Scene II.
-Very much introducing the court as being stuffy and posh and suave. Everyone onstage in suits and formalwear, immaculately dressed. Everyone kissing Claudius’s ass, very prominently - except Hamlet of course. Claudius is presented as ridiculously suave, happy, and smooth.
-I kind of wish I could have seen David’s face in this scene, to see what kind of attitude Hamlet was giving to the court. But he was standing directly in my corner of the stage, which means that for the entire length of the court stuff in this scene, I was staring right at David’s ass, less than two feet in front of me. At first, I was annoyed! Because, you know, I couldn’t see his face! And then all of a sudden I realized I that his butt was right there and that wasn’t at all a bad thing ;) heh. I can admit to being shallow on occasion.
-Even so, though. I have to admit that I was feeling a little odd in this scene. Because here’s David, out onstage, in an immaculate suit, his hair perfectly combed, and it didn’t really feel like DAVID to me at first. It was very odd. And then he went into the first soliloquy in the middle of the scene, and he is SOBBING on the floor in his grief, and it was almost awkward feeling. Until Horatio walked in, and the energy shifted.
-David is always good, but there’s something about his interactivity with people that’s pretty special. When he and Horatio started their scene together, I just started grinning like an idiot, because THERE was the David Tennant energy that I so love. And the smiles, and the running across the stage for a hug from him. And the WTF expression that we so love when he hears about the ghost, and the disbelief and denial of it. This is the point where I started to really settle in and get sucked into his performance.
Act I, Scene III.
-Laertes and Ophelia. And because I know my classmates want to know because we had this discussion a few times during our program - no, they did not portray this relationship as the slightest bit incestuous. Just super-adorable, sweet sibling closeness between them.
Act I, Scene IV and V.
-Hamlet on the watch and meeting the ghost - I’m including the scenes together, because even though they’re separate in the script, they really do kind of run together to me. It’s hard to talk about one without the other.
-For the record, at least at my performance, this is the ONLY scene where David wore the coat you see on the poster.
-Special effects. It’s in the script that you can hear the palace celebrating, and they played it up with loud fireworks and music. Only, it was really distracting, because there’s dialogue happening at the same time, and I struggled at times to hear what Hamlet was saying. I just think they needed to turn the volume down a bit. Hopefully they realized that.
-When Hamlet and the ghost are alone, we get the first dialogue from the ghost, and I was a little worried about that. I know it’s probably an unfounded concern, but Patrick Stewart is Patrick Stewart, and I feel like every time I see him in ANYTHING now he’s just Patrick Stewart. The only exception I’ve ever seen where I was like, “Wow. He just did something out of left field.” Was his appearance on Extras. When he was playing...Patrick Stewart. So suffice to say, I was relieved that he mixed up his performance as the ghost from his performance as Claudius. The ghost was very harsh and guttural, whereas Claudius was very smooth and suave. Well done, Patrick Stewart.
-Once again I found myself with an actor on my corner of the stage, only this time it was Patrick Stewart as the ghost. And as his “ghostly special effects” they worked a fog machine into his coat. So he stood there on the corner of the stage two feet in front of me with his coat pumping fog out right into my face. LOL. The whole time I’m thinking, “don’t cough!” By halfway through the play, my throat was DRY from all the fog, but I was so happy about it. Lol.
-The scene between them was INTENSE. Very angry powerful ghost with Hamlet cowering on his knees and crying. It was kind of mesmerizing.
-Swear by my sword sequence with Horatio was also very intense. Very high energy, with David running around to all parts of the stage, and basically invoking the power of the ghost and marveling at it. This scene, to me, was kind of played as the first sign of Hamlet’s budding insanity. David’s energy was stunning and it was just incredible to watch.
Act II, Scene I.
-This is the scene where Oliver Ford Davies performance as Polonius got really good. He very much shifted Polonius into kind of a respected, but aged doddering old fool who rambles and gets lost in his own thoughts, and is repetitive in conversation. At one point I couldn’t tell if Davies actually FORGOT his lines, or was playing it up as Polonius being forgetful. There was a long, long moment of silence while he pondered over what he was saying. I’d actually be curious to hear if that is still the case in this scene at future performances!
Act II, Scene II.
-The actors who played Rosencrantz and Guildenstern seriously reminded me of Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. Particularly in Dogma when they’re running around being ridiculous together, but still manage to be really pretty at the same time ;)
-Production constantly pointed out Rosencrantz and Guildenstern’s worthlessness. Hamlet was constantly scorning them (although that’s definitely a written thing, not a reading of it), Claudius repeatedly mixed them up and forgot their names. It was amusing.
-I keep saying Davies was awesome as Polonius, and I really mean it. The scene where he explains his theories about Hamlet’s madness to Claudius and Gertrude was priceless. I was rolling in my seat.
-And then we get the fishmonger scene. And like I keep saying, the scenes between Polonius and Hamlet simply sparkled. You could tell that both actors were spot on and they played off of each other so well. This is one of those scenes where it’s absolutely the choice of the director on whether or not to portray Hamlet as mad or putting on an act, and I absolutely believed throughout this scene that Hamlet was just fucking with Polonius’s head because he enjoyed doing so (and it suited his plan for everyone to think he was crazy). And you could tell that Polonius couldn’t quite decide which one it was: madness, or fucking around. And settled on madness because he couldn’t imagine the opposite from Hamlet, or something. Regardless, it was fantastic.
-David physically in this scene...this is where we first see the jeans, bare feet, and horrible, horrible t-shirt that I mentioned above. However horrible the t-shirt though, the jeans and David’s toes were completely entertaining.
-Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are terrible liars. And Hamlet knows it. Hee. More of their own lameness emphasized and Hamlet’s awesomeness.
-Energetic, gleeful David when the players arrive. This is where his energy sparkled again. He leapt up on top of the basket to deliver the speech and it was utterly brilliant.
-The second soliloquy here was utterly brilliant. Odd as it may be, I’m not sure I really grasped the whole point of this speech until I saw David deliver it. Hamlet is pondering the meaning and the emotional depth in acting and comparing it to the intensity of his emotion. Really interesting speech for an ACTOR to delve into really. And without a doubt my favorite of his speeches of the night. Just really well delivered. Oddly enough, and I don’t THINK this is necessarily WHY I loved it so much, but it was also the soliloquy where he felt the most Doctorish to me. Some of the ways that he delivered a few of the lines did really strongly remind me of the Doctor. But that was okay. I still loved it. It was still brilliant.
Act III, Scene I.
-Oh, this is a big scene. To be or not to be? Get thee to a nunnery? Possible THE central heart of the play.
-Although, first of all. This is where doing my writeup off of the book doesn’t work. Because Gregory Doran DID make some directorial choices here, and actually, he moved this scene earlier in the play. Lol. So I’m commenting out of order. It occurred BEFORE Hamlet meets the players and decides to try to catch Claudius in his guilt. Not after that decision has been made. And it worked in that order. Because it emphasizes the fact that he’s uncertain until he decides to go get “the evidence” of his uncle’s guilt. To be or not to be is certainly a speech about uncertainty, and about coming to decisions about life and the meaning of it all.
-How cool must it have been for David to do this speech? I mean...seriously. A Shakespearean trained actor getting this opportunity to do this play, and then doing this speech, and in my case, in front of an audience for the very first time? It’s really, really cool.
-But, sadly, I don’t really have a lot to say about his performance. The critics are all saying that DT’s weaknesses as an actor show in the soliloquies. I don’t know that I agree with that. He doesn’t overdo them at all. His performance on the soliloquies is very understated. Which, honestly, I think is a good choice. Because the soliloquies ARE the character’s personal musings. So I like the idea of performing it that way. They almost felt like the audience is intruding on a personal moment - as established by the discomfort of watching him fall apart during the first soliloquy. And I think it’s good. David shines during the more humorous or lively moments because he’s such a physical actor. And the speeches are his quiet moments and I think it’s wise of them to focus it that way.
-The Get Thee To a Nunnery scene. I have to admit that this is a scene that I was paying special attention to. During the last week of my study program, a Shakespearean director, Nick Hutchinson, came in to speak to my class, and he talked at length about his thoughts about the “typical” readings of a lot of famous Shakespearean scenes, and what he would do differently if given the opportunity. And this scene was one of the ones he focused on. And he completely sold me on his reading of it and made me desperately want to see it done “his” way. So I have to admit, I was a teensy bit disappointed, because this production did do this scene in a very classical, typical reading. Hamlet angry and a bit on the abusive side as he teeters towards his madness while trying to send Ophelia away. Like I said, a teensy bit disappointed only because my mind was focusing on the other reading of it, but I have to admit that David’s performance was so good that I didn’t much care. Lol. It was such an explosion of anger and energy out of him that when he walked offstage at the end of the scene, I simply felt stunned and quiet. Very well done.
Act III, Scene II.
-The Mousetrap Scene! Arguably one of the most visibly stunning scenes of the production. The stage, which until now had been bare, was dressed up with the dias where the kind and queen sat to watch the play. The players’ costumes were quite stunning and impressive. It was just a fantastically dressed up sequence and very well done.
-Also, this is where David got into the tux...but with his bare feet still ;) LOVE the bare feet.
-This was another scene that really showed off David’s energy, as he danced around the stage directing the players before the play begins. And it didn’t slow down when the rest of the court came to join them. It was very clear, even with the appearance of Claudius, that this whole play was kinda Hamlet’s pet project. It was interesting.
-Oh, the stuff with Ophelia. The mockery of her, right down to the lewd suggestiveness. And of course the one “cunt” joke of the play. As I learned in my program, Shakespeare really loved his cunt jokes. The only, uh, problem for me with this scene is that I was sitting directly behind where Ophelia was on the stage. So all of these lewd jokes and cunt jokes, directed at Ophelia, were also directed in my general direction. Eep! So even though I’m not delusional or crazy or anything, I still found myself sitting there IN FRONT OF DAVID TENNANT while he sat there and threw lewd jokes in my general direction, and, well, as sugarsicons put it, “So basically, you were sitting there thinking ‘David Tennant is saying cunt at me!’” And the answer is YES! And I was blushing like a cherry.
-My only complaint though? Ophelia and Hamlet were lying in my corner of the stage watching the play, and I couldn’t see his face. I do very much wish I could have SEEN his face reacting to the play and to Claudius.
-Claudius’s reaction was VERY understated. In the program Gregory Doran commented that it was one of those questions that has to be determined - how much does Claudius give away in that scene, and how much of it is just Hamlet reading into things? Claudius’s reaction was very minor, and it DID make it questionable about whether Hamlet was just making a decision out of nowhere. He did get angry and walk off in the middle. But he didn’t LOOK shocked or guilty or anything. Did the mousetrap actually work? Well, it made Claudius feel guilty, and it made Hamlet decide that he was guilty, but it really didn’t give a lot away on the surface.
-The play-within-the-play itself had some gorgeous costumes and visuals, but it was very bawdy and kind of overdone. I’ll be honest. I found it a little obnoxious. Which is probably why I wanted to see David’s face so much - to give me a distraction. But it’s all good.
-Somewhere in here is the mirror scene that's becoming known thanks to the picture above, which is actually my desktop background right now. I'm actually having trouble remembering when this happened, but it's definitely key to the whole mirroring theme of the production. I think this was Hamlet gleeing after the play ended, but I can't quite remember. Maybe someone can remind me?
-After the play...once again we get Hamlet mindfucking, and like I said, these were the best scenes of the entire play. These are the scenes with the crooked crown, by the way. He picked up the player king’s crown and put it on after the play. This time around we get the pipe/recorder scene with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, and David was utterly brilliant in it. And then Polonius joins in on getting mindfucked, and...well, the scene simply sparkled.
Act III, Scene III.
-This is the sequence where Claudius reveals his guilt and kneels down to pray. And Hamlet comes upon him while he’s praying and considers murdering him, but decides to wait until a moment where Claudius can be certain to go to hell for his crimes.
-The weirdest thing about this scene, is that they cut to intermission halfway through this scene. Line 74 to be exact. Hamlet is standing over Claudius with his knife raised, planning to kill him, and they cut to black and give the intermission break a cliffhanger. Doran was quoted as saying he WANTED a cliffhanger intermission. But honestly? Cutting mid-scene was a little jarring. I didn’t care for that decision.
Act III, Scene IV.
-This is the scene in Gertrude’s Chamber.
-This is not in any sense a new interpretation of this scene, but they did it very violent. It was almost uncomfortable to watch. And a little bit of a strange Freudian vibe with Hamlet and Gertrude on her bed together. A lips kiss that lingered a little too long. But still mild - all of that stuff could have been played up a lot more and been even more uncomfortable. Instead Doran just barely touched on the surface - hinted at those interpretations without really digging into them.
-Of course this scene is also known as the scene of Polonius’s murder by Hamlet. This was the only “modern” murder of the play. Hamlet grabbed a gun out of Gertrude’s bedside drawer and shot him through the two-way mirror, which had a really cool cracking effect as a result. It was very visually fascinating.
-An interesting directorial choice - Hamlet didn’t seem to feel much guilt over murdering Polonius. Usually I think there’s at least some moment where he’s like, “shit...I just killed my girlfriend’s dad.” But not so much here. Mostly he just seemed to feel pity. Like, oh you poor fool, you got in my way.
-As Hamlet argues with Gertrude about Claudius, it’s interesting…they really played up the mirroring theme, as Hamlet pulls out two tabloid-esque newspapers and holds them up for her to see - one with Old Hamlet’s face on the cover, one with Claudius’s face, as he compares the character of the two men.
-When the Ghost appears, Gertrude does not see him. But the scene is set up to be a very strange sort of family portrait. The three of them on the bed together. The Ghost trying to touch Gertrude without actually being able to touch her, her not feeling him when he tries. It was very visually interesting.
-And of course, at the end, Hamlet leaves with Polonius’s body. And is ridiculous and throws a bit of comedy at the end of a very emotionally intense scene as he drags him offstage.
Act IV, Scene I.
-Not much to say about this scene, except that I found it very ambiguous whether or not Hamlet actually managed to get Gertrude on his side. I couldn’t quite tell her perspective, and I’m not sure if that was just another aspect of Doran’s decision to keep things ambiguous, or maybe just a fault of seeing the first show and having the play not entirely together yet.
Act IV, Scenes II and III
-Squeezing these two scenes together because they’re basically the same narrative.
-First we get a proper chase scene in the theater. And then Rosencrantz and Guildenstern capture Hamlet - and they really played up the comedy here. David was rolled in, duct taped to an office chair, and is questioned by Claudius.
-After Claudius leaves, we get the sponge scene. And OH how I love the sponge scene. When I was rereading the play before seeing it, this is a sequence that made me laugh out loud - so much in fact, that I read it aloud to tasyfa because I HAD to share. And I said to her, “I can’t WAIT to see David deliver this line.” And you know what? It was yet another fabulous, fabulous mindfuck scenes.
"...Besides, to be demanded of a sponge--what replication should be made by the son of a king?"
"Take you me for a sponge, my lord?"
"Ay, sir, that soaks up the king's countenance, his rewards, his authorities. But such officers do the kind best service in the end. He keeps them like an apple in the corner of his jaw, first mouthed to be last swallowed. When he needs what you have gleaned, it us but squeezing you, and sponge, you shall be dry again." (IV.III.9-18)
Yeah. I love that.
Act IV, Scene IV.
-This scene is after Hamlet’s been banished to England, and is returning home. He encounters Fortinbras’s army. It was kind of interesting, because this is one of the scenes where the modern aspect was played up. Fortinbras’s army was introduced as a modern army - helicopters and guns and the like.
-This is when Hamlet’s traveling clothes are in. Sneakers (NOT Chucks...which I found disturbing), jeans, a beanie on his head, parka, and he’s toting a backpack.
Act IV, Scene V.
-Ophelia’s “crazy” scene. I don’t know...did I mention my Ophelia issues above? I just can’t figure it out. The reviewers all love her and think that she never gets enough praise in this production, but I just found her...I dunno, ordinary and boring. Then again, I will admit that her insane scene was EXTREMELY uncomfortable to watch, because seriously, when this chick goes crazy, she goes CRAZY...complete with singing, skipping, mud, flowers, and inappropriate stripping. Maybe my issues simply stem from the fact that she was so good at the crazy that it was unpleasant to watch? I dunno. Her crazy was so good that it contrasted sharply with Hamlet’s crazy, which was clearly more of an act. But his act drove her insane.
Act IV, Scene VI.
-I’ve got nothing on this one. Sorry.
Act IV, Scene VII.
-Laertes returns and he and Claudius plot Hamlet’s murder.
-This is when Claudius’s manipulative power really comes across, as Hamlet sends separate letters to he and Gertrude, and Claudius reads and pockets them both.
-Ophelia dies offstage of course. An interesting decision on Shakespeare’s part that I’ve always been mildly fascinated by. It kind of emphasizes how unimportant she is within the story, but at the same time, she’s there throughout it all. I wonder sometimes if she was saying more in Shakespeare’s head than made it on stage. I mean, he doesn’t exactly SEEM like he was shy about the length of this play. But yet, this one character is so underrepresented in the plot in a way. Sometimes I think it feels like there’s just something missing.
-One line delivery that kinda bugged me: Laertes bawling his eyes out while reciting the line: "too much water hast thou" (IV.VII.183). I dunno, it felt very contradictory to me.
Act V, Scene I.
-The infamous graveyard scene. It’s such an entertaining scene, with the gravediggers as clowns, but it’s just such a strange, strange interlude in the play. I think this scene would work GREAT as a segue in after the intermission or something, except, of course, that it happens at the end of the play. It’s just kind of unsettling to be pulled into this strangely dark comedic scene right in the middle of all this drama.
-In this production, the gravediggers were wearing suits. Strange. Very strange.
-This is the only scene where they expanded the stage into “the underworld”. Or the area beneath the stage. Something Shakespeare also liked quite a bit. But it wasn’t completely in the underworld. Just the grave as an impression in the stage.
-The gravedigger seriously unceremoniously was just chucking skulls and bones around the stage. It was a little absurd.
-Alas, poor Yorick! Hamlet KEEPS his skull! Not only holds onto it for a bit, but makes a point of grabbing it before exiting at the end of the scene after his fight with Laertes.
Act V, Scene II.
-Osric the ass-kisser. Not much else to say about him. He was just very suave and very fake and Hamlet saw right through him - like he did with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Very good.
-Hamlet’s apology to Laertes was about half the length of what it is in the play, which I found a little disappointing, honestly. I think it’s a good little speech, his apology. But whatever. I also never bought in reading the play that he meant it ;)
-During the fencing sequence, they wound each other by cutting the back of the neck. It just seems like a strange choice of location.
-And Hamlet kills the king by cutting his hand. Another strange choice.
-There was very little blood in this ending. I know it’s odd that I found that surprising, but I think maybe subconsciously I was comparing it to King Lear at the Globe, which was ridiculously bloody. The only blood in this scene came at the very end, when Horatio is cradling the dying Hamlet.
-The end was extremely chopped down. Like, a lot. I don’t remember what the last line was exactly. But there was no Fortinbras, really. He was cast, but he just kind of appeared onstage and didn’t have any lines. Horatio’s description of all that happened was completely cut. Hamlet dies, and Horatio mourns him, and then it’s just kinda over.
About David Tennant
I know this is all most of you REALLY care about, so I’m cruel and leave it for the end.
First off, the accent. It was a little more polished than we’re used to hearing from him, but really, not all that different from the Doctor’s accent. Just a bit more emphasized linguistically, and less of a drawl.
Hamlet’s intense face. I have to say, remember, I was there the very first night, but I swear, a few times it looked like his eyebrow REALLY wanted to twitch up. Like it was taking him an effort to keep it down, because he’s getting so used to his “Doctor intense face” with the eyebrow up.
His best scenes, as I mentioned quite a few times, were when he was screwing around and messing with people’s heads. My least favorite scenes with him were the scenes when he was crying, mostly because he seemed very weak and it was a bit uncomfortable to watch. Which doesn’t indicate bad acting, just unpleasant as an audience.
The hair. Oh, the hair. It started out too polished and it freaked me out, but the further into the play we got, the more he began to mess with it, and I swear, by the halfway point, it was totally like the Doctor in Tooth and Claw. A complete wild mess. Wonderful. BBC News said that his hair deserves an acting award of its own, and I agree completely. It was fantastic.
The best soliloquy was the Hecuba speech. My least favorite was the last one, after he encounters Fortinbras’s army. As indicated by the fact that I don’t think I even mentioned it above.
The play was absolutely fantastic. Without a doubt my favorite Shakespeare play that I saw this summer out of seven. And I found myself wondering quite a bit if I loved it so much because of David, or if I loved it so much because it was such a great production. Honestly, the answer is probably both. David was mesmerizing. Absolutely mesmerizing. But it was also a fantastic production. I really wish that it had opened a few weeks earlier so that my classmates could have seen it instead of Taming of the Shrew. It was just wonderful. A 3 ½ hour production of Hamlet, and I was DISAPPOINTED when it ended. Because I wanted it to keep going. And my first thought afterwards were, “Damn...I wish I could see that again.” I’m holding out hope for a DVD. Preferably one that I can play.
pictures courtesy of the RSC. They don’t belong to me.
This is...long. As you might expect from me. 11 pages in word. Single spaced. I threw a few pictures in there to break it up, but not many. And I do a lot of commenting on the text, because, you know, I just spent a month studying Shakespeare. It's kind of habit at this point.
The Setting
Let’s start with the time period. Because it often had a very ageless feel to it, but it was definitely set in a more modern period. Characters wore jeans at times. David wore t-shirts in some scenes. It was only in the very obvious “court” scenes where people dressed up, and then it was typically in very classic looking suits. But you know...I liked it. It felt both timeless and like our own modern world, all at once, and it worked for me. There were swordfights AND gun-killings. They didn’t pick one or the other in order to maintain a timeline. Some of the arrival/departure sound effects signified modernity - helicopter sounds, truck back-up beeps, etc. The only Shakespearean garb we saw was in the Mousetrap scene, and that worked for me.
The Sets
It was a very sparsely decorated set. Plain black stage. But the cool thing: the backdrop was mirrored. Which added some very cool effects with reflections, and enabling the actors to address themselves in some of the monologues. Plus, obviously, it set a very interesting theme and mood to the whole feel of the production, which I found very interesting. Metaphors and symbolism and all that - which, of course, seeing as I’m an English major, got me thinking about the mirrored effect within the play. Hamlet and Old Hamlet. The murder and the Mousetrap. There’s really a lot of it there.
The Costumes
Well, this is tied in a bit to the setting of course. I talked about it a bit there. But after seeing the rehearsal pics and the poster, I was very curious about the costumes. And I have to admit, it was interesting. During the first act it was all stuffy suits in the court, and at that point in time, I really couldn’t tell if it was a period production or not. But then Ophelia came out in jeans and a blouse for her second scene. And in Act Three, David wore a t-shirt and jeans the entire time. And at that point ended up in his bare feet for the bulk of the play, which I found intensely distracting since I could see the smudge of dirt on his heel. Lol.
But I have to say, the t-shirt he wore was ridiculous. It was a red muscle shirt. You know, printed with fake muscles. It made me laugh out loud when he walked out. And I realize there was probably a metaphor there too, because that was the “Get thee to a nunnery” scene, which is typically one of Hamlet’s most violent scenes. But what leads into the “get thee to a nunnery scene”? The “to be or not to be” speech. Which David preformed in a red muscle shirt. I found it to be a strange choice, and really, in the grand scheme of things, it’s probably my only criticism of the production.
But really, he spent most of the production in some form of suit. The perfectly manicured suit pretty much only showed up in Act One, and from that point on it was usually a messy, half undone tux. With bare feet. Up until his banishment to England, at which point he ended up in traveling clothes (and a beanie!). And I have to admit, the Who fan in me was distracted by his shoes. Which were New Balance or Adidas or something. Normal sneakers on him looked weird to me. Lol.
Okay, moving on to other people. Patrick Stewart as Claudius was always in a very proper stuffy looking suit. Gertrude had some gorgeous silk dresses, etc. Ophelia, lots of sundresses and skirts. And the rest of the cast really mostly in suits. The only really “period” looking costumes were the soldiers, and as I mentioned earlier, the Shakespearean garb worn by the players during the Mousetrap sequence.
The Play!
I was so afraid that I’d forget to talk about something, that I decided to do this kinda like my obscenely long Doctor Who write-ups that I sometimes do. And I sat down, on my train ride back from Stratford, and my flight to Prague, with my copy of Hamlet, and started going through it scene by scene and writing down notes and thoughts about what I remember from that particular scene.
So this is going to be another long, rambly thing. And it helps to be somewhat familiar with Hamlet. And I’m warning you in advance that this is going to be a mix of David-talk, and talk about the play and the story itself, because I’m an English major and I simply can’t help talking about it from a literary angle at the same time as talking about it from a fannish angle.
Act 1, Scene 1
-The opening was purposefully slow. It was a really interesting directorial decision that I found kinda fascinating. The watchman slowly walked the length of the stage silently three or four times. With a good minute or two offstage in between each appearance. My reasons for finding this so interesting: 1. Purely the audience’s attention factor. Every time he walked on stage, the audience fell silent. But then he stayed offstage JUST long enough for the audience to get antsy and start talking again. It was almost like a game. 2. Time. Hamlet is such a LONG play, and I went in expecting this to be a LONG play, even with the edits. But the nature of this opening to me almost made a statement about the fact that they were NOT trying to rush it. That they were going to give this play the time they felt it deserved. Which is interesting. And by the way, in case you’re curious, it has a running time of 3 and a half hours. With a 20 minute intermission. So basically, 4 hours at the theater watching David Tennant. Utterly awesome, people. And I don’t know if other people felt this or not - but to me, I could have easily sat there for another hour. The play ended, and I wanted it to keep going. It was just that good.
-They used some interesting light affects in the opening. Plunging the audience into darkness to establish the night, with the only lighting coming from flashlights (torches?) that the watchmen were holding. It was very aesthetically cool.
-They did a very cool effect on the disappearance of the ghost at the end of the scene. 4 different actors in the ghosts costume all walked onto the stage and off in a different direction in the dark, so that you couldn’t tell exactly where and how the ghost disappeared. Plus, it gave the ghost a feeling of power that wasn’t there before. I liked it. A lot.
Act I, Scene II.
-Very much introducing the court as being stuffy and posh and suave. Everyone onstage in suits and formalwear, immaculately dressed. Everyone kissing Claudius’s ass, very prominently - except Hamlet of course. Claudius is presented as ridiculously suave, happy, and smooth.
-I kind of wish I could have seen David’s face in this scene, to see what kind of attitude Hamlet was giving to the court. But he was standing directly in my corner of the stage, which means that for the entire length of the court stuff in this scene, I was staring right at David’s ass, less than two feet in front of me. At first, I was annoyed! Because, you know, I couldn’t see his face! And then all of a sudden I realized I that his butt was right there and that wasn’t at all a bad thing ;) heh. I can admit to being shallow on occasion.
-Even so, though. I have to admit that I was feeling a little odd in this scene. Because here’s David, out onstage, in an immaculate suit, his hair perfectly combed, and it didn’t really feel like DAVID to me at first. It was very odd. And then he went into the first soliloquy in the middle of the scene, and he is SOBBING on the floor in his grief, and it was almost awkward feeling. Until Horatio walked in, and the energy shifted.
-David is always good, but there’s something about his interactivity with people that’s pretty special. When he and Horatio started their scene together, I just started grinning like an idiot, because THERE was the David Tennant energy that I so love. And the smiles, and the running across the stage for a hug from him. And the WTF expression that we so love when he hears about the ghost, and the disbelief and denial of it. This is the point where I started to really settle in and get sucked into his performance.
Act I, Scene III.
-Laertes and Ophelia. And because I know my classmates want to know because we had this discussion a few times during our program - no, they did not portray this relationship as the slightest bit incestuous. Just super-adorable, sweet sibling closeness between them.
Act I, Scene IV and V.
-Hamlet on the watch and meeting the ghost - I’m including the scenes together, because even though they’re separate in the script, they really do kind of run together to me. It’s hard to talk about one without the other.
-For the record, at least at my performance, this is the ONLY scene where David wore the coat you see on the poster.
-Special effects. It’s in the script that you can hear the palace celebrating, and they played it up with loud fireworks and music. Only, it was really distracting, because there’s dialogue happening at the same time, and I struggled at times to hear what Hamlet was saying. I just think they needed to turn the volume down a bit. Hopefully they realized that.
-When Hamlet and the ghost are alone, we get the first dialogue from the ghost, and I was a little worried about that. I know it’s probably an unfounded concern, but Patrick Stewart is Patrick Stewart, and I feel like every time I see him in ANYTHING now he’s just Patrick Stewart. The only exception I’ve ever seen where I was like, “Wow. He just did something out of left field.” Was his appearance on Extras. When he was playing...Patrick Stewart. So suffice to say, I was relieved that he mixed up his performance as the ghost from his performance as Claudius. The ghost was very harsh and guttural, whereas Claudius was very smooth and suave. Well done, Patrick Stewart.
-Once again I found myself with an actor on my corner of the stage, only this time it was Patrick Stewart as the ghost. And as his “ghostly special effects” they worked a fog machine into his coat. So he stood there on the corner of the stage two feet in front of me with his coat pumping fog out right into my face. LOL. The whole time I’m thinking, “don’t cough!” By halfway through the play, my throat was DRY from all the fog, but I was so happy about it. Lol.
-The scene between them was INTENSE. Very angry powerful ghost with Hamlet cowering on his knees and crying. It was kind of mesmerizing.
-Swear by my sword sequence with Horatio was also very intense. Very high energy, with David running around to all parts of the stage, and basically invoking the power of the ghost and marveling at it. This scene, to me, was kind of played as the first sign of Hamlet’s budding insanity. David’s energy was stunning and it was just incredible to watch.
Act II, Scene I.
-This is the scene where Oliver Ford Davies performance as Polonius got really good. He very much shifted Polonius into kind of a respected, but aged doddering old fool who rambles and gets lost in his own thoughts, and is repetitive in conversation. At one point I couldn’t tell if Davies actually FORGOT his lines, or was playing it up as Polonius being forgetful. There was a long, long moment of silence while he pondered over what he was saying. I’d actually be curious to hear if that is still the case in this scene at future performances!
Act II, Scene II.
-The actors who played Rosencrantz and Guildenstern seriously reminded me of Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. Particularly in Dogma when they’re running around being ridiculous together, but still manage to be really pretty at the same time ;)
-Production constantly pointed out Rosencrantz and Guildenstern’s worthlessness. Hamlet was constantly scorning them (although that’s definitely a written thing, not a reading of it), Claudius repeatedly mixed them up and forgot their names. It was amusing.
-I keep saying Davies was awesome as Polonius, and I really mean it. The scene where he explains his theories about Hamlet’s madness to Claudius and Gertrude was priceless. I was rolling in my seat.
-And then we get the fishmonger scene. And like I keep saying, the scenes between Polonius and Hamlet simply sparkled. You could tell that both actors were spot on and they played off of each other so well. This is one of those scenes where it’s absolutely the choice of the director on whether or not to portray Hamlet as mad or putting on an act, and I absolutely believed throughout this scene that Hamlet was just fucking with Polonius’s head because he enjoyed doing so (and it suited his plan for everyone to think he was crazy). And you could tell that Polonius couldn’t quite decide which one it was: madness, or fucking around. And settled on madness because he couldn’t imagine the opposite from Hamlet, or something. Regardless, it was fantastic.
-David physically in this scene...this is where we first see the jeans, bare feet, and horrible, horrible t-shirt that I mentioned above. However horrible the t-shirt though, the jeans and David’s toes were completely entertaining.
-Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are terrible liars. And Hamlet knows it. Hee. More of their own lameness emphasized and Hamlet’s awesomeness.
-Energetic, gleeful David when the players arrive. This is where his energy sparkled again. He leapt up on top of the basket to deliver the speech and it was utterly brilliant.
-The second soliloquy here was utterly brilliant. Odd as it may be, I’m not sure I really grasped the whole point of this speech until I saw David deliver it. Hamlet is pondering the meaning and the emotional depth in acting and comparing it to the intensity of his emotion. Really interesting speech for an ACTOR to delve into really. And without a doubt my favorite of his speeches of the night. Just really well delivered. Oddly enough, and I don’t THINK this is necessarily WHY I loved it so much, but it was also the soliloquy where he felt the most Doctorish to me. Some of the ways that he delivered a few of the lines did really strongly remind me of the Doctor. But that was okay. I still loved it. It was still brilliant.
Act III, Scene I.
-Oh, this is a big scene. To be or not to be? Get thee to a nunnery? Possible THE central heart of the play.
-Although, first of all. This is where doing my writeup off of the book doesn’t work. Because Gregory Doran DID make some directorial choices here, and actually, he moved this scene earlier in the play. Lol. So I’m commenting out of order. It occurred BEFORE Hamlet meets the players and decides to try to catch Claudius in his guilt. Not after that decision has been made. And it worked in that order. Because it emphasizes the fact that he’s uncertain until he decides to go get “the evidence” of his uncle’s guilt. To be or not to be is certainly a speech about uncertainty, and about coming to decisions about life and the meaning of it all.
-How cool must it have been for David to do this speech? I mean...seriously. A Shakespearean trained actor getting this opportunity to do this play, and then doing this speech, and in my case, in front of an audience for the very first time? It’s really, really cool.
-But, sadly, I don’t really have a lot to say about his performance. The critics are all saying that DT’s weaknesses as an actor show in the soliloquies. I don’t know that I agree with that. He doesn’t overdo them at all. His performance on the soliloquies is very understated. Which, honestly, I think is a good choice. Because the soliloquies ARE the character’s personal musings. So I like the idea of performing it that way. They almost felt like the audience is intruding on a personal moment - as established by the discomfort of watching him fall apart during the first soliloquy. And I think it’s good. David shines during the more humorous or lively moments because he’s such a physical actor. And the speeches are his quiet moments and I think it’s wise of them to focus it that way.
-The Get Thee To a Nunnery scene. I have to admit that this is a scene that I was paying special attention to. During the last week of my study program, a Shakespearean director, Nick Hutchinson, came in to speak to my class, and he talked at length about his thoughts about the “typical” readings of a lot of famous Shakespearean scenes, and what he would do differently if given the opportunity. And this scene was one of the ones he focused on. And he completely sold me on his reading of it and made me desperately want to see it done “his” way. So I have to admit, I was a teensy bit disappointed, because this production did do this scene in a very classical, typical reading. Hamlet angry and a bit on the abusive side as he teeters towards his madness while trying to send Ophelia away. Like I said, a teensy bit disappointed only because my mind was focusing on the other reading of it, but I have to admit that David’s performance was so good that I didn’t much care. Lol. It was such an explosion of anger and energy out of him that when he walked offstage at the end of the scene, I simply felt stunned and quiet. Very well done.
Act III, Scene II.
-The Mousetrap Scene! Arguably one of the most visibly stunning scenes of the production. The stage, which until now had been bare, was dressed up with the dias where the kind and queen sat to watch the play. The players’ costumes were quite stunning and impressive. It was just a fantastically dressed up sequence and very well done.
-Also, this is where David got into the tux...but with his bare feet still ;) LOVE the bare feet.
-This was another scene that really showed off David’s energy, as he danced around the stage directing the players before the play begins. And it didn’t slow down when the rest of the court came to join them. It was very clear, even with the appearance of Claudius, that this whole play was kinda Hamlet’s pet project. It was interesting.
-Oh, the stuff with Ophelia. The mockery of her, right down to the lewd suggestiveness. And of course the one “cunt” joke of the play. As I learned in my program, Shakespeare really loved his cunt jokes. The only, uh, problem for me with this scene is that I was sitting directly behind where Ophelia was on the stage. So all of these lewd jokes and cunt jokes, directed at Ophelia, were also directed in my general direction. Eep! So even though I’m not delusional or crazy or anything, I still found myself sitting there IN FRONT OF DAVID TENNANT while he sat there and threw lewd jokes in my general direction, and, well, as sugarsicons put it, “So basically, you were sitting there thinking ‘David Tennant is saying cunt at me!’” And the answer is YES! And I was blushing like a cherry.
-My only complaint though? Ophelia and Hamlet were lying in my corner of the stage watching the play, and I couldn’t see his face. I do very much wish I could have SEEN his face reacting to the play and to Claudius.
-Claudius’s reaction was VERY understated. In the program Gregory Doran commented that it was one of those questions that has to be determined - how much does Claudius give away in that scene, and how much of it is just Hamlet reading into things? Claudius’s reaction was very minor, and it DID make it questionable about whether Hamlet was just making a decision out of nowhere. He did get angry and walk off in the middle. But he didn’t LOOK shocked or guilty or anything. Did the mousetrap actually work? Well, it made Claudius feel guilty, and it made Hamlet decide that he was guilty, but it really didn’t give a lot away on the surface.
-The play-within-the-play itself had some gorgeous costumes and visuals, but it was very bawdy and kind of overdone. I’ll be honest. I found it a little obnoxious. Which is probably why I wanted to see David’s face so much - to give me a distraction. But it’s all good.
-Somewhere in here is the mirror scene that's becoming known thanks to the picture above, which is actually my desktop background right now. I'm actually having trouble remembering when this happened, but it's definitely key to the whole mirroring theme of the production. I think this was Hamlet gleeing after the play ended, but I can't quite remember. Maybe someone can remind me?
-After the play...once again we get Hamlet mindfucking, and like I said, these were the best scenes of the entire play. These are the scenes with the crooked crown, by the way. He picked up the player king’s crown and put it on after the play. This time around we get the pipe/recorder scene with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, and David was utterly brilliant in it. And then Polonius joins in on getting mindfucked, and...well, the scene simply sparkled.
Act III, Scene III.
-This is the sequence where Claudius reveals his guilt and kneels down to pray. And Hamlet comes upon him while he’s praying and considers murdering him, but decides to wait until a moment where Claudius can be certain to go to hell for his crimes.
-The weirdest thing about this scene, is that they cut to intermission halfway through this scene. Line 74 to be exact. Hamlet is standing over Claudius with his knife raised, planning to kill him, and they cut to black and give the intermission break a cliffhanger. Doran was quoted as saying he WANTED a cliffhanger intermission. But honestly? Cutting mid-scene was a little jarring. I didn’t care for that decision.
Act III, Scene IV.
-This is the scene in Gertrude’s Chamber.
-This is not in any sense a new interpretation of this scene, but they did it very violent. It was almost uncomfortable to watch. And a little bit of a strange Freudian vibe with Hamlet and Gertrude on her bed together. A lips kiss that lingered a little too long. But still mild - all of that stuff could have been played up a lot more and been even more uncomfortable. Instead Doran just barely touched on the surface - hinted at those interpretations without really digging into them.
-Of course this scene is also known as the scene of Polonius’s murder by Hamlet. This was the only “modern” murder of the play. Hamlet grabbed a gun out of Gertrude’s bedside drawer and shot him through the two-way mirror, which had a really cool cracking effect as a result. It was very visually fascinating.
-An interesting directorial choice - Hamlet didn’t seem to feel much guilt over murdering Polonius. Usually I think there’s at least some moment where he’s like, “shit...I just killed my girlfriend’s dad.” But not so much here. Mostly he just seemed to feel pity. Like, oh you poor fool, you got in my way.
-As Hamlet argues with Gertrude about Claudius, it’s interesting…they really played up the mirroring theme, as Hamlet pulls out two tabloid-esque newspapers and holds them up for her to see - one with Old Hamlet’s face on the cover, one with Claudius’s face, as he compares the character of the two men.
-When the Ghost appears, Gertrude does not see him. But the scene is set up to be a very strange sort of family portrait. The three of them on the bed together. The Ghost trying to touch Gertrude without actually being able to touch her, her not feeling him when he tries. It was very visually interesting.
-And of course, at the end, Hamlet leaves with Polonius’s body. And is ridiculous and throws a bit of comedy at the end of a very emotionally intense scene as he drags him offstage.
Act IV, Scene I.
-Not much to say about this scene, except that I found it very ambiguous whether or not Hamlet actually managed to get Gertrude on his side. I couldn’t quite tell her perspective, and I’m not sure if that was just another aspect of Doran’s decision to keep things ambiguous, or maybe just a fault of seeing the first show and having the play not entirely together yet.
Act IV, Scenes II and III
-Squeezing these two scenes together because they’re basically the same narrative.
-First we get a proper chase scene in the theater. And then Rosencrantz and Guildenstern capture Hamlet - and they really played up the comedy here. David was rolled in, duct taped to an office chair, and is questioned by Claudius.
-After Claudius leaves, we get the sponge scene. And OH how I love the sponge scene. When I was rereading the play before seeing it, this is a sequence that made me laugh out loud - so much in fact, that I read it aloud to tasyfa because I HAD to share. And I said to her, “I can’t WAIT to see David deliver this line.” And you know what? It was yet another fabulous, fabulous mindfuck scenes.
"...Besides, to be demanded of a sponge--what replication should be made by the son of a king?"
"Take you me for a sponge, my lord?"
"Ay, sir, that soaks up the king's countenance, his rewards, his authorities. But such officers do the kind best service in the end. He keeps them like an apple in the corner of his jaw, first mouthed to be last swallowed. When he needs what you have gleaned, it us but squeezing you, and sponge, you shall be dry again." (IV.III.9-18)
Yeah. I love that.
Act IV, Scene IV.
-This scene is after Hamlet’s been banished to England, and is returning home. He encounters Fortinbras’s army. It was kind of interesting, because this is one of the scenes where the modern aspect was played up. Fortinbras’s army was introduced as a modern army - helicopters and guns and the like.
-This is when Hamlet’s traveling clothes are in. Sneakers (NOT Chucks...which I found disturbing), jeans, a beanie on his head, parka, and he’s toting a backpack.
Act IV, Scene V.
-Ophelia’s “crazy” scene. I don’t know...did I mention my Ophelia issues above? I just can’t figure it out. The reviewers all love her and think that she never gets enough praise in this production, but I just found her...I dunno, ordinary and boring. Then again, I will admit that her insane scene was EXTREMELY uncomfortable to watch, because seriously, when this chick goes crazy, she goes CRAZY...complete with singing, skipping, mud, flowers, and inappropriate stripping. Maybe my issues simply stem from the fact that she was so good at the crazy that it was unpleasant to watch? I dunno. Her crazy was so good that it contrasted sharply with Hamlet’s crazy, which was clearly more of an act. But his act drove her insane.
Act IV, Scene VI.
-I’ve got nothing on this one. Sorry.
Act IV, Scene VII.
-Laertes returns and he and Claudius plot Hamlet’s murder.
-This is when Claudius’s manipulative power really comes across, as Hamlet sends separate letters to he and Gertrude, and Claudius reads and pockets them both.
-Ophelia dies offstage of course. An interesting decision on Shakespeare’s part that I’ve always been mildly fascinated by. It kind of emphasizes how unimportant she is within the story, but at the same time, she’s there throughout it all. I wonder sometimes if she was saying more in Shakespeare’s head than made it on stage. I mean, he doesn’t exactly SEEM like he was shy about the length of this play. But yet, this one character is so underrepresented in the plot in a way. Sometimes I think it feels like there’s just something missing.
-One line delivery that kinda bugged me: Laertes bawling his eyes out while reciting the line: "too much water hast thou" (IV.VII.183). I dunno, it felt very contradictory to me.
Act V, Scene I.
-The infamous graveyard scene. It’s such an entertaining scene, with the gravediggers as clowns, but it’s just such a strange, strange interlude in the play. I think this scene would work GREAT as a segue in after the intermission or something, except, of course, that it happens at the end of the play. It’s just kind of unsettling to be pulled into this strangely dark comedic scene right in the middle of all this drama.
-In this production, the gravediggers were wearing suits. Strange. Very strange.
-This is the only scene where they expanded the stage into “the underworld”. Or the area beneath the stage. Something Shakespeare also liked quite a bit. But it wasn’t completely in the underworld. Just the grave as an impression in the stage.
-The gravedigger seriously unceremoniously was just chucking skulls and bones around the stage. It was a little absurd.
-Alas, poor Yorick! Hamlet KEEPS his skull! Not only holds onto it for a bit, but makes a point of grabbing it before exiting at the end of the scene after his fight with Laertes.
Act V, Scene II.
-Osric the ass-kisser. Not much else to say about him. He was just very suave and very fake and Hamlet saw right through him - like he did with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Very good.
-Hamlet’s apology to Laertes was about half the length of what it is in the play, which I found a little disappointing, honestly. I think it’s a good little speech, his apology. But whatever. I also never bought in reading the play that he meant it ;)
-During the fencing sequence, they wound each other by cutting the back of the neck. It just seems like a strange choice of location.
-And Hamlet kills the king by cutting his hand. Another strange choice.
-There was very little blood in this ending. I know it’s odd that I found that surprising, but I think maybe subconsciously I was comparing it to King Lear at the Globe, which was ridiculously bloody. The only blood in this scene came at the very end, when Horatio is cradling the dying Hamlet.
-The end was extremely chopped down. Like, a lot. I don’t remember what the last line was exactly. But there was no Fortinbras, really. He was cast, but he just kind of appeared onstage and didn’t have any lines. Horatio’s description of all that happened was completely cut. Hamlet dies, and Horatio mourns him, and then it’s just kinda over.
About David Tennant
I know this is all most of you REALLY care about, so I’m cruel and leave it for the end.
First off, the accent. It was a little more polished than we’re used to hearing from him, but really, not all that different from the Doctor’s accent. Just a bit more emphasized linguistically, and less of a drawl.
Hamlet’s intense face. I have to say, remember, I was there the very first night, but I swear, a few times it looked like his eyebrow REALLY wanted to twitch up. Like it was taking him an effort to keep it down, because he’s getting so used to his “Doctor intense face” with the eyebrow up.
His best scenes, as I mentioned quite a few times, were when he was screwing around and messing with people’s heads. My least favorite scenes with him were the scenes when he was crying, mostly because he seemed very weak and it was a bit uncomfortable to watch. Which doesn’t indicate bad acting, just unpleasant as an audience.
The hair. Oh, the hair. It started out too polished and it freaked me out, but the further into the play we got, the more he began to mess with it, and I swear, by the halfway point, it was totally like the Doctor in Tooth and Claw. A complete wild mess. Wonderful. BBC News said that his hair deserves an acting award of its own, and I agree completely. It was fantastic.
The best soliloquy was the Hecuba speech. My least favorite was the last one, after he encounters Fortinbras’s army. As indicated by the fact that I don’t think I even mentioned it above.
The play was absolutely fantastic. Without a doubt my favorite Shakespeare play that I saw this summer out of seven. And I found myself wondering quite a bit if I loved it so much because of David, or if I loved it so much because it was such a great production. Honestly, the answer is probably both. David was mesmerizing. Absolutely mesmerizing. But it was also a fantastic production. I really wish that it had opened a few weeks earlier so that my classmates could have seen it instead of Taming of the Shrew. It was just wonderful. A 3 ½ hour production of Hamlet, and I was DISAPPOINTED when it ended. Because I wanted it to keep going. And my first thought afterwards were, “Damn...I wish I could see that again.” I’m holding out hope for a DVD. Preferably one that I can play.
pictures courtesy of the RSC. They don’t belong to me.