Hamlet
Back from this season's RSC Hamlet.
It wasn't as good as As You Like It but I've come to the understanding that that As You Like It was exceptional.
I refer to it as the Hamlet problem, which is that Hamlet is a dick. And it takes a particular combination of actor, production and take on the play to make me forget that. And when I don't, I find myself cheering for poor Laertes. Or wondering why Hamlet doesn't get on with it and kill Claudius already. Although it didn't reach the depths that one version (*cough* Gibson/Zefferelli *cough*) reached of "would you die already."
This isn't the fault of the actor playing Hamlet, who did his best, but there was a really peculiar tone to the production, like they couldn't decide whether to do it straight or to do it as a pitch black comedy. Not that Hamlet isn't funny, in parts, but yeah, really weird zig-zagging.
And they got the gravedigger bit to be funny, which it isn't always. And it's the only production that I've ever seen that makes the Queen's cry of "The drink, the drink! I am poison'd." actually work.
They also did something interesting with Ophelia, because Pippa Nixon is a powerful actress and although slight, quite tall, so it means Hamlet being violent with her (and Gertrude later) looks so much worse. And they leave her "dead" body onstage from the burial scene to the end and Hamlet looks at her before keeling over and that bit (and Ophelia's mad scenes) really did work. As did Gertrude.
I love how they did the movement for the ghost. Work had also gone into the fencing theme as well. I am left wondering though if Laertes's fencing style was deliberately more orthodox than Hamlet's.
The other interesting thing, from the programme, was that one of Guildenstern and Rosencrantz (I looked it up, apparently he was Rosencrantz) was Hamlet's understudy. It was the man who played Jaques in As You Like It and given how well he played gone, plain gone, in that, I'd be really interested to see him as Hamlet, even if I don't think it would help at all with the mood problem, especially as this, despite what was in the programme, seemed to be of the "Hamlet is sane (ish)" school, in the sense of yes, prozac would help but the antic parts of his disposition were all a put on.
Also, if I ever see Alex Waldmann's name on anything again, I will be there quicker than a flash. Because yes, he's good. Him and Pippa Nixon.
It wasn't as good as As You Like It but I've come to the understanding that that As You Like It was exceptional.
I refer to it as the Hamlet problem, which is that Hamlet is a dick. And it takes a particular combination of actor, production and take on the play to make me forget that. And when I don't, I find myself cheering for poor Laertes. Or wondering why Hamlet doesn't get on with it and kill Claudius already. Although it didn't reach the depths that one version (*cough* Gibson/Zefferelli *cough*) reached of "would you die already."
This isn't the fault of the actor playing Hamlet, who did his best, but there was a really peculiar tone to the production, like they couldn't decide whether to do it straight or to do it as a pitch black comedy. Not that Hamlet isn't funny, in parts, but yeah, really weird zig-zagging.
And they got the gravedigger bit to be funny, which it isn't always. And it's the only production that I've ever seen that makes the Queen's cry of "The drink, the drink! I am poison'd." actually work.
They also did something interesting with Ophelia, because Pippa Nixon is a powerful actress and although slight, quite tall, so it means Hamlet being violent with her (and Gertrude later) looks so much worse. And they leave her "dead" body onstage from the burial scene to the end and Hamlet looks at her before keeling over and that bit (and Ophelia's mad scenes) really did work. As did Gertrude.
I love how they did the movement for the ghost. Work had also gone into the fencing theme as well. I am left wondering though if Laertes's fencing style was deliberately more orthodox than Hamlet's.
The other interesting thing, from the programme, was that one of Guildenstern and Rosencrantz (I looked it up, apparently he was Rosencrantz) was Hamlet's understudy. It was the man who played Jaques in As You Like It and given how well he played gone, plain gone, in that, I'd be really interested to see him as Hamlet, even if I don't think it would help at all with the mood problem, especially as this, despite what was in the programme, seemed to be of the "Hamlet is sane (ish)" school, in the sense of yes, prozac would help but the antic parts of his disposition were all a put on.
Also, if I ever see Alex Waldmann's name on anything again, I will be there quicker than a flash. Because yes, he's good. Him and Pippa Nixon.