Excerpts from the Travel Journal, Day Five: Hamlet

[earlgreytea68]

The next day was our Charlecote (pronounced Charle-cut) day. We woke in the morning and went down to the little shop. A house tour came with our stay, and we were able to do a little pre-tour that took us through the house while it was still shut up, so they could tell us about the preservation efforts. It was actually really interesting. When you

Comments

[brokentimelord]

*cries* I wanna see Hamlet soooooo bad. Maybe They'll do a dvd?

[tzikeh]

If the RSC doesn't record this as filmed for tv and release a DVD, they are MORONS. It would bring them millions of dollars.

[earlgreytea68]

It really would, but that organization, as far as I can tell, is pretty bloody rich to start off with.

[earlgreytea68]

I've no clue, but they ought to. It was an excellent production.

[rattus_aerius]

DT whistling and playing the recorder, all with the crown tipped jauntily on his head; DT tucking his shirt in on stage; the way they use DT’s hair, which starts the play slicked back and gets messier as the play goes on;

That's a couple of my favorite things. XD

one where you’re close enough to see the cut of the individual strands of his hair

That's how I saw it, but I won't complain about missing some of the action. ;)

Patrick Stewart was an excellent Claudius. We know this because I noticed he was on stage.

Hee. I'm a PS fangirl so it was really difficult when he and DT were on stage at the same time to decide who to look at. ;)

I'm glad you had a great time. :)

[earlgreytea68]

"That's a couple of my favorite things. XD"

Indeed.

"I won't complain about missing some of the action. ;)"

Absolutely not. But it was kind of the best of both worlds seeing the plays in such radically different ways.

"I'm a PS fangirl so it was really difficult when he and DT were on stage at the same time to decide who to look at. ;)"

I don't really know much about PS, so it wasn't really a contest for me who I would be watching. But I noticed PS, so he had to be doing a good job.

[np_complete]

I'm enjoying reading reviews of Hamlet by people lucky enough to be able to see the production. It makes it easy to imagine what it was like.

[earlgreytea68]

I'm so glad! I was hoping the description would help!

[azriona]

we kind of got roped into a talk on Elizabethan costumes that lasted roughly five hours.

And you thought me going on about that blue coat was bad. *grin*

Fantastic review of Hamlet - probably the best I've read so far. I appreciate your mentioning of Patrick Stewart; I've loved him for ages, and everyone else just goes right over his part. You'd think he wasn't in the play at all. *sigh*

[tzikeh]

The British reviews don't skip him - in fact they almost all say he's the best thing in the play and they expect him to win the Olivier for it.

[earlgreytea68]

Yes, I've read that in the British reviews. If I had to pick the best thing in the play, though, and if I had to pick something other than DT because of my obvious bias, I'd go with the woman who played Gertrude, who made the character just a revelation to me. Stewart was very good, but Claudius is just one of Shakespeare's less interesting characters to me, really.

[azriona]

they expect him to win the Olivier for it.

Hear hear!

(Yeah, but I haven't been reading any official reviews, just the ones on LJ. If I joined a few Trekkie communities I'd get my fill of PS-centric reviews, but Trekkie communities are scary, scary places.)

[denara]

You should have hit the stage door that time, everyone was amazingly polite and nice. I'd refused to go on principle for months leading up to it, even at the interval (I can't stand fangirling live, we hold our squees until we're in the car), and I still wound up wandering over and ended up getting my program signed and exchanging a few words with DT. The crowd even let the short girl in our group up closer so she could get her program signed.

But yeah, we cringed seeing all the teenagers coming into the show, but everyone was extremely well behaved... I have to give them credit. Maybe it was a local student night. I didn't notice any squee-ing, and I'm usually pretty sensitive to it.

[earlgreytea68]

Eh, we're very old and very lazy, and it ended up being kind of nice to do something crazy like sit for three hours to get to him. Plus, I am very short, and as a result I really despise fighting with crowds. I'm glad they were so nice to your friend!

Everyone was extremely quiet for the play, and we appreciated that, but it seemed to be a bit high-pitched during the applause. Again, we are very, very old.

[denara]

Everyone was extremely quiet for the play, and we appreciated that, but it seemed to be a bit high-pitched during the applause. Again, we are very, very old.

That man seemed to be eating it up though during the curtain call. He even winked. He must've been in a good mood.

[earlgreytea68]

Aw, I missed the wink!