(no subject)
So on Saturday, despite TfL's best efforts, N & I went to see Hamlet at the Young Vic... otherwise known as Michael Sheen's Hamlet and/or the Hamlet set in a psychiatric hospital.
Hamlet @Young Vic
I should start by saying that I am not really a big fan of high concept/gimmicky stagings of Shakespeare plays. Set them in a different time and/or place by all means but PLEASE note that they don't need high concept AND that if you're going to just entirely ignore the words of the actual play I'm going to get quite judge-y over the whole thing.
So yes. Not incredibly impressed. But the best/worst bit? Michael Sheen is brilliant. Might actually be my favourite of the 4 Hamlet's I've seen and I would have LOVED for that performance to have been in a more standard production so I could have enjoyed it rather than spending half the play trying to guess who was staff/doctors and who were patients and WHY is Horatio a girl? and who in their right mind would let two patients (patient & ex-patient? IDK) have a SWORD FIGHT.
Honestly it made NO SENSE. It was atmospheric and the ghost stuff at the start was very creepy because they plunged the whole theatre into absolute darkness each time the ghost apepared which allowed Michael Sheen to don the "ghost's" coat when Hamlet was watching so he was Hamlet & his own father and okay that was kind of clever... a lot of the stuff at the start was "kind of" clever but it took me far too long to realise Polonius was meant to be a doctor too and I never did figure out who Horatio was in relation to the whole hospital thing.
(and I wasn't desperately convinced by the gender-blind casting either, Rosencrantz was a woman too but they still used male pronouns and it made some interesting tensions but mostly just made me confused)
In the second half there was some very clever staging with the whole centre of the thrust stage being lifted up to reveal a sort of sandpit with the grave in the middle BUT at about this point they completely forgot their setting entirely as far as I could tell and just did the play which was mildly annoying.
Nice touch that Ophelia lay in the grave and then came back to life as the fencing master person (and Polonius still covered in blood played various small parts) as if Hamlet were being haunted.
I just... there were many nice touches all put into this utterly stupid and pointless concept imo.
But Michael Sheen was frightening as the ghost and did To Be or Not To Be with a really nice simplicity like he was really reasoning it out and I loved every scene that was just Hamlet on his own.
So... yes. Thumbs down to the production but a big thumbs up for Michael Sheen.
Hamlet @Young Vic
I should start by saying that I am not really a big fan of high concept/gimmicky stagings of Shakespeare plays. Set them in a different time and/or place by all means but PLEASE note that they don't need high concept AND that if you're going to just entirely ignore the words of the actual play I'm going to get quite judge-y over the whole thing.
So yes. Not incredibly impressed. But the best/worst bit? Michael Sheen is brilliant. Might actually be my favourite of the 4 Hamlet's I've seen and I would have LOVED for that performance to have been in a more standard production so I could have enjoyed it rather than spending half the play trying to guess who was staff/doctors and who were patients and WHY is Horatio a girl? and who in their right mind would let two patients (patient & ex-patient? IDK) have a SWORD FIGHT.
Honestly it made NO SENSE. It was atmospheric and the ghost stuff at the start was very creepy because they plunged the whole theatre into absolute darkness each time the ghost apepared which allowed Michael Sheen to don the "ghost's" coat when Hamlet was watching so he was Hamlet & his own father and okay that was kind of clever... a lot of the stuff at the start was "kind of" clever but it took me far too long to realise Polonius was meant to be a doctor too and I never did figure out who Horatio was in relation to the whole hospital thing.
(and I wasn't desperately convinced by the gender-blind casting either, Rosencrantz was a woman too but they still used male pronouns and it made some interesting tensions but mostly just made me confused)
In the second half there was some very clever staging with the whole centre of the thrust stage being lifted up to reveal a sort of sandpit with the grave in the middle BUT at about this point they completely forgot their setting entirely as far as I could tell and just did the play which was mildly annoying.
Nice touch that Ophelia lay in the grave and then came back to life as the fencing master person (and Polonius still covered in blood played various small parts) as if Hamlet were being haunted.
I just... there were many nice touches all put into this utterly stupid and pointless concept imo.
But Michael Sheen was frightening as the ghost and did To Be or Not To Be with a really nice simplicity like he was really reasoning it out and I loved every scene that was just Hamlet on his own.
So... yes. Thumbs down to the production but a big thumbs up for Michael Sheen.