Theatre review: Hamlet (Shakespeare's Globe & tour)

[nick730]

This isn't just my first trip to the Globe's 2011 season but also my first (and so far likely to be the only) Hamlet of the year. Before I start, several months ago aka_kelly and I had, for some reason, a lengthy conversation about the Globe's rather collectable programmes, which for last year's "Kings and Rogues" season had covers that gave each production

Comments

[ems]

See, now I've been feeling kind of bad that I'm seeing everything else this season BAR Hamlet. sgskgadkjgsd. Also someone told me to go watch the Ben Whishaw version of Hamlet at the V&A and then just get on with it, so maybe I should do that? I AM OVERTHINKING THIS.

[nick730]

Heh, "you're overthinking this" is basically what I was trying to say, but I guess using eight sentences where three words would do is at least appropriately Poloniusesque. I think that even though I don't know you in person, I'm very much putting myself in your position (especially after you tweeted the other day about how shit it is to have missed something "unmissable") and because Hamlet is so hugely open to interpretation, it has so many more of those little details that still stick in my memory, like Sam West's Hamlet sharing a spliff with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, Claire Higgins' alcoholic Gertrude, Penny Downie's Gertrude realising the wine's drugged and drinking it anyway or most apt for you perhaps, Grant O'Rourke's Hamlet fanboying the Player King which I imagine probably wasn't a million miles away from you meeting Jamie Parker. Basically hurry up, you need to start building your own collection of these

[aka_kelly]

Ah, I get what you mean now.....a good choice really to use "old script" letters...it gives plenty of scope to generate an "atmosphere" to suit the production.

[nick730]

Yep they have a nice balance of theming the whole season while giving the show its individuality. I'll keep posting the rest in my reviews over the summer but in the meantime the two shows I won't be going to: Anne