Amy (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
such_heights) wrote2008-09-18 02:29 am
such_heights) wrote2008-09-18 02:29 am
Hamlet at the RSC: my inner drama geek is so, so happy
Omg Hamlet. In short, it was amazing.
Omg omg omg. Okay, no, that's not the whole review. And don't get me wrong, a lot of my flail is Tennant-related, but mostly in the respect that he produced the most incredible Hamlet, and much more flail is also general HI GREGORY DORAN YOU ARE MOST EXCELLENT. The whole thing was just beautiful. Let us bulletpoint before I descend into a world of capslock and insanity.
-- The lighting! Oh, oh, the lighting. In that first, gorgeously atmospheric scene, the guards and Horatio were equipped with flashlights that they bounced off the mirrored floor to reflect onto each others' faces and thus direct the course of the action. Guh. It was seamless and totally wonderful. Throughout the production, chandeliers falling down or the gauze at the back of the stage illuminating key points and setting a kind of austere, regal atmosphere that managed to be pretty timeless even as the costumes and general tone definitively set the production as somewhat modern.
-- Nnngh, Stratford theatres make me so exceedingly happy. The stage juts out into a three-sided audience, the production staged such that there probably doesn't exist a single perfect view, which is more than made up for by the intimacy of it all. Being second row bang smack in the middle saw all sorts of things either side of me, from guards arriving down the centre to Hamlet mourning Ophelia just to the right of me.
-- In many ways the entire production rested on Gertrude, really, the emotional heart of the piece as Doran put it together, her inner turmoil just as profoundly realised as her son's. Penny Downie ruled the stage for every moment she was present. ♥
-- As for Patrick Stewart, I- I really am not quite sure what to make of the chosen portrayal of his character. Claudius really seemed too nice, practically incapable of both murdering his brother and eventually plotting the downfall of his nephew. I couldn't get my head quite around that, which was a shame, because as ever Stewart was just phenomenal, I could listen to him recite Shakespeare for a lifetime.
-- DAVID TENNANT. Oh, my word. Incredible, incredible. Heartbreaking, hugely sympathetic, and surprisingly comical, to my unstudied mind (I've actually yet to even read the play) he nailed it. Any perceived 'celebrity' and such rapidly vanished as both he and the audience were sucked into this story, his inaction compelling, his mental state mesmerising. I was anticipating good things, and he completely blew out my expectations.
-- On a less substantial note, I would like to state for the general record that he is ridiculously skinny, more so than you'd imagine from TV.
-- I really would love to see it again; alas that I shall not be able to. Utterly, utterly fantastic.
Omg omg omg. Okay, no, that's not the whole review. And don't get me wrong, a lot of my flail is Tennant-related, but mostly in the respect that he produced the most incredible Hamlet, and much more flail is also general HI GREGORY DORAN YOU ARE MOST EXCELLENT. The whole thing was just beautiful. Let us bulletpoint before I descend into a world of capslock and insanity.
-- The lighting! Oh, oh, the lighting. In that first, gorgeously atmospheric scene, the guards and Horatio were equipped with flashlights that they bounced off the mirrored floor to reflect onto each others' faces and thus direct the course of the action. Guh. It was seamless and totally wonderful. Throughout the production, chandeliers falling down or the gauze at the back of the stage illuminating key points and setting a kind of austere, regal atmosphere that managed to be pretty timeless even as the costumes and general tone definitively set the production as somewhat modern.
-- Nnngh, Stratford theatres make me so exceedingly happy. The stage juts out into a three-sided audience, the production staged such that there probably doesn't exist a single perfect view, which is more than made up for by the intimacy of it all. Being second row bang smack in the middle saw all sorts of things either side of me, from guards arriving down the centre to Hamlet mourning Ophelia just to the right of me.
-- In many ways the entire production rested on Gertrude, really, the emotional heart of the piece as Doran put it together, her inner turmoil just as profoundly realised as her son's. Penny Downie ruled the stage for every moment she was present. ♥
-- As for Patrick Stewart, I- I really am not quite sure what to make of the chosen portrayal of his character. Claudius really seemed too nice, practically incapable of both murdering his brother and eventually plotting the downfall of his nephew. I couldn't get my head quite around that, which was a shame, because as ever Stewart was just phenomenal, I could listen to him recite Shakespeare for a lifetime.
-- DAVID TENNANT. Oh, my word. Incredible, incredible. Heartbreaking, hugely sympathetic, and surprisingly comical, to my unstudied mind (I've actually yet to even read the play) he nailed it. Any perceived 'celebrity' and such rapidly vanished as both he and the audience were sucked into this story, his inaction compelling, his mental state mesmerising. I was anticipating good things, and he completely blew out my expectations.
-- On a less substantial note, I would like to state for the general record that he is ridiculously skinny, more so than you'd imagine from TV.
-- I really would love to see it again; alas that I shall not be able to. Utterly, utterly fantastic.
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PATRICK STEWARTTTTTT. Oh to live in the UK. The best we get here in terms of celebrity theatre is Nicole Kidman getting naked. :P
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Loved this review, ma'am. I was following your Twitter updates that night and I found myself rather jittery with anticipation! :D
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My very very mostest favoritest Shakespeare play, with Patrick Stewart (who has been GOD to me since I was a very small child watching Star Trek) and David Tennant (how can he be any skinnier than he seems on TV, though? like, srsly, any skinnier and he'd have to be DEAD)...
If I ever have a TARDIS, this is what I would use it for.
I'm thrilled for you, though, it was undoubtedly amazinggg. And hey, now I'm two degrees of DTenn and Patrick Stewart (I know a girl who BREATHED THE SAME AIR THAT THEY DID MHMM TRUFAX :DDD).
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On a less geeky note (er, less fandom-geeky, that is), I've read Hamlet on my own and did a far too extensive study of it in my play class this last semester, so I would love to see Patrick Stewart's portrayal of Claudius and see if he did approach it in too nice a manner. But you don't really need to read the play to know that Claudius is very two-faced, and I'm sure you guessed that on your own. If you think he was too nice, he probably was.
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Yeah, I don't know, I think my understanding of the character would have been deeper with a little extra study, and I did get what he was trying to portray - it worked right until the point he starts plotting with Laertes and it seemed a bit of a 180.
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I'm not a big Shakespeare fan, but Hamlet? I kind of love. And, you know, like, DAVID TENNANT.
Again, AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.
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Last time I went there was a question and answer session with some of the cast afterwards, and they spoke about the comedy DT brought to Hamlet. Patrick Stewart said some really nice things about how it was David who had made that side of Hamlet his Hamlet, and how he did that sort of thing so well. My not-so-inner fangirl DIED.
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Jealous!
Sounds like it was amazing, and it was really nice reading such a happy enthusiastic review/squee :)
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YESTENNANT. Skinny and rakish and funny and heartbreaking and magnificent hair. I did a review when I went to see it a couple of weeks ago that was more or less just Tennant-worship.
Glad you enjoyed it!
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THE HAIR. It is truly an actor all of its own! :D
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I am so eaten up with jealousy, but not too much to compliment you on posting such a good review. I've seen other Greg Doran productions (the best of the lot being Cyrano De Bergerac starring his lover, Antony Sher) and he is one of the best directors I've ever had the good luck to see stage a show.
Stratford is wonderful for theatre. I'm lucky enough to live an hour away and go once or twice a year but I've missed this production, largely because I didn't know it was on until it was sold out.
You lucky, lucky LUCKY cow!
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HOW AWESOME WAS IT?!?!?!?!? I loved it! The set and lighting were just phenomenal, weren't they?!?! And you're so right about Tennant being super skinny, I thought that too. I basically agree with you on everything. You haven't mentioned Ophelia though, whose madness disappointed me a bit when she was capering about everywhere in a sub-David Tennant way, but I liked her with the flowers.
Also loved the gravedigger, and the ghosty bits, and the use of the mirrors (gunshot cracked glass omg da symbolisms). And I thought Laertes was excellent. Just it was so, so SO fantasic, EEEEEEEEEE.
We had a really long standing ovation at the end, which I assume happens with every performance! Stunning!! I felt such an urge to write about it in a drama exam, lol!
xxxxx
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And oh yes, it had Theatre Studies written aaalll over it, didn't it? I hope some lucky Stratford class or something gets to do it!
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