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.