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Today, I went down to Stratford-Upon-Avon with ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
ravenlas and my very good friends alasdair1076, Kate, JD & Vicky (wanolj) and rhube to see the RSC production of Hamlet.
Ahem. It was fantastic! From the opening scene - lit predominantly by the actors themselves with flashlights reflecting off a polished floor - through to the final 'Goodnight, sweet prince, and flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.' (they miss off the speech by Fortinbras) the production didn't set a foot wrong. In my opinion. Which I won't even begin to pretend is humble, because, hey, you guys know me. *grin*
So, to the meat of the matter... Patrick Stewart plays both the Ghost and also Claudius, and does a superb job of both. As the Ghost, he is commanding, implacable, vengeful, resolute. His voice booms forth, 'Remember me!' to Hamlet, and to Horatio, 'Swear!' and shakes the theatre. As Claudius, his guilt is choking him. His bonhommie covers a determination to do whatever he must in order to keep his kindom, his crown, his queen. His voice is just on the cusp of descending into that of an old man, has lost its virility, and is on the verge of losing its power and authority. He coughs, he chokes, but only in private, when he is overwhelmed by the blackness of his soul.
And what of Hamlet? Eh? ... Wow. David Tennant's first appearance is on the very edge of the stage, of the court, silently watching his uncle and his mother as they attempt to justify their hasty marriage, to make Hamlet's mourning seem the thing which is out of place in this court. He bows to his mother's will to stay in Denmark, but as soon as he is left alone, his grief consumes him, drives him to his knees. The sheer strength of emotion is very uncomfortable to watch, almost embarrassing in its intensity. And that power, that energy, is at the heart of Tennant's performance throughout. This Hamlet's madness is so clearly feigned to dupe those around him, and his contempt for Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, his impatience with Polonius, his loathing for the machinations and plots in which people attempt to snare him, is palpable and leads him to an edge of cruelty.
You all know the play, so I won't run through the details, although good lord his performance is worth it. I'll suffice it to say that this is the clearest, most coherent performance of Hamlet that I've seen, and it makes it all the more powerful for it. The set is very minimalist. The acting is great. Great. These are two of the best Shakespearean actors in the world, and by god it shows. The rest of the cast are by no means inferior. No-one needs carrying. The scene in which Hamlet confronts Gertrude and kills Polonius leaves me speechless. See? ............. Yeah. That good. And of course, at the end, that final scene? I cried. Something about Horatio's line just gets me every single time.
It's not as though this Hamlet is 'the good guy'. Stewart's Claudius is more complex than most, and while he's the villain of the piece, he's also understandable, human. The end of the play, with Gertrude and Claudius dead, with Laertes and Hamlet dead and Horatio left to tell the tale, is not cathartic. Justice may have been served, but the outcome is simply relief that all this is over, that the torment and torture of those involved - all of them - is finally done. Whatever Fortinbras may make of this Denmark, the poison at the heart of the State has been lanced, the wound washed clean. And that includes Hamlet just as surely as it does Claudius and Gertrude.
I'm aware that all this is making the production sound very dour, which is far from being the truth. There's a lot to laugh at. But in the end, this is a complex and great tragedy, and like all great art, like all great productions, it leaves me feeling as though a lorry has run over my emotions and then reversed back just to make sure.
And yes, for fangirl service, Tennant is that tall and skinny and his hair (tamed at the very start) is wild by the time he returns to Denmark. And he's handsome and charismatic and has beautiful feet and a nice stomach. (I don't fancy him, honest.) And Patrick Stewart is still handsome and charismatic and muscled (not that you can see, mostly, beneath his suits) (and no, I don't fancy him either). And they're two incredible actors, in a production the likes of which I don't think we'll see again any time soon. Wow. Just... wow.
So anyway, thanks to Vicky andravenlas for driving, especially in the bits where we'd have been better off with boats.
I dozed in the car. And did some of the restructuring on Squirrels, and started blocking out the new scenes I'll need, and marking the bits of other scenes I'll need to delete. So that's going well.
Weight: 150lbs. Exercise: standing for 3 hours watching Hamlet. Alcohol: 0 (but I had half a bottle of red wine last night in D&D. My new character's a ranger called Danny Seagull, btw. heh)
ravenlas and my very good friends alasdair1076, Kate, JD & Vicky (wanolj) and rhube to see the RSC production of Hamlet. Ahem. It was fantastic! From the opening scene - lit predominantly by the actors themselves with flashlights reflecting off a polished floor - through to the final 'Goodnight, sweet prince, and flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.' (they miss off the speech by Fortinbras) the production didn't set a foot wrong. In my opinion. Which I won't even begin to pretend is humble, because, hey, you guys know me. *grin*
So, to the meat of the matter... Patrick Stewart plays both the Ghost and also Claudius, and does a superb job of both. As the Ghost, he is commanding, implacable, vengeful, resolute. His voice booms forth, 'Remember me!' to Hamlet, and to Horatio, 'Swear!' and shakes the theatre. As Claudius, his guilt is choking him. His bonhommie covers a determination to do whatever he must in order to keep his kindom, his crown, his queen. His voice is just on the cusp of descending into that of an old man, has lost its virility, and is on the verge of losing its power and authority. He coughs, he chokes, but only in private, when he is overwhelmed by the blackness of his soul.
And what of Hamlet? Eh? ... Wow. David Tennant's first appearance is on the very edge of the stage, of the court, silently watching his uncle and his mother as they attempt to justify their hasty marriage, to make Hamlet's mourning seem the thing which is out of place in this court. He bows to his mother's will to stay in Denmark, but as soon as he is left alone, his grief consumes him, drives him to his knees. The sheer strength of emotion is very uncomfortable to watch, almost embarrassing in its intensity. And that power, that energy, is at the heart of Tennant's performance throughout. This Hamlet's madness is so clearly feigned to dupe those around him, and his contempt for Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, his impatience with Polonius, his loathing for the machinations and plots in which people attempt to snare him, is palpable and leads him to an edge of cruelty.
You all know the play, so I won't run through the details, although good lord his performance is worth it. I'll suffice it to say that this is the clearest, most coherent performance of Hamlet that I've seen, and it makes it all the more powerful for it. The set is very minimalist. The acting is great. Great. These are two of the best Shakespearean actors in the world, and by god it shows. The rest of the cast are by no means inferior. No-one needs carrying. The scene in which Hamlet confronts Gertrude and kills Polonius leaves me speechless. See? ............. Yeah. That good. And of course, at the end, that final scene? I cried. Something about Horatio's line just gets me every single time.
It's not as though this Hamlet is 'the good guy'. Stewart's Claudius is more complex than most, and while he's the villain of the piece, he's also understandable, human. The end of the play, with Gertrude and Claudius dead, with Laertes and Hamlet dead and Horatio left to tell the tale, is not cathartic. Justice may have been served, but the outcome is simply relief that all this is over, that the torment and torture of those involved - all of them - is finally done. Whatever Fortinbras may make of this Denmark, the poison at the heart of the State has been lanced, the wound washed clean. And that includes Hamlet just as surely as it does Claudius and Gertrude.
I'm aware that all this is making the production sound very dour, which is far from being the truth. There's a lot to laugh at. But in the end, this is a complex and great tragedy, and like all great art, like all great productions, it leaves me feeling as though a lorry has run over my emotions and then reversed back just to make sure.
And yes, for fangirl service, Tennant is that tall and skinny and his hair (tamed at the very start) is wild by the time he returns to Denmark. And he's handsome and charismatic and has beautiful feet and a nice stomach. (I don't fancy him, honest.) And Patrick Stewart is still handsome and charismatic and muscled (not that you can see, mostly, beneath his suits) (and no, I don't fancy him either). And they're two incredible actors, in a production the likes of which I don't think we'll see again any time soon. Wow. Just... wow.
So anyway, thanks to Vicky and
ravenlas for driving, especially in the bits where we'd have been better off with boats. I dozed in the car. And did some of the restructuring on Squirrels, and started blocking out the new scenes I'll need, and marking the bits of other scenes I'll need to delete. So that's going well.
Weight: 150lbs. Exercise: standing for 3 hours watching Hamlet. Alcohol: 0 (but I had half a bottle of red wine last night in D&D. My new character's a ranger called Danny Seagull, btw. heh)
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no subject
Date: 2008-09-06 10:31 pm (UTC)From:"Methinks the lady doth protest too much." :)
We saw it on Thursday afternoon and were very also extremely impressed.
I particularly liked David Tennant's delivery of the two really famous speeches. "To be or not to be" came across as a troubled young man trying to get things straight in his head, while "Alas, poor Yorick" gave a real sense of the character unexpectedly remembering happier times, with an almost surprised "I knew him, Horatio - a fellow of infinite jest". All too often the famous bits just end up sounding like an Actor Performing Shakespeare (or trying to be Laurence Olivier), but this time it was like we were actually seeing Hamlet himself wandering around in front of us, coincidentally happening to look like that bloke who plays Doctor Who. As it should have been, of course.
And Patrick Stewart was excellent as well, but then he always is. We saw him as Prospero in the Tempest (also at the RSC, although it was in the other theatre that they're currently rebuilding) a couple of years ago and he was superb then too.
Oh, and wasn't the set design fantastic?
Very, very excellent stuff. (Mind you, if the RSC can't do Shakespeare properly at Stratford, then we might as well give up on the whole idea of theatre entirely.)
no subject
Date: 2008-09-07 11:48 am (UTC)From:Now Nathan Fillion, him I fancy. Actually, he looks very like a taller, older, hairier
Yes - I'm with you entirely about the monologues. I think his whole performance was so clear, made the character make sense as that troubled young man driven to desparate measures. Actually the only bits I had trouble with were when Hamlet mentioned 'time' and
Yes! Brilliant set design! Loved it!
The whole thing - just incredible. I'm so glad I got to see it.
no subject
Date: 2008-09-07 02:54 pm (UTC)From:Totally agree re tennant's delivery. He really did surprise me.
The set was incredible wasn't it. I loved the glass shattering, the grave with guy appearing out of it, oh and all of it really. A wonderful way to spend 3.5 hours.
no subject
Date: 2008-09-07 02:54 pm (UTC)From: