![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
in apprehension, how like a god: David's Hamlet and Love's Labour's Lost (plus Comedy of Errors)
First off, the role call of RSC folk in this season's plays who have also been in Doctor Who:
1. David Tennant, of course.
2. Nina Sosanya (Chloe's mum, Trish from "Fear Her" -- also was with David in Casanova as Bellino)
3. Kathryn Drysdale (Bliss from "Love and Monsters")
4. Natalie Walter (Alice Coltran in "Turn Left")
5. Andrea Harris (Suzanne in "The Stolen Earth")
6. Roderick Smith (Cruikshank in the 1977 episode "The Invisible Enemy")
The first play that I saw was the sublime "Love's Labour's Lost". It was funny and sexy and very good. One of the things that I noted in my earlier post was that Berowne is very clearly the star of the show (at the very least, he is in this production, but with the vast quantity of truly fabulous lines and speeches that he gets, it's hard for me to see how he can ever fail to be the star attraction).
His romance with Rosaline definitely gets more stage time than the King's courtship of the Princess of France and more than the other two romances combined. It's a gorgeously romantic, funny and sexy story.
On some non-David notes, Don Armando and Moth are brilliantly funny every time that they take the stage. Don Armando is so clueless and Moth so clever. Everything that Moth says is funny. Everything. The character of Maria is also quite funny, particularly in her semi-flirting scenes with Marcade, the... sort of head aide for the Princess and her three ladies. The man playing the King does a fabulous look of shock and surprise.
There's also this really, really dirty scene where Jaquenetta (a milkmaid) churns some butter. And if you're thinking that you can picture how suggestive that she might be... turn it up a few dials. She strokes the handle and pulls and starts pumping toward the end. Seriously.
The man there apart from Don Armando (who falls in love with Jaquenetta... sort of) is Costard and the actor playing him is (you can probably guess by now) exceedingly funny. At one point, he breaks out into what is, pretty much, a hip-hop routine. Oh! And at the beginning of the second act, there's a lively, stompy dance number.
There's a lot of very open sexual humor in the play overall.
There were a couple of very familiar "Well..." moments, complete with head-turn. On a shallow note, David jumps out of the 'tree' on-stage and it is very hot.
Tree!
Speaking of the tree, it's used fabulously during the 'love letters' scene. It starts out with Berowne pining after Rosaline. He hears someone coming and jumps up into the tree. It's the King, mulling over his forbidden romance with the Princess. Berowne gets off some great sides to the audience about the King doing what he forbade them all to do and his facial expressions are just beautifully funny. Then, they hear someone else coming! It's... Longfellowaville, who wrote an... insanely long poem for the lady of the Princess' court that he hearts. Anyway, Berowne shifts over on the tree a bit but luckily, the King hides behind it rather than scarpering up it like the agile David Tennant. They both hear Longaville's confessions of love and Berowne gets to gloat some more to the audience. They hear another person coming and Berowne looks a bit nervous, as Longaville heads behind the tree -- but the King, instead of climbing up the tree, runs over to two of the 'branches' and pulls them down to create a 'bush'. (this incites laughter both at the time and, later, when he calls it a bush)
The person coming is, of course, the last of the Lords, Dumaine.
Insert *squee* here. The man playing Dumaine is certifiably adorable. He's blond and much shorter than... any of the rest of the men in the cast... and he's so cute and funny and dear. *hearts*
Anyway, he's hauling this fucking massive book. Seriously, the thing is huge and the audience (including me, of course) is justifiably amused by it and adores him. And then he opens up the book and takes out a stringed instrument. If David weren't in this cast, my heart would belong to Sam Alexander's Dumaine.
He plays a love ballad and thinks about his hopeful sweetie. Oh, and during his ballad -- the other guys play back-up singer for him and Dumaine doesn't even notice. It causes, as you might guess by now, a wave of laughter from the audience.
Then Longaville comes out to play 'gotcha' and the King comes out to play 'gotcha' on them both and he says, "What would Berowne say?" (Berowne having said at the top of the play that there wasn't a chance that any of them could really keep the vows of staying away from women but that if they did get broken, everyone else would break them first). Berowne gives the audience this look that just... cracked everyone up.
Then he, of course, jumps down to give the king and all of them whatfor for being big old hypocrites (the audience knowing that he's lying his own ass off). A letter arrives! He realizes that it's the letter he sent off to Rosaline. So, he eats it. Tries to, anyway. Enough of the letter is recovered to give the game up and the boys tussle with him a bit. It is funny and cute and I loved it bunches. And then they decide as a group to win the love of the maidens fair and whatnot.
Being utterly silly people, they decide to do this by disguising themselves as Russians. So, the ladies decide to throw their skirts over their heads and exchange favors in order to fuck with the guys' heads and get them to court the wrong ladies. These people are very, very silly.
*hearts them*
Speaking of how Berowne breaks the fourth wall, at one point, he speaks to a woman in the audience and says that she's "like a German clock" and continues from there. There's also a great scene where, when Berowne breaks into a rave over how wonderful Rosalie is, and music starts up and he gets a spotlight... Costard, who is in the scene with him, walks around him and looks baffled -- he looks up at where David is looking, he looks over at where the music is coming from, and is, in general, almost outside the scene. It's great.
The ending is dealt with very well by the director (this director kicks ass) -- we have the lowering note of everyone learning of the King of France's death and the partings and the ladies' requests of their gentlemen to wait a year and do works for them while the ladies mourn. And, as they walk out, Rosaline and Berowne look at each other, hold the look and darkness falls while they're still standing there, gazing at each other. It keeps the romance of the earlier part while still honoring what happens at the end.
So, all that was awesome. The next day, after meeting![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
jagwriter78, starlightmoonla and principia_coh (slightly later), antigone921 and I wandered off on our own. She'd heard that the Shakespeare Archive and Library had tape copies of old RSC performances, including (she hoped) David Tennant's "Comedy of Errors" from 2000. The actual visible size of David was roughly a thumb, but his dynamic energy still managed to leap from the screen. It was also incredibly funny -- I can see why antigone921 wanted me to see it.
Like "Hamlet", it was done in more modern costume... including having the out-of-town Dromio occasionally whip out a camera so that someone could take a picture of him with David's Antipholus at the beginning and then a big group photo at the end. Other highlights included a bit when, as David was running about and trying to toss a suitcase on top of another suitcase that Dromio was holding, he said after failing, "We've done it seventy-two other times, we can do it this time!" and Dromio adding, "Well, it is a comedy of errors." David's stage kisses look hot even when he's on a tiny, tiny screen. All in all, very adorable and definitely worth checking out if you're in Stratford. The Library is located very near the Shakespeare Birthplace and viewing one of the plays is free if you're a student (they also had David's "Romeo and Juliet" but we didn't have the time to see that one).
Then, it was "Hamlet" time. Before I go into the detail, I must say this... until I came to Stratford, David was definitely in the top twenty hottest guys I've seen. Now? Number one with a bullet. Guh. The amount of sexy that he exudes in person is... fairly well overwhelming.
I'll try to do this in order, but I'll probably jump around a bit. The play opens with a darkened stage and a man on watch with a flashlight. Unlike "Love's Labour's Lost", which is very period, this "Hamlet" is quite modern. The initial ghost scene is very spooky and fantastic -- the actors reflect their flashlights off of the floor of the stage so that they can illuminate the other actors' faces, which is very well-done. We can see everyone, but it's dark and spooky.
When we move to the party (again, modern, with tuxes and dresses), David's entrance is great -- his face is very blank as he takes his place and listens to Claudius' speech. There's this really beautiful moment when, after Claudius mentions taking Gertrude to wife, she looks over at Hamlet and her face falls from the radiant smile she'd been wearing to a much more lost look. There's also a nice moment when Claudius says that Hamlet is engaging in "unmanly grief" and Gertrude has a very "what did you say about my son?" look on her face that, unfortunately, I don't think Hamlet sees.
As the rest of the party leaves Hamlet alone, there's this sweet moment when Ophelia reaches out to him and they clasp hands very, very briefly. It really seems like she's the only person who is thinking about him while the world is going mad around him.
Which is exactly what he is pointing out in his first soliloquy. His father has been dead two months and his mother has married the man's brother and no one seems to think it amiss. No one thinks that he should be bothered by it. The world is going crazy around him and no one else seems to notice.
Speaking of Ophelia, her relationships with Laertes and Polonius are exceedingly adorable in their family parting scene. First, when she's just with Laertes, she's the perfect annoyed little sister to his doting and protective brother. She isn't afraid to roll her eyes at him and point out his hypocrisies and he tweaks her nose and just generally seems to adore the hell out of her. When Polonius arrives, it's clear that both siblings love their father, but find him very frustrating.
I really liked Polonius' characterization in this production of "Hamlet" -- there isn't a true drop of malice in him. He's forgettable and he rambles and he thinks that he's much smarter than he is, but he isn't cruel or mean. He loves his children and they love him.
So, Horatio, having learned of Hamlet's father's ghost wandering about in the first scene, arrives to tell Hamlet. Hamlet's reaction on seeing him is so adorable. He completely lights up and gives him this very enthusiastic hug -- their friendship is obvious and strong. It's especially highlighted in contrast to Hamlet's much more subdued 'oh, nice to see you' reaction to Marcelles (the soldier accompanying Horatio, who also saw the ghost).
Hamlet's reactions to hearing about his father's ghost felt so immediate and real. The power of his grief and the longing to connect with his lost father are so clear. There's also this great moment when they go out to meet the ghost -- the way David says, "It's very cold," sounds so natural and so funny (this "Hamlet" was so much funnier than I was expecting -- Hamlet was managing to bring the funny and the charming as late as his duel with Laertes). He sounds ever so slightly like a spoiled brat in that moment, out in a night too chill for his tastes. When he sees the ghost, again, everything feels so genuine and pulled out of the moment.
Which brings up something else I adore -- David's physicality and how it informs his Hamlet. This is a Hamlet who never feels weak or whiny or insane. He's angry and sometimes bitter and a bit of a cad and a man of very powerful emotions. He's thoughtful, but never gets trapped in that thoughtfulness. He's very rational (he wants to touch the ghost, he wants confirmation of what it says, he wants to know for sure) and intensely passionate and very, very physical. Here, he throws himself after the ghost. Later, he will grab Ophelia and Gertrude and haul them around like they're made of downy feathers. When he talks about thinking he can beat Laertes in a duel, it doesn't sound like bragging -- we've been watching him for three hours at this point and... yeah... we believe that he could pull it off, no matter how good with a sword Laertes is supposed to be.
David puts so much touch into everything -- he uses his body so well in his performances. It really helps feed into everything he does (as a side note to illustrate this -- at the end of "Comedy of Errors", when the Dromio and Antipholus sets have sorted each other out, David's Antipholus hugs Dromio, while the other Antipholus sort of does a 'hey, it's you, that's nice' handshake thing with his).
David's Hamlet also comes across as intensely intelligent. He talks rings around the other characters, even when playing mad. He sometimes behaves as though he fears that he's gone mad, but he's very sane and smart throughout.
When the players come, David is so enthusiastic about them and he gazes up adoringly when the main player gives his speech -- it's clear that he likes watching good acting and has an intelligent opinion about what 'good' acting means -- again, when he gives his speech to the players, it doesn't feel like he's pulling words out of his ass. It feels like he's watched many, many plays and has drawn up these opinions because of that.
Hmm. I've gotten slightly off-track.
Rosencrantz (played by the same lovely man who played Dumaine in "Love's Labour's Lost") and Guildenstern enter the scene -- the king has sent for them. Gertrude implies that Hamlet was quite young when he was friends with R&G and his behavior later bears that out -- he's very pleased to see them, but a bit suspicious and, when he discovers that their first loyalty is to the King and not to him, leaves them out of his plans without a moment's thought. Also, wow, R&G are crappy, crappy liars.
Oh! And there's a really cute moment in the R&G introduction where Claudius gets their names wrong and Gertrude corrects him by addressing them in the proper order.
So, Hamlet is acting mad (Ophelia tells us and... oh, it hurts my heart to hear about him studying her face as if to draw it -- he's about to start acting like the most erratic man in the world and he probably figures that she won't want to give him the time of day after he's made himself look like a lunatic, so he best look his fill now) and R&G are supposed to suss out why.
Gertrude does venture that it just might be about that whole 'father dying, mother marrying uncle' thing, which Claudius waves away. The man is living in a cloud of denial so thick that you couldn't even cut it with a knife. He's got on his concrete shoes of denial and he's waded in over his head in the De Nile river.
Polonius, meanwhile, believes that he has discovered exactly what has made Hamlet mad -- love for Ophelia. When he starts to read Hamlet's letter and trails off at the slightly naughty bits, the look on his face is really pretty amusing. Even more amusing? Gertrude keeps trying to peek at the letter. Why is she so interested in exactly what Hamlet had to say about Ophelia's breasts?
And I'm also amused at how incredibly exasperated Gertrude gets every time that Polonius starts in on one of his lengthy speeches.
Then we have the lovely scene between Polonius and Hamlet, where Hamlet is clearly having the time of his life mocking Polonius. He leans in (very close) to sniff him before pronouncing him a 'fishmonger' and the 'slanders' speech is so incredibly pointed and hilarious.
The bit where R&G come to greet Hamlet is notable for more than just his slight distance from him -- it also illustrates how very much they do not know him. He speaks of Denmark being a prison and they think that he's being arrogant when he's really talking about it being an emotional prison. He doesn't particularly care about being king -- he just wishes that he could have his father back or, failing that, a world that actually makes sense.
And he rolls so naturally into the 'what a piece of work is man' bit that I didn't notice he was doing it until a few words in. He actually does sort-of tell R&G that he's not really crazy, but he knows, I think, that they won't get it. Oh, and while he's doing the 'hawk from a handsaw' bit, he's leaning off of R&G's shoulders, flashing some lovely stomach (he also has bare feet during all this 'playing at mad' stuff -- it's great).
Hamlet really is very affectionate toward the players -- he seems to know them personally and he really has very strong opinions. He would have been happier, perhaps, had he been able to be an actor, rather than a king. His instincts take him towards acting -- putting on the show of being mad and then putting on the actual show to 'catch' Claudius' conscience.
However, he doesn't have line-memory. In this production, the other actors have to prompt him with regards to the 'speech' that he does to show how wonderful acting is... which, of course, makes Polonius look even sillier when he compliments Hamlet on it.
The 'rogue and peasant slave' is so great because you actually are witnessing Hamlet processing and thinking through what acting means and what his plan needs to be and it just feels so... natural, again, is the word. Nothing that David says ever feels like it was written -- it just feels like that's what his Hamlet needs to say at that moment. It all flows so naturally. It takes my breath away.
And he wants to be sure that he's right (that the ghost was real) about Claudius. That he wasn't imagining those words because he wants Claudius to be evil and worthy of death. He's willing to believe that he might be wrong and that he needs to be certain. And that's a quality that I do very much admire.
We see, in R&G's scene with Cladius, how upfront they are with him -- it's such a contrast to the word dance that they attempted to play with Hamlet. Their loyalty lies with Claudius, not Hamlet.
David's "to be or not to be" is not played to an audience. He doesn't know that Claudius and Polonius are there. It's all for himself. And, so, it is quiet and reflective. He spends a great deal of it wandering around with a hand wrapped around his elbow, promptingantigone921 to wonder afterwards if he'd just been shooting up. He's very conflicted about his plans, very thoughtful (and the moment when he does realize that people are listening in is very strong). It's absolutely lovely -- and his reaction to seeing Ophelia mirrors that. Because he does care for her, but he doesn't want her here for this.
The 'get thee to a nunnery' scene is incredibly powerful. It really does feel like Hamlet is playing out something that he says later -- being cruel only to be kind. He wants Ophelia gone so that she doesn't have to see any of this.
For her part, this scene reveals the depth of emotion that this Ophelia carries with her. She knows that her father and the king are listening, but Hamlet's harsh words (and actions -- he's yanking her around, sometimes by her wrist as described in an earlier scene) bring her to agonized tears. She can't control her grief -- it overwhelms her. This makes for excellent foreshadowing.
Then we have Hamlet's cautions to the players -- he's determined here. This is his way of knowing for sure what really happened, if Claudius really killed his father (and here, as he tells Horatio what his plans are and includes him in on them, we see how fully he trusts Horatio -- and we see, later, how well-earned that trust is).
When Hamlet comes to the party (tux but bare feet!) and utters a line of his new 'mad' nonsense to Claudius, Patrick Stewart's delivery of "I can do nothing with this answer," is perfect and hilarious. In fact, I really like that Claudius does feel like a person throughout the play and not a cardboard cut-out of evil.
Gertrude invites Hamlet to sit next to her and he disses her for Ophelia -- he swoops in, snag her wrist, and pull her over to sit with him. And here we get the flat-out dirtiest moment of the play. Hamlet asks to sit with his head in Ophelia's lap and asks her if she thought he spoke of "country matters". Only he says the "cunt" part and doesn't continue on to the rest for a good couple of seconds. Ophelia seems a bit embarrassed, but it doesn't seem like it's the first time he's said something like that to her -- just the first time he's done it in public.
We have some more funny moments when Hamlet (in his rush to find out the truth about his father) takes over the narration of the play to hurry things along. He also takes the opportunity to take several potshots at his mom (doing collateral damage to Ophelia that I don't think he notices).
The dumbshow with the player king and queen is very funny. There's also a very raunchy clown pre-show that involves his guy with a heart over his crotch. Then he rips off the heart and there's a slinky attached to his pants and it hangs down. It's... much funnier than it sounds.
And when Hamlet gets what he feels is confirmation of Claudius' guilt, he's so happy and giddy about it that he's practically bouncing (it's rather adorable).
Afterwards, in his scene with R&G, he mocks them so hard. (also he puts on the player crown, tilted, in such a lovely 'fuck you all' kind of way). The scene where he tries to get Guildenstern to play the recorder for him turns from light to serious in a flash and it's so powerful. "Would you play me?" he asks them and he is so fucking pissed off at them for thinking that they can fool him and work him to their bidding. It's very intense and... really pretty hot.
Rosencrantz is plantive when he says that Hamlet did love him once and Hamlet turns that into a mockery as well, by trying to kiss him.
Then, Polonius enters and it's time to fuck with him again -- this time, with cloud shapes! First, Hamlet says that he sees a camel. When Polonius agrees, Hamlet immediately changes his mind.
The scene where Claudius finally... takes off that cloak of denial that he's been wearing since the opening of the play (likely since he first thought of killing his brother) and confesses to God in hopes of getting the blood of his hands (very Lady Macbeth of him) is gorgeously done of Patrick Stewart. "Is there not rain enough?"
To which I say... no, not really. You killed your brother, dude. If the Doctor dumped the Thames on you, ala the Rachnoss, your hands would still be bloody.
And here we get Hamlet's prepping himself to kill Claudius... and then his "Oh, shit, if I do it now, he won't suffer and my father will still be unrevenged. Fuck!" moment. He uses different words, of course.
Next comes the big showdown with Gertrude. It's... stunning. He's frustrated, mad, and very physical -- he hauls her around, tosses her about, throws her on the bed and pushes her down to look at the pictures of her with her dead husband and then her with Claudius. He just... he doesn't understand how his mother can possibly be happy with this man. This murderer.
Mind you, Hamlet then kills Polonius, thinking it to be Claudius, but... he's a bit upset at the moment, plus it isn't really the same as what Claudius did -- in fact, in this production, it plays as very off-the-cuff to me -- he hears a noise, pulls a gun out of his mom's bedside table (he puts it back afterwards) and shoots -- made of complete awesome, the mirror that they've been using as the set has great shatter marks in it where Polonius was standing.
Which reminds me! I haven't talked about the set yet. It's great. There are these huge mirrored panels (used to brilliant effect in the opening ghosts and flashlights scene) that open up when needed. It's behind those that people hide.
So, when the ghost appears and Gertrude can't see it, it's clear how much that bothers Hamlet. He wants her to see it... he wants to know that she misses his father as much as he does, that she feels that wracking grief, too.
He begs her not to sleep with Claudius that night, begs her because he wants to matter more to her... wants his father to have mattered more to her.
Then, he plants her a very solid kiss and goes over to pick up the body. As he hauls it away, he lets out this very cheerful, "goodnight, mother!" that not only cracked up the audience, it also made Gertrude laugh through her tears.
After Hamlet hides the body and gets caught, the next time we see him (when he gets delivered to Claudius), he is taped down to a wheeled office-type chair. Claudius rips the tape off his mouth (and David does a great reaction to that -- causing laughter) and tries to question him. And Hamlet is so clever and funny while talking around what he's done to the body (particularly the "he's in heaven and if you don't find him there, check the other place" bit) and Claudius is so incredibly frustrated by him. He gets wheeled off (again, with a hilarious reaction).
Next, we find out about Ophelia's madness. This is very useful in one particular way, I think. It illustrates very clearly the difference between Hamlet's feigned madness of clever wordplay disguised as nonsense and Ophelia's very genuine breakdown. Her mind has been fragmented and lost and she's not brilliant or getting off zingers... she's broken. (that said, she does get a great funny moment when she's handing out flowers -- after giving Laertes, Claudius, and Gertrude flowers with reasons attached, she skips over to a guard and hands him one, saying merely, "a daisy" and then she goes back over to Laertes to talk about violets). There's also the bit where she strips off her dress and then her shift, making me (for one) wish that Hamlet had decided to take his faux-crazy in that particular direction.
Ah, and I just mentioned Laertes -- his return, full of fury at his father's death, is very well-done. He's clad all in black and spends a lot of the scene pointing a gun right at Claudius. He's full of such bitter rage and then Claudius (far from discouraging him) says something very interesting. "Revenge should have no bounds." Now, obviously, he wants to incite Laertes to kill Hamlet, but there's a certain amount of willful blindness going on as well. He's counseling that a man whose father was murdered that he should let nothing (not even the sanctity of a church) keep him from his revenge. Gosh, Claudius, I wonder if those words might apply to any other newly fatherless guys out there.
*cough, cough*
*hearts Shakespeare*
Meanwhile, Hamlet has escaped his captors and is wandering back home. We first have a solo scene with him where he discovers that Fortinbras is totally invading and when we return to him again, he's got Horatio with him.
The scene at Ophelia's grave provides more unexpected laughs. Because Hamlet is with Horatio and is pretending to the gravediggers to be some random dude who is totally not the Prince of Denmark, he doesn't bother keeping up the crazy act. He can drop the madness and just be what he is -- a very tired and frustrated young man traveling with his best mate.
This scene also features the gravedigger doing to Hamlet what Hamlet's spent most of the play doing to everyone else -- talking rings around the subject at hand and causing purposeful confusion.
The funeral starts and Hamlet's reaction when he realizes that it's for Ophelia is very beautifully-done. The funeral features Laertes leaping into his sister's grave and holding her dead body tight, which freaks out the rest of the mourners. When Hamlet announces his presence, Laertes does his best to start a brawl (being particularly fierce when Hamlet claims that he loved Ophelia much more than Laertes himself did, understandably enough). The challenge is laid down and all that.
But, first, we get to see Hamlet fuck with more people's heads. This time, he's screwing around with Osric, a minor lord/secretary/who-the-fuck-knows. He tells Osric (who is holding his hat) all about how cold it is and when Osric puts his hat on, tells Osric that it's much too warm for that sort of thing. Ah, mind-fucking Hamlet, how much fun you have.
The duel scene is very well-done and fast-paced. There's a lot of very light-hearted stuff from Hamlet early on -- once he believes that he's successfully cried 'friends' with Laertes, he treats it like a game, though one that he is determined to win. In general, he's very lithe and quite quick with his sword.
He manages to get Laertes twice and Gertrude, overjoyed at having her son back, wants to drink to his success. Claudius calls for her not to (he told Laertes earlier that he would poison the drink offered to Hamlet mid-round so they could guarantee his death). The moment when she realizes what's going on is so perfect. She looks so betrayed -- her husband, who is Hamlet's uncle and has spent much of the play attempting to claim Hamlet as a son (especially when Gertrude is around), wants to kill him. She drinks from the cup and it is such a... triumphant moment for her character, in many ways, because she's choosing honor and her son over the murderer she suspects Claudius to be (because, of course, if he hasn't done anything wrong, it will hurt nothing for her to drink).
Laertes and Hamlet each manage to score on each other with the poisoned blade and Laertes, seeing the Queen fall, confesses to Hamlet that they are both dead. Both Gertrude and Laertes realize, just a little too late, that Claudius was not a man that they should have been trusting.
In this moment, Hamlet goes full-bore after Claudius. The man is no longer protected by confession and Hamlet's mother is dead. Claudius' hand gets scratched by the poisoned blade when he attempts to stop Hamlet and then Hamlet offers him the choice between the poisoned flask and the blade of his sword. Very powerful moment.
After Claudius is dealt with, it is Hamlet's turn to fall -- he succumbs to the poison racing through his veins and falls back into the arms of Horatio, who tries to drink from the poisoned cup before Hamlet knocks it over. Hamlet asks him not to die, to instead pass along the tale of what happened here. Then Hamlet dies and Horatio kisses his forehead.
Horatio says what are this production's final lines: "Goodnight, sweet prince. May flights of angels sing thee to thy rest."
Fortinbras and his men arrive in the aftermath, but get no lines. We end on Horatio, clutching Hamlet close and then darkness falls over the stage.
Truly staggering and amazing work from all involved, but most especially from David Tennant, who takes some of the most famous lines and speeches in literature and makes you believe that no one has said them before -- that they did not exist until this moment, when his Hamlet thought them up. What I mention above are some of the most memorable high notes, but nowhere near close to all of them. Sitting here, I can think of a dozen more -- I really do hope that they put this production out on dvd because everyone deserves a chance to see David fucking own this part.
Side note: they flip the gender of Cornelius and make him 'Cornelia' and give her some of Voldbrand's lines, which is nice and helps balance out the male-heaviness of the play (LLL is much more naturally balanced).
Of the shallow: David wears several very nice outfits throughout the play. He starts out in a tux, with slicked-back hair (soon to be mussed when he finds himself alone). He puts on a very nice coat to go out to meet the ghost.
While first playing mad, he's wearing this really great red t-shirt that frequently rides up to show his stomach, as well as some very nice jeans and no shoes or socks on. At the very end, he slips on this form-fitting fencing shirt that I very much approve of.
He's just... very nicely shaped.
And, in person, without the barrier of the television screen, the man practically bleeds charisma.
In conclusion: freaking awesome.
1. David Tennant, of course.
2. Nina Sosanya (Chloe's mum, Trish from "Fear Her" -- also was with David in Casanova as Bellino)
3. Kathryn Drysdale (Bliss from "Love and Monsters")
4. Natalie Walter (Alice Coltran in "Turn Left")
5. Andrea Harris (Suzanne in "The Stolen Earth")
6. Roderick Smith (Cruikshank in the 1977 episode "The Invisible Enemy")
The first play that I saw was the sublime "Love's Labour's Lost". It was funny and sexy and very good. One of the things that I noted in my earlier post was that Berowne is very clearly the star of the show (at the very least, he is in this production, but with the vast quantity of truly fabulous lines and speeches that he gets, it's hard for me to see how he can ever fail to be the star attraction).
His romance with Rosaline definitely gets more stage time than the King's courtship of the Princess of France and more than the other two romances combined. It's a gorgeously romantic, funny and sexy story.
On some non-David notes, Don Armando and Moth are brilliantly funny every time that they take the stage. Don Armando is so clueless and Moth so clever. Everything that Moth says is funny. Everything. The character of Maria is also quite funny, particularly in her semi-flirting scenes with Marcade, the... sort of head aide for the Princess and her three ladies. The man playing the King does a fabulous look of shock and surprise.
There's also this really, really dirty scene where Jaquenetta (a milkmaid) churns some butter. And if you're thinking that you can picture how suggestive that she might be... turn it up a few dials. She strokes the handle and pulls and starts pumping toward the end. Seriously.
The man there apart from Don Armando (who falls in love with Jaquenetta... sort of) is Costard and the actor playing him is (you can probably guess by now) exceedingly funny. At one point, he breaks out into what is, pretty much, a hip-hop routine. Oh! And at the beginning of the second act, there's a lively, stompy dance number.
There's a lot of very open sexual humor in the play overall.
There were a couple of very familiar "Well..." moments, complete with head-turn. On a shallow note, David jumps out of the 'tree' on-stage and it is very hot.
Tree!
Speaking of the tree, it's used fabulously during the 'love letters' scene. It starts out with Berowne pining after Rosaline. He hears someone coming and jumps up into the tree. It's the King, mulling over his forbidden romance with the Princess. Berowne gets off some great sides to the audience about the King doing what he forbade them all to do and his facial expressions are just beautifully funny. Then, they hear someone else coming! It's... Long
The person coming is, of course, the last of the Lords, Dumaine.
Insert *squee* here. The man playing Dumaine is certifiably adorable. He's blond and much shorter than... any of the rest of the men in the cast... and he's so cute and funny and dear. *hearts*
Anyway, he's hauling this fucking massive book. Seriously, the thing is huge and the audience (including me, of course) is justifiably amused by it and adores him. And then he opens up the book and takes out a stringed instrument. If David weren't in this cast, my heart would belong to Sam Alexander's Dumaine.
He plays a love ballad and thinks about his hopeful sweetie. Oh, and during his ballad -- the other guys play back-up singer for him and Dumaine doesn't even notice. It causes, as you might guess by now, a wave of laughter from the audience.
Then Longaville comes out to play 'gotcha' and the King comes out to play 'gotcha' on them both and he says, "What would Berowne say?" (Berowne having said at the top of the play that there wasn't a chance that any of them could really keep the vows of staying away from women but that if they did get broken, everyone else would break them first). Berowne gives the audience this look that just... cracked everyone up.
Then he, of course, jumps down to give the king and all of them whatfor for being big old hypocrites (the audience knowing that he's lying his own ass off). A letter arrives! He realizes that it's the letter he sent off to Rosaline. So, he eats it. Tries to, anyway. Enough of the letter is recovered to give the game up and the boys tussle with him a bit. It is funny and cute and I loved it bunches. And then they decide as a group to win the love of the maidens fair and whatnot.
Being utterly silly people, they decide to do this by disguising themselves as Russians. So, the ladies decide to throw their skirts over their heads and exchange favors in order to fuck with the guys' heads and get them to court the wrong ladies. These people are very, very silly.
*hearts them*
Speaking of how Berowne breaks the fourth wall, at one point, he speaks to a woman in the audience and says that she's "like a German clock" and continues from there. There's also a great scene where, when Berowne breaks into a rave over how wonderful Rosalie is, and music starts up and he gets a spotlight... Costard, who is in the scene with him, walks around him and looks baffled -- he looks up at where David is looking, he looks over at where the music is coming from, and is, in general, almost outside the scene. It's great.
The ending is dealt with very well by the director (this director kicks ass) -- we have the lowering note of everyone learning of the King of France's death and the partings and the ladies' requests of their gentlemen to wait a year and do works for them while the ladies mourn. And, as they walk out, Rosaline and Berowne look at each other, hold the look and darkness falls while they're still standing there, gazing at each other. It keeps the romance of the earlier part while still honoring what happens at the end.
So, all that was awesome. The next day, after meeting
jagwriter78, starlightmoonla and principia_coh (slightly later), antigone921 and I wandered off on our own. She'd heard that the Shakespeare Archive and Library had tape copies of old RSC performances, including (she hoped) David Tennant's "Comedy of Errors" from 2000. The actual visible size of David was roughly a thumb, but his dynamic energy still managed to leap from the screen. It was also incredibly funny -- I can see why antigone921 wanted me to see it.Like "Hamlet", it was done in more modern costume... including having the out-of-town Dromio occasionally whip out a camera so that someone could take a picture of him with David's Antipholus at the beginning and then a big group photo at the end. Other highlights included a bit when, as David was running about and trying to toss a suitcase on top of another suitcase that Dromio was holding, he said after failing, "We've done it seventy-two other times, we can do it this time!" and Dromio adding, "Well, it is a comedy of errors." David's stage kisses look hot even when he's on a tiny, tiny screen. All in all, very adorable and definitely worth checking out if you're in Stratford. The Library is located very near the Shakespeare Birthplace and viewing one of the plays is free if you're a student (they also had David's "Romeo and Juliet" but we didn't have the time to see that one).
Then, it was "Hamlet" time. Before I go into the detail, I must say this... until I came to Stratford, David was definitely in the top twenty hottest guys I've seen. Now? Number one with a bullet. Guh. The amount of sexy that he exudes in person is... fairly well overwhelming.
I'll try to do this in order, but I'll probably jump around a bit. The play opens with a darkened stage and a man on watch with a flashlight. Unlike "Love's Labour's Lost", which is very period, this "Hamlet" is quite modern. The initial ghost scene is very spooky and fantastic -- the actors reflect their flashlights off of the floor of the stage so that they can illuminate the other actors' faces, which is very well-done. We can see everyone, but it's dark and spooky.
When we move to the party (again, modern, with tuxes and dresses), David's entrance is great -- his face is very blank as he takes his place and listens to Claudius' speech. There's this really beautiful moment when, after Claudius mentions taking Gertrude to wife, she looks over at Hamlet and her face falls from the radiant smile she'd been wearing to a much more lost look. There's also a nice moment when Claudius says that Hamlet is engaging in "unmanly grief" and Gertrude has a very "what did you say about my son?" look on her face that, unfortunately, I don't think Hamlet sees.
As the rest of the party leaves Hamlet alone, there's this sweet moment when Ophelia reaches out to him and they clasp hands very, very briefly. It really seems like she's the only person who is thinking about him while the world is going mad around him.
Which is exactly what he is pointing out in his first soliloquy. His father has been dead two months and his mother has married the man's brother and no one seems to think it amiss. No one thinks that he should be bothered by it. The world is going crazy around him and no one else seems to notice.
Speaking of Ophelia, her relationships with Laertes and Polonius are exceedingly adorable in their family parting scene. First, when she's just with Laertes, she's the perfect annoyed little sister to his doting and protective brother. She isn't afraid to roll her eyes at him and point out his hypocrisies and he tweaks her nose and just generally seems to adore the hell out of her. When Polonius arrives, it's clear that both siblings love their father, but find him very frustrating.
I really liked Polonius' characterization in this production of "Hamlet" -- there isn't a true drop of malice in him. He's forgettable and he rambles and he thinks that he's much smarter than he is, but he isn't cruel or mean. He loves his children and they love him.
So, Horatio, having learned of Hamlet's father's ghost wandering about in the first scene, arrives to tell Hamlet. Hamlet's reaction on seeing him is so adorable. He completely lights up and gives him this very enthusiastic hug -- their friendship is obvious and strong. It's especially highlighted in contrast to Hamlet's much more subdued 'oh, nice to see you' reaction to Marcelles (the soldier accompanying Horatio, who also saw the ghost).
Hamlet's reactions to hearing about his father's ghost felt so immediate and real. The power of his grief and the longing to connect with his lost father are so clear. There's also this great moment when they go out to meet the ghost -- the way David says, "It's very cold," sounds so natural and so funny (this "Hamlet" was so much funnier than I was expecting -- Hamlet was managing to bring the funny and the charming as late as his duel with Laertes). He sounds ever so slightly like a spoiled brat in that moment, out in a night too chill for his tastes. When he sees the ghost, again, everything feels so genuine and pulled out of the moment.
Which brings up something else I adore -- David's physicality and how it informs his Hamlet. This is a Hamlet who never feels weak or whiny or insane. He's angry and sometimes bitter and a bit of a cad and a man of very powerful emotions. He's thoughtful, but never gets trapped in that thoughtfulness. He's very rational (he wants to touch the ghost, he wants confirmation of what it says, he wants to know for sure) and intensely passionate and very, very physical. Here, he throws himself after the ghost. Later, he will grab Ophelia and Gertrude and haul them around like they're made of downy feathers. When he talks about thinking he can beat Laertes in a duel, it doesn't sound like bragging -- we've been watching him for three hours at this point and... yeah... we believe that he could pull it off, no matter how good with a sword Laertes is supposed to be.
David puts so much touch into everything -- he uses his body so well in his performances. It really helps feed into everything he does (as a side note to illustrate this -- at the end of "Comedy of Errors", when the Dromio and Antipholus sets have sorted each other out, David's Antipholus hugs Dromio, while the other Antipholus sort of does a 'hey, it's you, that's nice' handshake thing with his).
David's Hamlet also comes across as intensely intelligent. He talks rings around the other characters, even when playing mad. He sometimes behaves as though he fears that he's gone mad, but he's very sane and smart throughout.
When the players come, David is so enthusiastic about them and he gazes up adoringly when the main player gives his speech -- it's clear that he likes watching good acting and has an intelligent opinion about what 'good' acting means -- again, when he gives his speech to the players, it doesn't feel like he's pulling words out of his ass. It feels like he's watched many, many plays and has drawn up these opinions because of that.
Hmm. I've gotten slightly off-track.
Rosencrantz (played by the same lovely man who played Dumaine in "Love's Labour's Lost") and Guildenstern enter the scene -- the king has sent for them. Gertrude implies that Hamlet was quite young when he was friends with R&G and his behavior later bears that out -- he's very pleased to see them, but a bit suspicious and, when he discovers that their first loyalty is to the King and not to him, leaves them out of his plans without a moment's thought. Also, wow, R&G are crappy, crappy liars.
Oh! And there's a really cute moment in the R&G introduction where Claudius gets their names wrong and Gertrude corrects him by addressing them in the proper order.
So, Hamlet is acting mad (Ophelia tells us and... oh, it hurts my heart to hear about him studying her face as if to draw it -- he's about to start acting like the most erratic man in the world and he probably figures that she won't want to give him the time of day after he's made himself look like a lunatic, so he best look his fill now) and R&G are supposed to suss out why.
Gertrude does venture that it just might be about that whole 'father dying, mother marrying uncle' thing, which Claudius waves away. The man is living in a cloud of denial so thick that you couldn't even cut it with a knife. He's got on his concrete shoes of denial and he's waded in over his head in the De Nile river.
Polonius, meanwhile, believes that he has discovered exactly what has made Hamlet mad -- love for Ophelia. When he starts to read Hamlet's letter and trails off at the slightly naughty bits, the look on his face is really pretty amusing. Even more amusing? Gertrude keeps trying to peek at the letter. Why is she so interested in exactly what Hamlet had to say about Ophelia's breasts?
And I'm also amused at how incredibly exasperated Gertrude gets every time that Polonius starts in on one of his lengthy speeches.
Then we have the lovely scene between Polonius and Hamlet, where Hamlet is clearly having the time of his life mocking Polonius. He leans in (very close) to sniff him before pronouncing him a 'fishmonger' and the 'slanders' speech is so incredibly pointed and hilarious.
The bit where R&G come to greet Hamlet is notable for more than just his slight distance from him -- it also illustrates how very much they do not know him. He speaks of Denmark being a prison and they think that he's being arrogant when he's really talking about it being an emotional prison. He doesn't particularly care about being king -- he just wishes that he could have his father back or, failing that, a world that actually makes sense.
And he rolls so naturally into the 'what a piece of work is man' bit that I didn't notice he was doing it until a few words in. He actually does sort-of tell R&G that he's not really crazy, but he knows, I think, that they won't get it. Oh, and while he's doing the 'hawk from a handsaw' bit, he's leaning off of R&G's shoulders, flashing some lovely stomach (he also has bare feet during all this 'playing at mad' stuff -- it's great).
Hamlet really is very affectionate toward the players -- he seems to know them personally and he really has very strong opinions. He would have been happier, perhaps, had he been able to be an actor, rather than a king. His instincts take him towards acting -- putting on the show of being mad and then putting on the actual show to 'catch' Claudius' conscience.
However, he doesn't have line-memory. In this production, the other actors have to prompt him with regards to the 'speech' that he does to show how wonderful acting is... which, of course, makes Polonius look even sillier when he compliments Hamlet on it.
The 'rogue and peasant slave' is so great because you actually are witnessing Hamlet processing and thinking through what acting means and what his plan needs to be and it just feels so... natural, again, is the word. Nothing that David says ever feels like it was written -- it just feels like that's what his Hamlet needs to say at that moment. It all flows so naturally. It takes my breath away.
And he wants to be sure that he's right (that the ghost was real) about Claudius. That he wasn't imagining those words because he wants Claudius to be evil and worthy of death. He's willing to believe that he might be wrong and that he needs to be certain. And that's a quality that I do very much admire.
We see, in R&G's scene with Cladius, how upfront they are with him -- it's such a contrast to the word dance that they attempted to play with Hamlet. Their loyalty lies with Claudius, not Hamlet.
David's "to be or not to be" is not played to an audience. He doesn't know that Claudius and Polonius are there. It's all for himself. And, so, it is quiet and reflective. He spends a great deal of it wandering around with a hand wrapped around his elbow, prompting
antigone921 to wonder afterwards if he'd just been shooting up. He's very conflicted about his plans, very thoughtful (and the moment when he does realize that people are listening in is very strong). It's absolutely lovely -- and his reaction to seeing Ophelia mirrors that. Because he does care for her, but he doesn't want her here for this.The 'get thee to a nunnery' scene is incredibly powerful. It really does feel like Hamlet is playing out something that he says later -- being cruel only to be kind. He wants Ophelia gone so that she doesn't have to see any of this.
For her part, this scene reveals the depth of emotion that this Ophelia carries with her. She knows that her father and the king are listening, but Hamlet's harsh words (and actions -- he's yanking her around, sometimes by her wrist as described in an earlier scene) bring her to agonized tears. She can't control her grief -- it overwhelms her. This makes for excellent foreshadowing.
Then we have Hamlet's cautions to the players -- he's determined here. This is his way of knowing for sure what really happened, if Claudius really killed his father (and here, as he tells Horatio what his plans are and includes him in on them, we see how fully he trusts Horatio -- and we see, later, how well-earned that trust is).
When Hamlet comes to the party (tux but bare feet!) and utters a line of his new 'mad' nonsense to Claudius, Patrick Stewart's delivery of "I can do nothing with this answer," is perfect and hilarious. In fact, I really like that Claudius does feel like a person throughout the play and not a cardboard cut-out of evil.
Gertrude invites Hamlet to sit next to her and he disses her for Ophelia -- he swoops in, snag her wrist, and pull her over to sit with him. And here we get the flat-out dirtiest moment of the play. Hamlet asks to sit with his head in Ophelia's lap and asks her if she thought he spoke of "country matters". Only he says the "cunt" part and doesn't continue on to the rest for a good couple of seconds. Ophelia seems a bit embarrassed, but it doesn't seem like it's the first time he's said something like that to her -- just the first time he's done it in public.
We have some more funny moments when Hamlet (in his rush to find out the truth about his father) takes over the narration of the play to hurry things along. He also takes the opportunity to take several potshots at his mom (doing collateral damage to Ophelia that I don't think he notices).
The dumbshow with the player king and queen is very funny. There's also a very raunchy clown pre-show that involves his guy with a heart over his crotch. Then he rips off the heart and there's a slinky attached to his pants and it hangs down. It's... much funnier than it sounds.
And when Hamlet gets what he feels is confirmation of Claudius' guilt, he's so happy and giddy about it that he's practically bouncing (it's rather adorable).
Afterwards, in his scene with R&G, he mocks them so hard. (also he puts on the player crown, tilted, in such a lovely 'fuck you all' kind of way). The scene where he tries to get Guildenstern to play the recorder for him turns from light to serious in a flash and it's so powerful. "Would you play me?" he asks them and he is so fucking pissed off at them for thinking that they can fool him and work him to their bidding. It's very intense and... really pretty hot.
Rosencrantz is plantive when he says that Hamlet did love him once and Hamlet turns that into a mockery as well, by trying to kiss him.
Then, Polonius enters and it's time to fuck with him again -- this time, with cloud shapes! First, Hamlet says that he sees a camel. When Polonius agrees, Hamlet immediately changes his mind.
The scene where Claudius finally... takes off that cloak of denial that he's been wearing since the opening of the play (likely since he first thought of killing his brother) and confesses to God in hopes of getting the blood of his hands (very Lady Macbeth of him) is gorgeously done of Patrick Stewart. "Is there not rain enough?"
To which I say... no, not really. You killed your brother, dude. If the Doctor dumped the Thames on you, ala the Rachnoss, your hands would still be bloody.
And here we get Hamlet's prepping himself to kill Claudius... and then his "Oh, shit, if I do it now, he won't suffer and my father will still be unrevenged. Fuck!" moment. He uses different words, of course.
Next comes the big showdown with Gertrude. It's... stunning. He's frustrated, mad, and very physical -- he hauls her around, tosses her about, throws her on the bed and pushes her down to look at the pictures of her with her dead husband and then her with Claudius. He just... he doesn't understand how his mother can possibly be happy with this man. This murderer.
Mind you, Hamlet then kills Polonius, thinking it to be Claudius, but... he's a bit upset at the moment, plus it isn't really the same as what Claudius did -- in fact, in this production, it plays as very off-the-cuff to me -- he hears a noise, pulls a gun out of his mom's bedside table (he puts it back afterwards) and shoots -- made of complete awesome, the mirror that they've been using as the set has great shatter marks in it where Polonius was standing.
Which reminds me! I haven't talked about the set yet. It's great. There are these huge mirrored panels (used to brilliant effect in the opening ghosts and flashlights scene) that open up when needed. It's behind those that people hide.
So, when the ghost appears and Gertrude can't see it, it's clear how much that bothers Hamlet. He wants her to see it... he wants to know that she misses his father as much as he does, that she feels that wracking grief, too.
He begs her not to sleep with Claudius that night, begs her because he wants to matter more to her... wants his father to have mattered more to her.
Then, he plants her a very solid kiss and goes over to pick up the body. As he hauls it away, he lets out this very cheerful, "goodnight, mother!" that not only cracked up the audience, it also made Gertrude laugh through her tears.
After Hamlet hides the body and gets caught, the next time we see him (when he gets delivered to Claudius), he is taped down to a wheeled office-type chair. Claudius rips the tape off his mouth (and David does a great reaction to that -- causing laughter) and tries to question him. And Hamlet is so clever and funny while talking around what he's done to the body (particularly the "he's in heaven and if you don't find him there, check the other place" bit) and Claudius is so incredibly frustrated by him. He gets wheeled off (again, with a hilarious reaction).
Next, we find out about Ophelia's madness. This is very useful in one particular way, I think. It illustrates very clearly the difference between Hamlet's feigned madness of clever wordplay disguised as nonsense and Ophelia's very genuine breakdown. Her mind has been fragmented and lost and she's not brilliant or getting off zingers... she's broken. (that said, she does get a great funny moment when she's handing out flowers -- after giving Laertes, Claudius, and Gertrude flowers with reasons attached, she skips over to a guard and hands him one, saying merely, "a daisy" and then she goes back over to Laertes to talk about violets). There's also the bit where she strips off her dress and then her shift, making me (for one) wish that Hamlet had decided to take his faux-crazy in that particular direction.
Ah, and I just mentioned Laertes -- his return, full of fury at his father's death, is very well-done. He's clad all in black and spends a lot of the scene pointing a gun right at Claudius. He's full of such bitter rage and then Claudius (far from discouraging him) says something very interesting. "Revenge should have no bounds." Now, obviously, he wants to incite Laertes to kill Hamlet, but there's a certain amount of willful blindness going on as well. He's counseling that a man whose father was murdered that he should let nothing (not even the sanctity of a church) keep him from his revenge. Gosh, Claudius, I wonder if those words might apply to any other newly fatherless guys out there.
*cough, cough*
*hearts Shakespeare*
Meanwhile, Hamlet has escaped his captors and is wandering back home. We first have a solo scene with him where he discovers that Fortinbras is totally invading and when we return to him again, he's got Horatio with him.
The scene at Ophelia's grave provides more unexpected laughs. Because Hamlet is with Horatio and is pretending to the gravediggers to be some random dude who is totally not the Prince of Denmark, he doesn't bother keeping up the crazy act. He can drop the madness and just be what he is -- a very tired and frustrated young man traveling with his best mate.
This scene also features the gravedigger doing to Hamlet what Hamlet's spent most of the play doing to everyone else -- talking rings around the subject at hand and causing purposeful confusion.
The funeral starts and Hamlet's reaction when he realizes that it's for Ophelia is very beautifully-done. The funeral features Laertes leaping into his sister's grave and holding her dead body tight, which freaks out the rest of the mourners. When Hamlet announces his presence, Laertes does his best to start a brawl (being particularly fierce when Hamlet claims that he loved Ophelia much more than Laertes himself did, understandably enough). The challenge is laid down and all that.
But, first, we get to see Hamlet fuck with more people's heads. This time, he's screwing around with Osric, a minor lord/secretary/who-the-fuck-knows. He tells Osric (who is holding his hat) all about how cold it is and when Osric puts his hat on, tells Osric that it's much too warm for that sort of thing. Ah, mind-fucking Hamlet, how much fun you have.
The duel scene is very well-done and fast-paced. There's a lot of very light-hearted stuff from Hamlet early on -- once he believes that he's successfully cried 'friends' with Laertes, he treats it like a game, though one that he is determined to win. In general, he's very lithe and quite quick with his sword.
He manages to get Laertes twice and Gertrude, overjoyed at having her son back, wants to drink to his success. Claudius calls for her not to (he told Laertes earlier that he would poison the drink offered to Hamlet mid-round so they could guarantee his death). The moment when she realizes what's going on is so perfect. She looks so betrayed -- her husband, who is Hamlet's uncle and has spent much of the play attempting to claim Hamlet as a son (especially when Gertrude is around), wants to kill him. She drinks from the cup and it is such a... triumphant moment for her character, in many ways, because she's choosing honor and her son over the murderer she suspects Claudius to be (because, of course, if he hasn't done anything wrong, it will hurt nothing for her to drink).
Laertes and Hamlet each manage to score on each other with the poisoned blade and Laertes, seeing the Queen fall, confesses to Hamlet that they are both dead. Both Gertrude and Laertes realize, just a little too late, that Claudius was not a man that they should have been trusting.
In this moment, Hamlet goes full-bore after Claudius. The man is no longer protected by confession and Hamlet's mother is dead. Claudius' hand gets scratched by the poisoned blade when he attempts to stop Hamlet and then Hamlet offers him the choice between the poisoned flask and the blade of his sword. Very powerful moment.
After Claudius is dealt with, it is Hamlet's turn to fall -- he succumbs to the poison racing through his veins and falls back into the arms of Horatio, who tries to drink from the poisoned cup before Hamlet knocks it over. Hamlet asks him not to die, to instead pass along the tale of what happened here. Then Hamlet dies and Horatio kisses his forehead.
Horatio says what are this production's final lines: "Goodnight, sweet prince. May flights of angels sing thee to thy rest."
Fortinbras and his men arrive in the aftermath, but get no lines. We end on Horatio, clutching Hamlet close and then darkness falls over the stage.
Truly staggering and amazing work from all involved, but most especially from David Tennant, who takes some of the most famous lines and speeches in literature and makes you believe that no one has said them before -- that they did not exist until this moment, when his Hamlet thought them up. What I mention above are some of the most memorable high notes, but nowhere near close to all of them. Sitting here, I can think of a dozen more -- I really do hope that they put this production out on dvd because everyone deserves a chance to see David fucking own this part.
Side note: they flip the gender of Cornelius and make him 'Cornelia' and give her some of Voldbrand's lines, which is nice and helps balance out the male-heaviness of the play (LLL is much more naturally balanced).
Of the shallow: David wears several very nice outfits throughout the play. He starts out in a tux, with slicked-back hair (soon to be mussed when he finds himself alone). He puts on a very nice coat to go out to meet the ghost.
While first playing mad, he's wearing this really great red t-shirt that frequently rides up to show his stomach, as well as some very nice jeans and no shoes or socks on. At the very end, he slips on this form-fitting fencing shirt that I very much approve of.
He's just... very nicely shaped.
And, in person, without the barrier of the television screen, the man practically bleeds charisma.
In conclusion: freaking awesome.
no subject
no subject
no subject
Very nicely done. So um, yeah this *grins*
no subject
he tempts me to watch S5 of DW, which I just know would be a mistake.
Maybe I can watch it on mute?
no subject
xx
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
I find David so charismatic onscreen I can't even imagine what he'd be like in person. I'm going to start saving my pennies now, for the inevitable production of Macbeth he's sure to do in a few years.
no subject
I find David so charismatic onscreen I can't even imagine what he'd be like in person.
Like me, you might have been really glad that you were sitting down for the first three hours of seeing him in person. He's a wave of unstoppable charm, no matter what he's doing. He draws the eye in and just holds you there until he releases you. During Hamlet I kept realizing, as he would go off-stage for a bit, that I'd managed to shift completely forward on my seat and mostly stopped breathing. I had to take extra breaths in the moments when he was 'backstage'.
I'm going to start saving my pennies now, for the inevitable production of Macbeth he's sure to do in a few years.
Ooo! Yes. As I told my mom, after having seen him perform live, I can't imagine not wanting to go see him again if he comes back to the RSC for another season in a few years. If he gets asked to do two, like he did this time, I'd love for him to pair that with Much Ado About Nothing. He'd make a lovely Benedick.
no subject
no subject
Also - there are copies of his performance in Henry VI available in the RSC shop.
He said in an interview last year that he didn't think he was the type for Macbeth. Actually, I was watching "Finding Neverland" the other night and I thought how amazing he'd be in the Johnny Depp part, particularly if they ever dared remake it realistically, with a darker and creepier JM Barrie.
no subject
Thank you
no subject
*sigh*
He was so good. I really do hope that they put out a dvd. I'd love to see it again.
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
Also: Glad you're home, too. *mwah*
no subject
no subject
I was in Stratford on holiday (I'm from Oz) and I REALLY wanted to see Hamlet but it was sold out. I'd bought a ticket to see LLL as I am a huge Shakespeare fan. So I'm in the audiance and who should be play Berowne but DAVID TENNANT! I had no idea - my head nearly exploded. He is amazing, isn't he?!?!
Armando and Moth were truely awesome but the real star of the show was the tree (so pretty - especially when DT is sitting in it being cute).
Thanks for telling us about Hamlet, I'm very sad I missed it :(
no subject
I'm really hoping that they put the Hamlet out on dvd. It would sell so well!
no subject
I agree with you wholeheartedly about how David played this very naturally - Hamlet was a perpetual student before all this started going down, for heaven's sake, not some thug or politician - and none of his actions seem studied or call on another play for their substance (unlike the way a lot of Hamlets play the big Hamlet-Gertrude scene as though it were a scene from Oedipus).
This was also a very strong Gertrude, a decision I loved in contrast to the many productions where she's played as even more addled than Polonius.
Flat out dirtiest? Yes, the 'cunt... try' and air-humping in Ophelia's direction were easily as bawdy as the churning scene in LLL.
Given that they'll have to re-stage how certain aspects of the entrances and exits are handled in their new digs, I suspect the Novello's format may be easier to record for posterity. It'd be a real shame if LLL doesn't get recorded as well, but at least it'll always be in the RSC archives.
Moth (Zoe Thorne), by the by, has also been in Who... first as the Gelth voice, and then as one of the Toclafane. Heh.
no subject
It'd be a real shame if LLL doesn't get recorded as well, but at least it'll always be in the RSC archives.
True. But it would be fantastic to be able to get either/both of them on dvd.
Moth (Zoe Thorne), by the by, has also been in Who... first as the Gelth voice, and then as one of the Toclafane. Heh.
Another one! It's raining Who actors!
no subject
I too hope that they release this on DVD, as I'll never be able to afford to go to the UK to see David Tennant live on stage. :( Is there someone to write to to request it?
no subject
no subject
no subject
And the pics! The last two came out really well, I think.
Yes! David is so adorable. I was really pleased.
no subject
no subject