Tennantmas Hamlet
Dec. 29th, 2009 01:09 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
skywaterblueFinally found time to watch this. I wasn't going to cut it, but it turned out longish...
Anyway. At first I was really annoyed by the surveillance camera motif but by Act Two I decided that I liked it as a metaphor, although I'm not sure you NEED metaphorical surveillance in a play in which people spying on each other is a recurring plot point. So actually, maybe I'm still torn on it, except to say that I found Hamlet tearing the camera off the wall and smashing it to be very emotionally satisfying.
Likewise, the mirrors being surveillance glass was a nice modern touch, and though I think they should have stayed away from the cliche of 'broken mirrors', the glass being broken during Polonius' death and then staying that way shows technical proficiency in understanding the material. Which is kind of a bullshit thing to say because this is the RSC and not any local performance of Hamlet I've ever sat through, but hey.
The sets were quite lovely with all that funeral dark marble, though it made it jarring when we finally left the interior set scenes for the ACTUAL funeral which was a location shoot. It felt wrong to suddenly be among real muck.
Performances: uniformly pretty good, as you would expect. Some really great performances from the supporting cast - loved Polonius, Horatio, and the Player King - who reminded me strongly of the guy who played Lear on Slings and Arrows. Of lead cast, I liked Stewart best, actually, his Claudius was hard to suspect as a murderer. He seemed more like your Uncle the professor at the local college whom you don't know all that well. They accentuated this with the neat beard and the rounded scholarly glasses, and the sweater-y lines to his tux.
Mariah Gale, very solid as Ophelia. Weren't there people who thought she wasn't as good in the mad scenes? I thought she was very respectable in the crazy Ophelia moments, but I didn't buy her in her scene with Hamlet, which... sucks, to say the least. I just didn't think she and Tennant had chemistry to make you buy it. Which is a problem I had with Tennant in general in this play.
I don't think I have anything to say about Penny Downie's Gertrude either. The direction on this seemed to have been a classic down the middle interpretation and I only think Gertrude is really very interesting if the director decides to do something cuh-razy with the material. So she was good, I enjoyed her, nothing to say about it in particular. Oh, well, I guess I thought she didn't milk as much out of her death as she could have done, and I wasn't clear if she drank it on purpose or not which makes this a 'Gertrude dies accidentally' production.
Tennant was a very funny Hamlet, sarcastic in all the right places, which I think in general is an underestimated quality in the role. It's Shakespeare, so for all the dourness I think there are a number of really funny jokes in this. My problem was that I didn't feel like he connected very well with the other characters in scenes that were NOT funny, and sometimes even IN scenes that were funny I didn't feel it. (Especially the bit where Hamlet gets all up in Ophelia's lap, which is my favorite, and since I didn't think they had 'it' it just happened for me like so much whatever. I was bummed.)
In the end, I kind of wish that it was a little more like the cafe scene in 'End of Time', in which there's a really good bit where Tennant does that 'laughing because that's all I have left' mood, and I'm just not sure we ever got to the bottom of that with his Hamlet on film. It was probably better live?
In conclusion: I enjoyed watching it, didn't pause it to pee break or anything so it moved at a good pace and kept me involved. I think I like the modern dress Hamlet in 'Slings and Arrows' a little better? I hope no one from the RSC reads this and is insulted by that, because c'mon, 'Slings and Arrows' is a tough act to follow.
Anyway. At first I was really annoyed by the surveillance camera motif but by Act Two I decided that I liked it as a metaphor, although I'm not sure you NEED metaphorical surveillance in a play in which people spying on each other is a recurring plot point. So actually, maybe I'm still torn on it, except to say that I found Hamlet tearing the camera off the wall and smashing it to be very emotionally satisfying.
Likewise, the mirrors being surveillance glass was a nice modern touch, and though I think they should have stayed away from the cliche of 'broken mirrors', the glass being broken during Polonius' death and then staying that way shows technical proficiency in understanding the material. Which is kind of a bullshit thing to say because this is the RSC and not any local performance of Hamlet I've ever sat through, but hey.
The sets were quite lovely with all that funeral dark marble, though it made it jarring when we finally left the interior set scenes for the ACTUAL funeral which was a location shoot. It felt wrong to suddenly be among real muck.
Performances: uniformly pretty good, as you would expect. Some really great performances from the supporting cast - loved Polonius, Horatio, and the Player King - who reminded me strongly of the guy who played Lear on Slings and Arrows. Of lead cast, I liked Stewart best, actually, his Claudius was hard to suspect as a murderer. He seemed more like your Uncle the professor at the local college whom you don't know all that well. They accentuated this with the neat beard and the rounded scholarly glasses, and the sweater-y lines to his tux.
Mariah Gale, very solid as Ophelia. Weren't there people who thought she wasn't as good in the mad scenes? I thought she was very respectable in the crazy Ophelia moments, but I didn't buy her in her scene with Hamlet, which... sucks, to say the least. I just didn't think she and Tennant had chemistry to make you buy it. Which is a problem I had with Tennant in general in this play.
I don't think I have anything to say about Penny Downie's Gertrude either. The direction on this seemed to have been a classic down the middle interpretation and I only think Gertrude is really very interesting if the director decides to do something cuh-razy with the material. So she was good, I enjoyed her, nothing to say about it in particular. Oh, well, I guess I thought she didn't milk as much out of her death as she could have done, and I wasn't clear if she drank it on purpose or not which makes this a 'Gertrude dies accidentally' production.
Tennant was a very funny Hamlet, sarcastic in all the right places, which I think in general is an underestimated quality in the role. It's Shakespeare, so for all the dourness I think there are a number of really funny jokes in this. My problem was that I didn't feel like he connected very well with the other characters in scenes that were NOT funny, and sometimes even IN scenes that were funny I didn't feel it. (Especially the bit where Hamlet gets all up in Ophelia's lap, which is my favorite, and since I didn't think they had 'it' it just happened for me like so much whatever. I was bummed.)
In the end, I kind of wish that it was a little more like the cafe scene in 'End of Time', in which there's a really good bit where Tennant does that 'laughing because that's all I have left' mood, and I'm just not sure we ever got to the bottom of that with his Hamlet on film. It was probably better live?
In conclusion: I enjoyed watching it, didn't pause it to pee break or anything so it moved at a good pace and kept me involved. I think I like the modern dress Hamlet in 'Slings and Arrows' a little better? I hope no one from the RSC reads this and is insulted by that, because c'mon, 'Slings and Arrows' is a tough act to follow.
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no subject
Date: 2009-12-29 10:39 am (UTC)Have to agree with you about Mariah Gale, I was indifferent until the mad scenes, where I thought she was very good. Her scenes with Laertes were definitely better than the ones with Hamlet too.
Hamlet's chemistry was better with Horatio, but then I've found that with every Hamlet adaption/performance I've ever watched. Horatio was also very good, as was the Player King.
While Patrick Stewart rocked as Claudius, I had a bit of the same problem, he was very hard to buy a murderer, until he talks to Hamlet when he's strapped to the chair, then I came around a little.
Laertes was a little annoying, but then I think that's the character more than the performance. I've never been a huge fan.
I really liked Tennant as Hamlet, but then Hamlet is a play and character I love and I also adore David Tennant, so really, it was a pretty low bar he had to get over for me. He was funny, and there were a few very Ten intonations in the way he said things including a very Ten 'Welll ..' which made me laugh, although part of me was a little thrown out of he flow of the play by them. On a slightly shallow note, did love him wandering around in bare feet and jeans doing soliloques.
Anyway, I seem to have rambled on a bit, I was just happy to see someone else discussing it. :)
no subject
Date: 2009-12-29 11:08 am (UTC)'Slings and Arrows' has spoiled me for Hamlet/Ophelia because the way they play it is that the two actors are having a backstage romance, and a fairly convincing one, so we have the benefit of the two levels of awareness when their scenes are up.
While Patrick Stewart rocked as Claudius, I had a bit of the same problem, he was very hard to buy a murderer, until he talks to Hamlet when he's strapped to the chair, then I came around a little.
I forgot to mention this and the barefooted Hamlet, both of which I found effective! D'oh.
Laertes: my interpretation instructor loves him, but it hasn't completely rubbed off.
I was surprised I didn't love him more in it, as I do love Ten. But I was overall very satisfied. Glad to chat it out with someone, always. :)
no subject
Date: 2009-12-29 10:57 am (UTC)See if you can't download DT's Desert Island Discs somewhere. It was on BBC Radio 4 last Sunday.
no subject
Date: 2009-12-29 11:13 am (UTC)I've read the play half a dozen times and seen various TV/performances before, so I already feel like I know Hamlet's motivation, though I agree with the sentiment entirely. It never quite connects through the television.
no subject
Date: 2009-12-29 11:36 am (UTC)If you can find Morrissey's DID - that was fun!
no subject
Date: 2009-12-29 03:01 pm (UTC)On stage, both Tennant and Stewart were utterly mesmerising - whenever one of them was in a scene, it was a real effort to tear your eyes away and look at someone else!