hamlet is a multiverse
Aug. 14th, 2008 04:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
prof_pangaeai have been avoiding posting about the RSC's current production of hamlet because it's pretty much bound to be completely embarrassing if i reveal the actual depth of the existential angst i have been experiencing by knowing that this production is happening but that i CAN'T SEE IT. there is a mathematical formula i have come up with that begins to convey it:
prof_ + unavailable(hamlet[tennantxstewart]) = ;___________; x FOREVER
god i'm lame.
but seriously! HAMLET. anyone who's been around my journal for the long haul will know a little about the essays, installations, comics, and choose-your-own-adventures i have created based around hamlet (not to mention the icons. oh man). hamlet is one of those stories that i find endlessly fascinating and endlessly fruitful to explore. hamlet is a limitless mirror for society and a bottomless well of self-reflection for humanity. every production has a different thing to say, every performance. hamlet is a multiverse of possibilities.
i think anything that reaches a certain level of cultural importance becomes a kind of multiverse within which can be found a sort of medium for playing with our ideas of ourselves, our relationships, our culture, our history, the universe as a whole. hamlet is probably the most important and time-honoured example of this development ever (outside the purview of religion, of course -- that is a whole other essay. or... million).
it's not that hamlet is the best play that was ever written, although it is really quite good, it's that it was produced at just the place, in just the right time, so that it has become a symbol for human endeavour and creativity that far outweighs it's importance as a play merely. it's HAMLET.
so anyway i've been on the lookout for reviews of the current RSC production with david tennant and patrick stewart. patrick stewart is my favourite claudius of all time, guys! i have yet to find anyone even approach the depth and complexity of his claudius. i want to see him now, 28 years later, and even more amazing and layered and moving. everything i've read so far indicates that to be the case, which makes me incredibly excited, even though i can't see it.
also, i am so glad that david tennant is apparently Quite Good, with the chance (some even say almost certainty) of his performance maturing into one of the greats.
the guardian:
This is a Hamlet of quicksilver intelligence, mimetic vigour and wild humour: one of the funniest I've ever seen. He parodies everyone he talks to, from the prattling Polonius to the verbally ornate Osric. After the play scene, he careers around the court sporting a crown at a tipsy angle. Yet, under the mad capriciousness, Tennant implies a filial rage and impetuous danger: the first half ends with Tennant poised with a dagger over the praying Claudius, crying: "And now I'll do it." Newcomers to the play might well believe he will.
the independant:
I rate Tennant very highly, but I wouldn't put him in the absolute front rank of contemporary Hamlets, a category which, for me, includes Simon Russell Beale, Mark Rylance and Stephen Dillane. Or not yet, at any rate. The performance has time to grow. This actor has most of what it takes: the braininess, the breadth of spirit, the reckless irony, the bamboozling banter, the sense of layered depth. He can produce moments of sudden stillness when he seems to be dazed by the vortex of meditation. After ecstasies of anger in the closet scene, he can turn into a deeply affecting lost boy kneeling by Gertrude's bedside and trying to reconnect the primal family circuit. But while this Prince is able to reach out and touch his father's Ghost (Patrick Stewart, doubling), his mother can neither see nor feel him.
So what's missing? Well, the part of Hamlet constitutes a special case. However hard you analyse his behaviour and motivations, this character remains to some degree a tantalising mystery. ...In the soliloquies, the finest performers seem to be, partly, laying bare their own souls to us, too and laying us bare to ourselves. At the moment, that strange double-feeling of exposure and spiritual connection is not as strong here as one could wish here.
the daily telegraph:
Tennant's prince seems merely resigned and wearily fatalistic, a reductive reading of a role that can offer a moving glimpse of grace, as the Christian imagery of the last act suggests.
There remains much to admire. It's hard not to warm to a Hamlet who makes you laugh, and Tennant discovers almost every ounce of sarky humour, especially when baiting Oliver Ford Davies's hilariously ponderous but poisonous Polonius and winding up the smarmy Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.
Tennant is at his best though when he dares with his emotions and lets rip. The closet scene with Gertrude, when he confronts his mother with her moral laxity, standing astride her on the "incestuous sheets" of her bed, has a thrilling raw power.
And there is a beautiful moment when the ghost of his father seems to hug him and Tennant delivers a little gasp of love and grief. As the run continues, Tennant should trust his feelings, dig deeper, expose more of himself.
the times:
I’ve seen bolder Hamlets and more moving Hamlets, but few who kept me so riveted throughout. Even when Tennant boggles in wonder at his father’s ghost or dismay at his incestuous mother, his eyes, teeth and steep, furrowed brow don’t do all the acting. Indeed, the first surprise is the intensity of his mourning. He stands there in his black suit and tie, impervious to the champagne drinkers partying beneath their crystal chandeliers, and then, left alone, he twists, half-collapses, crouches, squeals and screeches in an agony of grief, rage and disgust. And then comes the second, concomitant surprise.
We’ve already met Patrick Stewart’s Claudius, a smiling, slippery King who exudes a geniality that, thanks to his sly glances and evident distaste for Hamlet, we know to be spurious. And now we meet his dead brother, who is also Patrick Stewart, but a very different Patrick Stewart. This scarily corporeal ghost circles Tennant’s Hamlet, who has sunk to his knees, and roars out his demands like some monstrous dictator or aggrieved ogre. Even after he’s grimly exited the stage he dominates it, turning his cries of “remember me” and “swear” into ferocious orders, the latter making the theatre quake and shake as much as his former subjects.
This leaves you wondering if Hamlet’s father really was a more appealing ruler than his usurping brother.
yes yes yes!! the lazy way to put up a production of hamlet is to make claudius greedy, gertrude lustful, king hamlet as heroic, and young hamlet as a hero who just thinks too much. but this, yes; a young hamlet as a man who hates claudius for being the living proof that his family was never, and would never have been what he wanted it to be -- a loving father with a loving wife and a son whom he respected and cherished, a good king loved by the people, not a king who is quickly brushed aside and forgotten after a suspicious death. a claudius and a gertrude who love each other, and understand so much more about their situation than hamlet wants to. OH YEAH, PEOPLES. i'd like to say more about the production, except obviously the reviews are mostly focusing on tennant, and then stewart, and not nearly so much on anyone else, but the consensus is excellent cast, excellent production, and, if tennant can let himself be so, an excellent hamlet.
aaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh i just remembered i will never see it. ;________;!!!!!!
OH RSC PLEASE MAKE A RECORDING OF THIS PRODUCTION. you've got to!
i couldn't put this in with the serious reviews because it is from the daily mail, and as such is comprised mainly of LOL FAIL AT UNDERSTANDING THE POINT (with bonus sexism and toryism thrown in for fun)
the daily mail:
He is memorable, quirky, handsome in a fey, underfed sort of way. He even proves himself a dab hand at sword fighting. ...Some parts of the role, particularly the manlier, more noble elements, are underplayed.
...The star buzz is palpable. On Monday night I saw about 30 members of the audience leap to their feet at the end to show delight at Mr Tennant's performance. All but two of them were women.
Maybe it's because he's such a TV pin-up or maybe his interpretation of Hamlet (light on power politics, heavier on personal hiatus) is likely to appeal more to the female mind.
...Penny Downie makes a slinky Gertrude, quivery and pert in silk nightclothes.
...The death of Polonius brings a moment of welcome theatricality to a sometimes monochrome production. I have seldom been as grateful for the arrival of the visiting players. At last! A dash of costume glamour.
i could go on but then i'd just be quoting the entire article. especially lovely was how he described tennant as "fey", which about half of the other reviews i've seen have done as well, but somehow made it seem like he was describing him as pathetically and unmasculinely GAY (perfect for our "self-indulgent age"!). and no, i have no idea what "personal hiatus" is supposed to mean either.
here are a couple of audio reviews/thoughts, both interesting and thoughtful:
michael billington (guardian critic) and simon russell beale talk a bit about the production and how actors can move between film, theatre, and television.
last wednesday's episode of front row; the second section is about the RSC production, includes musings on the doctor's "existential angst", hamlet's "fey madness", tennant's "terrific" performance, how the women come to the fore in the second half, and general discussion that the production is a little too "safe".
oh how i wish someone would post a picture of the scene with the ghost. guess i will have to go with a photo from my other favourite scene, namely act III scene iv, when hamlet goes to gertrude's closet after the play:
seriously, RSC. record this.
prof_ + unavailable(hamlet[tennantxstewart]) = ;___________; x FOREVER
god i'm lame.
but seriously! HAMLET. anyone who's been around my journal for the long haul will know a little about the essays, installations, comics, and choose-your-own-adventures i have created based around hamlet (not to mention the icons. oh man). hamlet is one of those stories that i find endlessly fascinating and endlessly fruitful to explore. hamlet is a limitless mirror for society and a bottomless well of self-reflection for humanity. every production has a different thing to say, every performance. hamlet is a multiverse of possibilities.
i think anything that reaches a certain level of cultural importance becomes a kind of multiverse within which can be found a sort of medium for playing with our ideas of ourselves, our relationships, our culture, our history, the universe as a whole. hamlet is probably the most important and time-honoured example of this development ever (outside the purview of religion, of course -- that is a whole other essay. or... million).
it's not that hamlet is the best play that was ever written, although it is really quite good, it's that it was produced at just the place, in just the right time, so that it has become a symbol for human endeavour and creativity that far outweighs it's importance as a play merely. it's HAMLET.
so anyway i've been on the lookout for reviews of the current RSC production with david tennant and patrick stewart. patrick stewart is my favourite claudius of all time, guys! i have yet to find anyone even approach the depth and complexity of his claudius. i want to see him now, 28 years later, and even more amazing and layered and moving. everything i've read so far indicates that to be the case, which makes me incredibly excited, even though i can't see it.
also, i am so glad that david tennant is apparently Quite Good, with the chance (some even say almost certainty) of his performance maturing into one of the greats.
the guardian:
This is a Hamlet of quicksilver intelligence, mimetic vigour and wild humour: one of the funniest I've ever seen. He parodies everyone he talks to, from the prattling Polonius to the verbally ornate Osric. After the play scene, he careers around the court sporting a crown at a tipsy angle. Yet, under the mad capriciousness, Tennant implies a filial rage and impetuous danger: the first half ends with Tennant poised with a dagger over the praying Claudius, crying: "And now I'll do it." Newcomers to the play might well believe he will.
the independant:
I rate Tennant very highly, but I wouldn't put him in the absolute front rank of contemporary Hamlets, a category which, for me, includes Simon Russell Beale, Mark Rylance and Stephen Dillane. Or not yet, at any rate. The performance has time to grow. This actor has most of what it takes: the braininess, the breadth of spirit, the reckless irony, the bamboozling banter, the sense of layered depth. He can produce moments of sudden stillness when he seems to be dazed by the vortex of meditation. After ecstasies of anger in the closet scene, he can turn into a deeply affecting lost boy kneeling by Gertrude's bedside and trying to reconnect the primal family circuit. But while this Prince is able to reach out and touch his father's Ghost (Patrick Stewart, doubling), his mother can neither see nor feel him.
So what's missing? Well, the part of Hamlet constitutes a special case. However hard you analyse his behaviour and motivations, this character remains to some degree a tantalising mystery. ...In the soliloquies, the finest performers seem to be, partly, laying bare their own souls to us, too and laying us bare to ourselves. At the moment, that strange double-feeling of exposure and spiritual connection is not as strong here as one could wish here.
the daily telegraph:
Tennant's prince seems merely resigned and wearily fatalistic, a reductive reading of a role that can offer a moving glimpse of grace, as the Christian imagery of the last act suggests.
There remains much to admire. It's hard not to warm to a Hamlet who makes you laugh, and Tennant discovers almost every ounce of sarky humour, especially when baiting Oliver Ford Davies's hilariously ponderous but poisonous Polonius and winding up the smarmy Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.
Tennant is at his best though when he dares with his emotions and lets rip. The closet scene with Gertrude, when he confronts his mother with her moral laxity, standing astride her on the "incestuous sheets" of her bed, has a thrilling raw power.
And there is a beautiful moment when the ghost of his father seems to hug him and Tennant delivers a little gasp of love and grief. As the run continues, Tennant should trust his feelings, dig deeper, expose more of himself.
the times:
I’ve seen bolder Hamlets and more moving Hamlets, but few who kept me so riveted throughout. Even when Tennant boggles in wonder at his father’s ghost or dismay at his incestuous mother, his eyes, teeth and steep, furrowed brow don’t do all the acting. Indeed, the first surprise is the intensity of his mourning. He stands there in his black suit and tie, impervious to the champagne drinkers partying beneath their crystal chandeliers, and then, left alone, he twists, half-collapses, crouches, squeals and screeches in an agony of grief, rage and disgust. And then comes the second, concomitant surprise.
We’ve already met Patrick Stewart’s Claudius, a smiling, slippery King who exudes a geniality that, thanks to his sly glances and evident distaste for Hamlet, we know to be spurious. And now we meet his dead brother, who is also Patrick Stewart, but a very different Patrick Stewart. This scarily corporeal ghost circles Tennant’s Hamlet, who has sunk to his knees, and roars out his demands like some monstrous dictator or aggrieved ogre. Even after he’s grimly exited the stage he dominates it, turning his cries of “remember me” and “swear” into ferocious orders, the latter making the theatre quake and shake as much as his former subjects.
This leaves you wondering if Hamlet’s father really was a more appealing ruler than his usurping brother.
yes yes yes!! the lazy way to put up a production of hamlet is to make claudius greedy, gertrude lustful, king hamlet as heroic, and young hamlet as a hero who just thinks too much. but this, yes; a young hamlet as a man who hates claudius for being the living proof that his family was never, and would never have been what he wanted it to be -- a loving father with a loving wife and a son whom he respected and cherished, a good king loved by the people, not a king who is quickly brushed aside and forgotten after a suspicious death. a claudius and a gertrude who love each other, and understand so much more about their situation than hamlet wants to. OH YEAH, PEOPLES. i'd like to say more about the production, except obviously the reviews are mostly focusing on tennant, and then stewart, and not nearly so much on anyone else, but the consensus is excellent cast, excellent production, and, if tennant can let himself be so, an excellent hamlet.
aaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh i just remembered i will never see it. ;________;!!!!!!
OH RSC PLEASE MAKE A RECORDING OF THIS PRODUCTION. you've got to!
i couldn't put this in with the serious reviews because it is from the daily mail, and as such is comprised mainly of LOL FAIL AT UNDERSTANDING THE POINT (with bonus sexism and toryism thrown in for fun)
the daily mail:
He is memorable, quirky, handsome in a fey, underfed sort of way. He even proves himself a dab hand at sword fighting. ...Some parts of the role, particularly the manlier, more noble elements, are underplayed.
...The star buzz is palpable. On Monday night I saw about 30 members of the audience leap to their feet at the end to show delight at Mr Tennant's performance. All but two of them were women.
Maybe it's because he's such a TV pin-up or maybe his interpretation of Hamlet (light on power politics, heavier on personal hiatus) is likely to appeal more to the female mind.
...Penny Downie makes a slinky Gertrude, quivery and pert in silk nightclothes.
...The death of Polonius brings a moment of welcome theatricality to a sometimes monochrome production. I have seldom been as grateful for the arrival of the visiting players. At last! A dash of costume glamour.
i could go on but then i'd just be quoting the entire article. especially lovely was how he described tennant as "fey", which about half of the other reviews i've seen have done as well, but somehow made it seem like he was describing him as pathetically and unmasculinely GAY (perfect for our "self-indulgent age"!). and no, i have no idea what "personal hiatus" is supposed to mean either.
here are a couple of audio reviews/thoughts, both interesting and thoughtful:
michael billington (guardian critic) and simon russell beale talk a bit about the production and how actors can move between film, theatre, and television.
last wednesday's episode of front row; the second section is about the RSC production, includes musings on the doctor's "existential angst", hamlet's "fey madness", tennant's "terrific" performance, how the women come to the fore in the second half, and general discussion that the production is a little too "safe".
oh how i wish someone would post a picture of the scene with the ghost. guess i will have to go with a photo from my other favourite scene, namely act III scene iv, when hamlet goes to gertrude's closet after the play:
seriously, RSC. record this.
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