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prof_pangaeaFrom the book John Gielgud Directs Richard Burton in Hamlet, which is actually a transcript of the rehearsals, and extremely interesting! This was too funny not to share:
Gielgud: And I do beg you, Linda [Ophelia], in the mad scene, to wear your blouse right open. Modesty aside! Don't tie it in front. I suppose it would be too much for not to have it at all, just to wear the brassiere and the skirt. Do you think that would be too much? Would that embarass you?
Linda Marsh: Yes.
Gielgud: It would. Well, perhaps it wouldn't be so good. You might look like the Playboy Bunny of Elsinore. And Rosencrantz, don't come in with that empty scabbard in the "Hide fox" scene. Leave it offstage. It looks most indecent, that white flexible scabbard, hanging like that.
Gielgud: And I do beg you, Linda [Ophelia], in the mad scene, to wear your blouse right open. Modesty aside! Don't tie it in front. I suppose it would be too much for not to have it at all, just to wear the brassiere and the skirt. Do you think that would be too much? Would that embarass you?
Linda Marsh: Yes.
Gielgud: It would. Well, perhaps it wouldn't be so good. You might look like the Playboy Bunny of Elsinore. And Rosencrantz, don't come in with that empty scabbard in the "Hide fox" scene. Leave it offstage. It looks most indecent, that white flexible scabbard, hanging like that.
