January Meme: Shakespeare on my mind

jesuswasbatman asked me about Shakespeare productions that have remained with me. I’m going to define this as „stage productions“ , because movies are a different medium and work with different premises. Though I will include some filmed stage productions.

1.) The Tempest, Stratford 2006.
Prospero: Patrick Stewart.

What remains with me: the shamanistic Antarctica setting, the half-mad Prospero who really has to work for sanity and forgiveness both, the incredible moment with Ariel and the way Stewart played the long silence before „and mine shall!“ (re: whether Prospero will forgive his enemies whom he’s trapped).

( Detailed impressions written at the time under the cut )

2. Antony and Cleopatra, also Stratford 2006.
Antony: Patrick Stewart. Cleopatra: Harriet Walter.

What remains with me: Harriet Walter actually pulling off making the constant moodswings enchanting instead of annoying and making true the „age cannot wither her infinite variety“ claim; the sizzling chemistry between her and Patrick Stewart, who played Antony with awareness of his own decay and yet also full of life and so charming you understood why so many people cared. Antony flirting with everyone, including Octavius (just to mess with his mind, he kisses him on the lips on the drunken revels chez Sextus Pompeius), who in this production wasn’t the usual coldly Machiavellian interpretation, but someone disturbed by his own feelings for Antony who felt himself jilted along with his sister. „I am dying, Egypt, dying“ spoken with that voice.

( What I wrote at the time )

3. Hamlet, Stratford 2008
Hamlet: David Tennant. Claudius: Patrick Stewart.

This production was later filmed, but the filmed version is lacking several key elements imo – the audience reaction, for starters (Gregory Doran, who directed this and later directed DT in Richard II as well, seems to share my opinion and on the audio commentary for Richard says that’s why they filmed a live stage performance in the later case rather than try to redo the whole thing on a studio stage which is what they did with Hamlet. More specifically, the filmed version ruins one of my favourite moments that has remained with me because of the way the camera is positioned. To wit: the long look between Claudius and Hamlet after Claudius has gotten up during The Mousetrap, the terrible joy in Hamlet’s face at that moment. (In the filmed version, Tennant’s face is mostly covered by Stewart’s, and so you get Claudius looking but not Hamlet’s returning gaze and expression.

Other things that remained with me: how suspenseful and often funny the production felt. Ophelia in her madness being full of rage, not whimsy. Tennant as the only Hamlet who didn’t come across as insufferable and/or mocking Laertes‘ grief in the grave scene. Stewart’s performance of Claudius‘ prayer, and the way the production used it as a cliffhanger before the break (the photo from that moment, Hamlet with the knife in the hand over a praying Claudius, looks goofy because Hamlet is wearing the player king’s crown, but believe me, on stage it was breathtaking).

( What I wrote at the time )

3. The Beatles performing the Pyramus and Thisbe sketch from A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
(As part of British tv’s celebration of Shakespeare’s 400th anniversary.
Why it stays with me: Oh, come on.

Watch on YouTube

4. Macbeth, Startford 1978
Macbeth: Ian McKellen. Lady Macbeth: Judi Dench. Porter: Ian McDiarmid. Malcolm: Roger Rees.

Not seen live by yours truly but thankfully recorded on film so I could see it in school as one of three Macbeth productions (the other two were Polanski and Welles). This production still remains my gold standard Macbeth; all previous and subsequent ones suffer by comparison.

What remains with me: I’ve seen it since, but not until then – the three Witches played not as the same but as three distinctly different individuals, emboying the maiden/mother/crone imagery. Macbeth and Lady M having incredible chemistry (that first kiss! I don’t think I’ve ever seen such an intense sexual spark between two actors in these roles, and of course it makes the loss of each other into madness and/or nihilistic emptiness in the second half all the more glaring) and both being played by actors of equal charisma. (In all other productions I’ve seen, either the Macbeth or the Lady is weaker.) Judi Dench’s rendition of the sleepwalking scene, with that unearthly howl. Ian McKellen’s „tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow“. The way his Macbeth goes from being physically sickened by his own thoughts early on to utter detachment.

What I wrote at the time: I didn’t, still being in school.

5. Richard II, Startford 2014
Richard: David Tennant.

Also not watched on stage, alas, but thankfully in this case a live performance was filmed. What remains with me: the deposition scene, the way David Tennant’s Richard is smart in his defeat in a way he wasn’t in ruling and uses his understanding of the power of gesture and ceremony to define and ruin Bolingbroke’s kingship for his not so dear cousin. „Now watch“, that sibilant whisper. The way the opening and closing image of the production, the coffin on stage, bookend, in both cases the king being morally guilty of murder though not physically, and no one able to bring it up. The Aumerle-Richard kiss, and the build up to it.

( What I wrote at the time )

The rest of the days