Brush up your Shakespeare

[selenak]

I - and bimo, and iamsab, and many another - are going to watch Hamlet in Stratford this season, so I was thrilled to find the RSC has put up an interview with the director, Greg Doran. (Why yes, I want to see two particular actors in that play. But I still want the play to be something other than a star vehicle, so finding out about production ideas is good.)

Firstly, I'm intrigued that Doran has cast Patrick Stewart not just as Claudius but also as the Ghost. (One of the elements I loved in the Kenneth Branagh Hamlet on film - that Derek Jacobi as Claudius and Branagh as Hamlet were made up to look as alike as possible given that they as themselves really don't. For the first time, this made me wonder how long the Claudius/Gertrude tryst had been going on, and whether in fact the Ghost's ultimate revenge on Claudius wasn't setting up Hamlet to avenge Hamlet Senior's murder when in fact Hamlet was Claudius' son.) Here's Doran on Claudius:

"When I was talking to Patrick, I quickly reaslised that you mustn't view Claudius through Hamlet's point of view. He's trying to sort out the kingdom. It might not be a completely selfless agenda, but it could be that the old king Hamlet was not a good King. It could be that in order to find stability for the kingdom he has also basically leapt over Hamlet's own right to run things because he thinks Hamlet would be a dreadful mess. I don't think that Hamlet shows a lot of evidence of leadership skills and we might need people like Claudius sometimes."

No kidding. I definitely would not want Hamlet to run a household, let alone a kingdom. In Branagh's witty black-and-white film about a Hamlet production (with Michael Maloney in the lead), In the Bleak Midwinter, you get a scene where the actress playing Ophelia decides to slap Hamlet in the "get thee to a nunnery scene", and I always thought that would have done him a world of good. Btw, while I've got opinions on various screen Hamlets and Hamlets (least favourite: Mel Gibson - Zeffirelli should have stuck with the Italian plays; the Olivier one has aged really badly, but at least doesn't have Mel Gibson; I do love the Branagh film down to each cameo, but K.B. himself impressed me more in other roles than as Hamlet; which leaves In the Bleak Midwinter, which isn't strictly speaking a film version of Hamlet but a film about a bunch of out of luck actors staging a production of Hamlet, and yet their Hamlet is my favourite. And not just because of the slap, I swear! Stage-wise, sadly, I wasn't very lucky; I've never seen a production that impressed me much. Which means all the more anticipation for this one!

Comments

[wee-warrior.livejournal.com]

You know In Bleak Midwinter! I didn't realize anyone apart from me (and that other person in the cinema way back) had ever watched that.

As for the Tennant/Stewart version, I'm going to live vicariously through you...

[selenak.livejournal.com]

I know at least one other person who has watched it (likeadeuce). *g*

And I'll do my best to describe the Tennant/Stewart to come as vividly as possible...

[ponygirl2000.livejournal.com]

I loved In A Bleak Midwinter! I saw it when it first came out and remember laughing until I hurt. It's almost impossible to find here on DVD now.

[lilacsigil.livejournal.com]

I saw a really good Hamlet in Melbourne about 12 years ago, with Richard Roxburgh and Cate Blanchett. It was set in the 19th century (before Branagh's version), on quite a plain stage, and was very, very tense. I can remember that every time a scene ended I would have to take a deep breath because I'd been holding it! But I think any production that can take a good hard look past Hamlet's ego and wordplay at what he would mean as king is off to a good start!

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Did Cate Blanchett play Gertrude or Ophelia?

And I love the play. It's just that as opposed to, say, Macbeth, I haven't seen a stage production that really captured me the way it does on the page yet, and that's just wrong...

[lilacsigil.livejournal.com]

She played Ophelia, and put equal intensity into her both before and after she goes mad.

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen a stage production that really captured me the way it does on the page yet, and that's just wrong...

I've never seen a stage production of Julius Caesar that captured me the way it did when we read it at school, but it's still my favourite. I argue that Shakespeare doesn't happen on the stage, it happens in the head, and the stage versions are shadows that help us reach the Platonic form of the play.

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

Do you know Cavafy's poem, King Claudius (http://www.cavafy.com/poems/content.asp?id=163&cat=4)?

I think there's something to be gained from any production of Hamlet, good or bad, as they all help me to refine the definitive version in my head: incorporating ideas that worked, thinking out how to solve problems differently when they didn't. But I imprinted on my first Hamlet, the Kozintsev film with Innokenti Smoktunovsky which I saw on television when I was ten or eleven (I think it helped seeing it in Russian, because I didn't have to grapple with the Shakespearean language). It's not very kind to Claudius, but I still love it, and managed to order a copy from Russia a few years ago; it seems Amazon have got it now, though if you happened to be near Manchester you'd be very welcome to come and see mine!

[deborah-judge.livejournal.com]

this made me wonder how long the Claudius/Gertrude tryst had been going on, and whether in fact the Ghost's ultimate revenge on Claudius wasn't setting up Hamlet to avenge Hamlet Senior's murder when in fact Hamlet was Claudius' son.

Brilliant! I love that reading, and it may have to be part of my personal Hamlet-canon from now on.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

There is a reason that ghost isn't anywhere near heaven, I tell you, and it's not that he died unexpectedly!

Floating past, hope you don't mind

[redfiona99.livejournal.com]

Probably my favourite is the Nicol Williamson version, which also has Anthony Hopkins as Claudius and is generally lovely.

I'm really interested to see what Doran will do with Hamlet.

not at all, and...

[selenak.livejournal.com]

...I'll check the Nicol Williamson version out then!

[rivrea.livejournal.com]

I am really envious of all the folks on my f-list who get to see the new RSC Hamlet in August (I wanted to go, too, but it didn't work out, alas). I have only see two stage productions of Hamlet so far, and neither of them was in any way satisfying.

Okay, one was staged by the probably infamous American Drama Group to whose tours every Bavarian English class will be dragged at least once during their school years, but not even the more 'professional' one at the Barbican Theatre in winter 2004 actually convinced me. Their production design was vaguely reminiscent of feudal Japan, but this setting didn't seem to affect the characters or the ideas of the play, which was just ... weird.

But if you're interested in films about Shakespearean theatre, you might want to have a look at the Canadian TV show Slings and Arrows (http://rivrea.livejournal.com/22595.html). It's all about a chaotic Shakespeare ensemble and their attempts to wrestle with different classics (Hamlet, Macbeth, Romeo & Juliet, King Lear).

(Edited because I can't spell.)

[pandarus.livejournal.com]

Yes! This! I was about to chime in with exactly this comment - OMG, I love Slings and Arrows so, and if you liked In The Bleak Midwinter then I definitely think it would be your cup of tea! It's funny, almost cutting at times in the way it deflates pretention and commercialization - but the whole thing is infused with a very genuine passion for theatre, and for the text. Oh, it's just lovely, and human, and rich, and blessedly unsappy even whilst it's quite romantic... and so CLEVER! I swear, every time I rewatch I discover some new way in which they're echoing the text of Shakespeare's play in the shape of the story wrapped around putting on a production of Hamlet - there's stuff that's very obvious, but other things are more subtle.

Meanwhile, I am All About The Envy. Don't plan to go home in the summer, so I'm most unlikely to see the production. Damn it.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

I know the infamous American Drama Group you speak of.*g* Though I didn't see them with Hamlet, I saw them with the Tempest.

Slings and Arrows: have heard of it, will watch - when time permits! So many shows, so little rl...

[elisi]

I am very much looking forward to your report (and trying very hard not to be jealous) - your thoughts here are v. interesting and I hope the show manages to impress.

Meant to comment yesterday, but am run off my feet. Partly because I posted the next part of my Immortal fic. I hope you like.

[ticketsonmyself.livejournal.com]

One of the elements I loved in the Kenneth Branagh Hamlet on film - that Derek Jacobi as Claudius and Branagh as Hamlet were made up to look as alike as possible given that they as themselves really don't.

This is wonderful, and I love the idea of the double casting of Claudius and the Ghost in the production you're to see. I'd like to see Branagh's Hamlet again—it must be ten years since I watched it, and I have no clear memories.

For the first time, this made me wonder how long the Claudius/Gertrude tryst had been going on, and whether in fact the Ghost's ultimate revenge on Claudius wasn't setting up Hamlet to avenge Hamlet Senior's murder when in fact Hamlet was Claudius' son.

Now this is my personal canon, too! Brilliant. As you say, that'd be a good reason why the Ghost isn't anywhere near heaven!

I really agree with you and Doran re: the old king Hamlet, Hamlet, and Claudius. I think there's substantial textual evidence for that interpretation.

In Branagh's witty black-and-white film about a Hamlet production (with Michael Maloney in the lead), In the Bleak Midwinter, you get a scene where the actress playing Ophelia decides to slap Hamlet in the "get thee to a nunnery scene", and I always thought that would have done him a world of good.

I haven't seen the film, but I support that slap too! Heh.

Stage-wise, sadly, I wasn't very lucky; I've never seen a production that impressed me much. Which means all the more anticipation for this one!

Hurrah for anticipation! The RSC Hamlet sounds like it's going to be amazing. The only Hamlet stage performance that's ever made a positive impression on me was a few years ago at the Shakespeare Theatre's Shakespeare Free For All. I can't recall the actors' names, but Ophelia impressed me; I especially liked the way Laertes and Ophelia mouthed the words and made amusing faces/gestures behind Polonius's back during the "This above all: to thine own self be true" speech.