Hamlet

[bookwormsarah]

I saw Hamlet for the first time on Saturday, and I have been left with lots of thoughts and a burning desire to find my GCSE English teacher and camp out on his doorstep until he gives me a terms worth of Eng Lit lessons on the subject.

Comments

[mrsrev]

Have some more Hamlet!

http://www.bravebadgertheatre.com/

That Hamlet is Mark, a little boy that I used to babysit, and who was a cute pageboy at our wedding. I saw him as Jack in Lord of the Flies a few years ago and now this. (he's also going to be in Holby very soon). I'm having trouble processing the fact that he's grown up now because we all know that I'm only pretending to be...

[bookwormsarah]

That looks really interesting, shame it is in Portsmouth!

[biascut]

Oh, I'm sooo envious! I would have loved to have seen it, but now isn't really the time. Royal exchange! Hamlet, which I did for GCSEs but have never actually seen live! Maxine Peake! It has EVERYTHING except good timing.

Her 'madness' contrasted to Hamlet's

Heh, that's basically my GCSE English Lit Shakespeare essay.

[bookwormsarah]

Maxine Peake! It was stunning, and as much as I loved Macbeth and Julius Caesar, I wish we'd studied Hamlet at school.

[nineveh_uk]

I did Hamlet at A-level, and like it a lot. Ophelia's mad scene is usually a dud in even very good productions of Hamlet (combination of directors not knowing what to do with a very Shakespearean-era type of scene that we just aren't used to on stage any more, and often young and inexperienced actresses), so I am impressed that they did it well.

[bookwormsarah]

As she spoke she removed much of her clothing, which she handed to people as if they were the flowers. There seemed to be bruises on her legs and stomach, which suggested rape to me, especially coupled with Hamlet's earlier tormenting. This all seemed to make perfect sense, but I would be interested to see if other people had the same reaction at the end of the performance.

[littlered2]

That sounds great! I wish I was in Manchester. I like Hamlet a lot, but have never seen it performed - I saw the Branagh version many years ago (maybe when I studied it for AS Level?) and have the Tennant and Olivier versions sitting on the shelf at home waiting to be watched, which I should really get around to doing.

[bookwormsarah]

I forgot there was an Olivier version. I see interlibrary loans in my future. Possibly a trip to a dvd shop too...

[ghoti]

I would recommend The Banquet, a martial arts reimagining of Hamlet, with Ziyi Zhang as Gertrude.

[bookwormsarah]

Sounds intriguing, thank you.