RSC: Hamlet, again
just back from seeing Hamlet again. let me just preface this post with, i am really glad i got to see it at the Courtyard in Stratford. had this been my only viewing, i do not think i would have liked it for reasons i will go into below. it was not really bad but it was not as stunning as Stratford.
the bad
oh gah! that lighting sucked. like seriously S U C K E D! half the time you could not see the actor's face or they were shadowed and not in a good or dramatic way. IMO
the whole production was horribly cramped on stage. some scenes were just not good for this...it gave the feeling of "claustrophobia" with some the actors either upstaging the others or completely blocking the view.
the mirrors. distracting! did not work this time.
old theater, while a lovely old one, did not have the great layout. i shouldn't complain as we were only 8 rows back, center but at times i was thinking how, due to the cramped staging, anyone in the balconies or higher could see a thing. and the seats in general were so very uncomfortable. liek whoa! bad. so it made the 3.5 hours a bit painful.
the good
Ed Bennett did a great job. he was different in his interpretation but still quite good. for me, it seemed he didn't really hit his stride until the "to be" speech. after that he seemed to light up and really shine. he was emotional and funny and wry and all the things he should be. he was not quite as bawdy with the "country matters" scene and played things a bit more subtle.
Tom Davey was Laertes and was wonderful in the role. he had great command of the role. i also noticed he seemed to have a different chemistry with the Ophelia actress...like, oh hai! we are either dating on the side or the characters were a bit incestuous. LOL
Penny/Gertrude seemed to be a bit subdued, not as over the top this time around. either that or i just found her less annoying. ;)
Stewart was Stewart. just wonderful to watch.
the fun part for me was that the Costard guy from LLL ( i should go look up the actors names but i am lazy and the program is way *points* over there.) anyway, Costard played the new Guildenstein character, and quite differently than the one we saw in Stratford. he was much more comedic. IMO all the actors were a bit shuffled around so this may not make much sense without your program in hand. tee hee.
the only thing i liked about the cramped staging was the dumb play. how the thrones were set with Hamlet being almost in the dumb play sitting close to the edge. that worked well b/c it didn't force the audience to have to choose what part to watch. at Stratford i had to pick what i wanted to watch as the action was spread out.
the aftertalk
this was great. first it was just the ass't director, Bennett and Lucianos (can't remember his name but he played Fontenbrau at Stratford) on stage. then Polonius came out, then, Penny, lastly Stewart. Bennett got a round of applause when he came out. he seemed a bit humbled by it. bless.
there were a couple of interesting questions. one was how they all felt about being shuffled about in the roles. they talked about how really scary it was after so many months. when the announcement came that Tennant was out, everyone was, to paraphrase, omg, holy crap! LOL though Stewart thought it was great b/c it changed everything or stirred things up but in a good way. like it breathed life into it again. he didn't mean that in a bad way at all.
the funny thing was Stewart going off about all the coughing and how really distracting/bad/rude etc it was. and he is quite right. he said how the coughing could set the timing of the speeches off esp if they were done in the wrong spot. he was funny in that he said, cellphones or pagers were not an issue, that they could deal with and mostly ignore but the coughing is so random. he added that they would not tolerate that in the opera or concert hall. Penny added that most places people would wait until a scene change or interval and otherwise hold it in. LOL so yeah, it was not just me and T that were annoyed by all the coughing. Stewart said it sounded like a TB ward. *snort*
a question was asked of Penny about Gertrude and Stewart covered his ears b/c he didn't want to hear how she was feeling about the role or her thought processes on her character. it was amusing to see him practically going "lalalala not listening" while she talked.
after the talk, we did get around to the stage door to see Bennett signing stuff but it was raining and i didn't want to ruin my program. plus he was obviously trying to head out so we watched a minute or so. he was wearing a snazy hat..T says it was rakish. it looked good. i didn't take any pics as i had gotten quite a few good ones during the after talk. ;) can't upload them as i am on T's computer but i will. next week. i hope. holidays, you know. *g*
that is all.
the bad
oh gah! that lighting sucked. like seriously S U C K E D! half the time you could not see the actor's face or they were shadowed and not in a good or dramatic way. IMO
the whole production was horribly cramped on stage. some scenes were just not good for this...it gave the feeling of "claustrophobia" with some the actors either upstaging the others or completely blocking the view.
the mirrors. distracting! did not work this time.
old theater, while a lovely old one, did not have the great layout. i shouldn't complain as we were only 8 rows back, center but at times i was thinking how, due to the cramped staging, anyone in the balconies or higher could see a thing. and the seats in general were so very uncomfortable. liek whoa! bad. so it made the 3.5 hours a bit painful.
the good
Ed Bennett did a great job. he was different in his interpretation but still quite good. for me, it seemed he didn't really hit his stride until the "to be" speech. after that he seemed to light up and really shine. he was emotional and funny and wry and all the things he should be. he was not quite as bawdy with the "country matters" scene and played things a bit more subtle.
Tom Davey was Laertes and was wonderful in the role. he had great command of the role. i also noticed he seemed to have a different chemistry with the Ophelia actress...like, oh hai! we are either dating on the side or the characters were a bit incestuous. LOL
Penny/Gertrude seemed to be a bit subdued, not as over the top this time around. either that or i just found her less annoying. ;)
Stewart was Stewart. just wonderful to watch.
the fun part for me was that the Costard guy from LLL ( i should go look up the actors names but i am lazy and the program is way *points* over there.) anyway, Costard played the new Guildenstein character, and quite differently than the one we saw in Stratford. he was much more comedic. IMO all the actors were a bit shuffled around so this may not make much sense without your program in hand. tee hee.
the only thing i liked about the cramped staging was the dumb play. how the thrones were set with Hamlet being almost in the dumb play sitting close to the edge. that worked well b/c it didn't force the audience to have to choose what part to watch. at Stratford i had to pick what i wanted to watch as the action was spread out.
the aftertalk
this was great. first it was just the ass't director, Bennett and Lucianos (can't remember his name but he played Fontenbrau at Stratford) on stage. then Polonius came out, then, Penny, lastly Stewart. Bennett got a round of applause when he came out. he seemed a bit humbled by it. bless.
there were a couple of interesting questions. one was how they all felt about being shuffled about in the roles. they talked about how really scary it was after so many months. when the announcement came that Tennant was out, everyone was, to paraphrase, omg, holy crap! LOL though Stewart thought it was great b/c it changed everything or stirred things up but in a good way. like it breathed life into it again. he didn't mean that in a bad way at all.
the funny thing was Stewart going off about all the coughing and how really distracting/bad/rude etc it was. and he is quite right. he said how the coughing could set the timing of the speeches off esp if they were done in the wrong spot. he was funny in that he said, cellphones or pagers were not an issue, that they could deal with and mostly ignore but the coughing is so random. he added that they would not tolerate that in the opera or concert hall. Penny added that most places people would wait until a scene change or interval and otherwise hold it in. LOL so yeah, it was not just me and T that were annoyed by all the coughing. Stewart said it sounded like a TB ward. *snort*
a question was asked of Penny about Gertrude and Stewart covered his ears b/c he didn't want to hear how she was feeling about the role or her thought processes on her character. it was amusing to see him practically going "lalalala not listening" while she talked.
after the talk, we did get around to the stage door to see Bennett signing stuff but it was raining and i didn't want to ruin my program. plus he was obviously trying to head out so we watched a minute or so. he was wearing a snazy hat..T says it was rakish. it looked good. i didn't take any pics as i had gotten quite a few good ones during the after talk. ;) can't upload them as i am on T's computer but i will. next week. i hope. holidays, you know. *g*
that is all.