I liked Stewart’s Claudius because he showed the human side of the villain – a man who really isn’t such a bad sort until his lust for power induces him to commit horrible crimes. On my Hamlet list, I’d put the Tennant version right above Ethan Hawke’s. God knows there are vast tracks of Shakespeare – particularly in the history plays – which can be given the boot to everyone’s benefit, but editing Hamlet’s most famous speech accomplishes nothing beyond gratuitous shock value. If there was a point to all this variety, I missed it.įinally, Doran cut roughly seven lines from “To be, or not to be”. Different soldiers carried weapons from vastly different centuries. Polonius resembled an Elizabethan courtier on dress-down day. Claudius and Gertrude had the air of a rich mid-20th century power couple. Horatio dressed like a middle-aged academic circa 1982. I have no idea in what time period this Hamlet was meant to be set. All the joking diminished the tragic punch of the staging, however. ) Good fun too were the expressions of impatience, disbelief, credulity, and exasperation the actors wore whenever anyone, not just Polonius, made a long speech. This means Polonius really takes it on the chin, although I also enjoyed the utter bafflement Tom Davey’s Guildenstern projected whenever the dialogue didn’t require him to reveal a faint glimmer of understanding. He seizes every opportunity the play allows to read lines as comic.
HAMLET FULL MOVIE DAVID TENNANT PLUS
(Jean Simmons’ guppy out of water reading of Ophelia in Olivier’s movie version was a low point of Hamlet on film.) Penny Downie’s Gertrude was quite good, too, except for the Act IV bedroom scene with Tennant, when she seem to fight his big and loud with her own big and loud.Īlso on the plus side, Doran’s Hamlet is funny. Mariah Gale’s Ophelia was strong and self-possessed, even in madness where she was more angry than wounded. On the plus side, the women of the play were pretty good. I liked his wise and even-tempered reading however, Stewart’s usurper was so amiable that he failed to convince me he could kick a dog much less kill his brother, seduce his brother’s wife, and plot the treacherous murder of their son. As I result, I don’t think Tennant connected with full emotion to the part, so I didn’t feel much emotion watching him.Īnother problematic performance was Patrick Stewart’s Claudius. But when it came to exploring Hamlet’s anguish and rage, he fell back on acting BIGGER and LOUDER. He has the perfect look for the part, and he nailed the Danish prince’s anxiety and snark. Based on its reputation, I was expecting to like the 2009 Royal Shakespeare Company production of Hamlet, directed by Gregory Doran and starring David Tennant, much better than I did.Įvery Hamlet rises or falls on the performance of the title-role actor, and Tennant had both strengths and problems.
0 kommentar(er)
