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B&R and I had some geek-friends over last night, and one of them mentioned in passing how she wants to see the David Tennant/Patrick Stewart Hamlet. B&R and I looked meaningfully at each other. "Well, as it happens..." I said.
Cut to three hours of Shakespearean awesome.
Somewhat unexpectedly, the Polonius Family was my favorite part. Laertes and Ophelia's first scene had a real sibling flavor (and a great moment at "primrose path of dalliance" when Ophelia pulled condoms out of Laertes' luggage) and excellent we've-heard-this-all-before acting during Polonius' "These few precepts" speech. Ophelia's madness was done in a way I'd never imagined. Other versions (by which I mean Helena Bonham Carter and Kate Winslet - I've never seen it done live, oddly) have played her madness for straight sorrow. Here, though, Mariah Gale is genuinely terrifying in her unpredictibility.
Sir Patrick's Claudius is superficially similar to his Macbeth (about which I have rhapsodized) in that he at first appears as a mild-looking, mild-acting man. But whereas Macbeth is overtaken by events, Claudius (it becomes increasingly clear) is coldly, indeed sociopathicially, pulling strings. Even his seemingly-private remorse ("My offense is rank") proves to be put on to deceive Hamlet. His very lack of emotion makes him more frightening than, for example, Derek Jacobi's Claudius (in the Branagh film.) He is a calculating and hugely pragmatic intellect who murders willingly... but, when cornered and exposed, takes the poisoned cup with a shrug.
David Tennant is very good, though I do find myself longing to see him play a non-manic character for once.
Cut to three hours of Shakespearean awesome.
Somewhat unexpectedly, the Polonius Family was my favorite part. Laertes and Ophelia's first scene had a real sibling flavor (and a great moment at "primrose path of dalliance" when Ophelia pulled condoms out of Laertes' luggage) and excellent we've-heard-this-all-before acting during Polonius' "These few precepts" speech. Ophelia's madness was done in a way I'd never imagined. Other versions (by which I mean Helena Bonham Carter and Kate Winslet - I've never seen it done live, oddly) have played her madness for straight sorrow. Here, though, Mariah Gale is genuinely terrifying in her unpredictibility.
Sir Patrick's Claudius is superficially similar to his Macbeth (about which I have rhapsodized) in that he at first appears as a mild-looking, mild-acting man. But whereas Macbeth is overtaken by events, Claudius (it becomes increasingly clear) is coldly, indeed sociopathicially, pulling strings. Even his seemingly-private remorse ("My offense is rank") proves to be put on to deceive Hamlet. His very lack of emotion makes him more frightening than, for example, Derek Jacobi's Claudius (in the Branagh film.) He is a calculating and hugely pragmatic intellect who murders willingly... but, when cornered and exposed, takes the poisoned cup with a shrug.
David Tennant is very good, though I do find myself longing to see him play a non-manic character for once.
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