57th performance of Hamlet (my 16th)
It made a change for me to drive south to Stratford! I'd been in Scotland on business and managed to fit in an Am-Dram performance of Hamlet too. The production was okay but Hamlet was played by a girl which took some getting used to! She was easily the best actor in the cast but rather rattled through the soliquees unfortunately. Once again, they cut short my favourite speech, but all of the 5 productions I've seen have cut it so I guess I'm in a minority!
I was in my H5 seat so I had a totally uninterrupted view other than the woman sitting next to me who CONSTANTLY fidgeted through the whole performance! I can ignore a bit of movement but there can't have been a minute in the whole play where she didn't move - it was very off-putting. She even went out to the loo twice too.
Despite the distraction, I still really enjoyed this performance and thought they all acted with massive intensity tonight.
My usual musings on the performance:
After Hamlet's first real speech ("Seems madam" etc - a speech that is also cut!) David Tennant took a drink of his "wine" which I haven't seen him do before but it looked effective as the character is obviously distraught at being told by his mother that his grief only seems deep.
One thing that I've only recently noticed is that in the same scene Polonius mouths the words that Laeretes says to Claudius as though Polonius has coached him to say that speech.
The scene between Laeretes and Ophelia at the beginning of the play has evolved nicely in the run. At first it often came across slightly flat but now they show quite a bit of brother / sister friendliness. Often Laeretes will tweak her nose but tonight he gave her a sticky willy.
Once again Hamlet kissed the stage during the scene where he sees the ghost.
During the scene with Hamlet and Polonius (the fishmonger scene) Hamlet burped at one part.
Near the end of the first half, I was aware of some noise in the theatre. At first I thought it was the air conditioning being particularly loud but then I realised that it was pouring hard and it was the sound of the rain on the metal roof! During the interval I went outside and it was lashing down!
The closet scene is still my fabourite as David Tennant and Penny Downie act so well in that scene each night. I thought it was great at the first performance but it's improved tenfold. I really wonder what it's going to be like by the end of the run in London!
I was in my H5 seat so I had a totally uninterrupted view other than the woman sitting next to me who CONSTANTLY fidgeted through the whole performance! I can ignore a bit of movement but there can't have been a minute in the whole play where she didn't move - it was very off-putting. She even went out to the loo twice too.
Despite the distraction, I still really enjoyed this performance and thought they all acted with massive intensity tonight.
My usual musings on the performance:
After Hamlet's first real speech ("Seems madam" etc - a speech that is also cut!) David Tennant took a drink of his "wine" which I haven't seen him do before but it looked effective as the character is obviously distraught at being told by his mother that his grief only seems deep.
One thing that I've only recently noticed is that in the same scene Polonius mouths the words that Laeretes says to Claudius as though Polonius has coached him to say that speech.
The scene between Laeretes and Ophelia at the beginning of the play has evolved nicely in the run. At first it often came across slightly flat but now they show quite a bit of brother / sister friendliness. Often Laeretes will tweak her nose but tonight he gave her a sticky willy.
Once again Hamlet kissed the stage during the scene where he sees the ghost.
During the scene with Hamlet and Polonius (the fishmonger scene) Hamlet burped at one part.
Near the end of the first half, I was aware of some noise in the theatre. At first I thought it was the air conditioning being particularly loud but then I realised that it was pouring hard and it was the sound of the rain on the metal roof! During the interval I went outside and it was lashing down!
The closet scene is still my fabourite as David Tennant and Penny Downie act so well in that scene each night. I thought it was great at the first performance but it's improved tenfold. I really wonder what it's going to be like by the end of the run in London!
I've read online a few times that David Tennant smells really nice so I was determined today that when he walked past my seat, that I would inhale to check! (The time I was introduced to him in London, I had too much on my mind to think about doing that too!) Unfortunately that part of the play is when the helicopter noise is happening and they have smoke blowing which has it's own smell so I came around with the conclusion that he smells of helicopter fumes and I'm sure that's not the case!
At the end of the performance there was a massive cheer by the audience as they really loved it tonight.
Even though I'd already driven down from Scotland today, I found the drive home easy as I was still buzzing from the performance!
Next performance for me: Love's Labour's Lost on Saturday (15th)
