63rd performance of Hamlet (my 20th)
Photo not from tonight
I was really lucky with these tickets as I happened to be online yesterday when they added Row B in the stalls and made that the front row instead of row C! I'd read that the front of the stage is high but I didn't think it was. It was just like watching a massive television screen when you can see every movement and all their facial expressions - it was just brilliant!
I felt really sorry for Penny Downie tonight as she was obviously really struggling with a cold. A couple of time her voice cracked and she had to cough but she still gave a great performance. At the end though you could see in her eyes that she was totally full of cold and felt rough. During the scene where Ophelia has gone mad and is giving out the flowers, I would imagine that all the other actors have been told not to move and let's just say that it was quite revolting watching Penny at that part! I noticed too that instead of kissing her on the lips as Hamlet usually does at the end of the bedroom scene, tonight he gently stroked her hair and kissed her on the head.
David Tennant is definitely using the height of the stage far more than in Stratford. I don't know if it's because the stage is a quarter smaller than at The Courtyard, but he is sitting and crouching on stage far more than he used to. It's almost as though there's less room to move around so he uses up and down more.
The first instance of this was when Hamlet first walked on stage at the reception scene. In Stratford DT would stand with his back facing some of the audience (in London it would be all the audience) while Claudius speaks. Tonight David Tennant crouched down during all of that, just holding his glass and looking at the floor. It's very effective as it's at a royal reception with ambassadors and other important people and the depressed Hamlet is just crouching in a ball! (It also meant that I was in the lucky position of having him directly in my eye level for about 5 minutes!) I was very impressed at this point that he could stay in that position as it must be so hard on his knees and thighs!
Tonight David Tennant's expressions in the scene with Horatio (when he's told about him seeing the ghost) was just brilliant! At first he was more emotional than he sometimes has been about losing his father (the "we will not see his like again" part) and then his facial expressions when Horatio told him that he had seen his father's ghost was just amazing! You could just read all his thoughts at that point. The friend I went with said that she had never seen any of David Tennant's acting before but she was totally amazed at how good he is!
Tonight I was watching DT's expressions a lot during the ghost's speech and he really reacts to everything the ghost says, even though there'll be a limited number of people who can see his face at that point.
I went with a friend who said that she knew Hamlet so she asked me during the interval how they were going to get around it as Hamlet had just killed Claudius in the middle of the play! I explained that they had gone to the interval halfway through the scene.
Tonight from where I was sitting I saw DT come out from behind the curtain quite early to get into position ton drag "Polonius's body" across the stage so he had to crouch there out of sight of most people.
I felt really sorry for Penny Downie tonight as she was obviously really struggling with a cold. A couple of time her voice cracked and she had to cough but she still gave a great performance. At the end though you could see in her eyes that she was totally full of cold and felt rough. During the scene where Ophelia has gone mad and is giving out the flowers, I would imagine that all the other actors have been told not to move and let's just say that it was quite revolting watching Penny at that part! I noticed too that instead of kissing her on the lips as Hamlet usually does at the end of the bedroom scene, tonight he gently stroked her hair and kissed her on the head.
David Tennant is definitely using the height of the stage far more than in Stratford. I don't know if it's because the stage is a quarter smaller than at The Courtyard, but he is sitting and crouching on stage far more than he used to. It's almost as though there's less room to move around so he uses up and down more.
The first instance of this was when Hamlet first walked on stage at the reception scene. In Stratford DT would stand with his back facing some of the audience (in London it would be all the audience) while Claudius speaks. Tonight David Tennant crouched down during all of that, just holding his glass and looking at the floor. It's very effective as it's at a royal reception with ambassadors and other important people and the depressed Hamlet is just crouching in a ball! (It also meant that I was in the lucky position of having him directly in my eye level for about 5 minutes!) I was very impressed at this point that he could stay in that position as it must be so hard on his knees and thighs!
Tonight David Tennant's expressions in the scene with Horatio (when he's told about him seeing the ghost) was just brilliant! At first he was more emotional than he sometimes has been about losing his father (the "we will not see his like again" part) and then his facial expressions when Horatio told him that he had seen his father's ghost was just amazing! You could just read all his thoughts at that point. The friend I went with said that she had never seen any of David Tennant's acting before but she was totally amazed at how good he is!
Tonight I was watching DT's expressions a lot during the ghost's speech and he really reacts to everything the ghost says, even though there'll be a limited number of people who can see his face at that point.
I went with a friend who said that she knew Hamlet so she asked me during the interval how they were going to get around it as Hamlet had just killed Claudius in the middle of the play! I explained that they had gone to the interval halfway through the scene.
Tonight from where I was sitting I saw DT come out from behind the curtain quite early to get into position ton drag "Polonius's body" across the stage so he had to crouch there out of sight of most people.
One funny thing that happened was that Gertrude called out asking what the noise of the rebellion was before the noise was actually made!
At the end of the bows Keith Osborn walked forward and explained that they were doing the collection for AIDS sufferers (as lots of theatres are this week) and that there would be collection buckets at all the exits. I found his speech especially poignant as he said that gave the statistics of how many people die of the disease and said that he had calculated that since they started the play that night equivalent to as many people as there were in the theatre would have died. That really brought it home to me.
I had to walk past the stage door to catch my train and I saw that they had the barriers set the same way as on Thursday so I doubt that many people will have got autographs. I didn't bother staying as the part I used to enjoy in Stratford was listening to his interaction with the crowd and I wouldn't have been able to have heard that.
Next performance for me: Tomorrow (6th)!
