David Tennant's Hamlet

[poliphilo]

David Tennant isn't an actor who changes much from role to role. He has a strongly defined persona, with attributes- speed, athleticism, comic timing- and mannerisms- face-pulling, verbal gymnastics (aka a love of funny voices)- that you expect to show up in any role he undertakes. It's no surprise, then,  that his Hamlet is witty, fast, mercurial- and very funny. That's who he is and what he does. He's a lightweight Hamlet, only I don't mean it negatively. He isn't light as in absence of gravitas, but light as in all fire and air. This Hamlet is too good for the world; his deathwish is rooted in a disgust for the life of the body and a yearning for the life of the spirit; he bobs along above the horrors and squalor of Elsinore like a balloon.   If he delays his revenge it's because he's built for thought not action- and if the ghost hadn't yanked his string and brought him down to earth, the extreme grief he evidences in the early scenes would have floated him off into into complete dissociation. As it is, the ghost's revelation gives him a reason to go on engaging with the world- and has the paradoxical effect of seeming to cheer him up. It gives him something to do. But for all his reiterated notes-to-self to think bloody thoughts, his heart is never really in it- and it makes perfect sense that his revenge when it comes is almost accidental-  gifted him by Claudius' overreaching. For all his actitivity in the world of thought, for all his rushing about, for all his love of play, this is a passive Hamlet- a man to whom things happen. It's a reading that's thrilling rather than moving- ending in a sort of triumph.  Tennant's Hamlet wouldn't have made a good king; he hates the world too much to care to rule in it.  He has desired all along to be rid of his "too, too solid flesh " (Tennant puts an wonderfully telling, long pause between his "toos",  making this a defining speech)  and at the end he gets his wish. So how is this tragic? The string has been cut and the sweet prince, attended by flights of angels, rushes back to where he belongs- and where he wants to be.

In some Hamlets the important pairing is Hamlet-Gertrude, in others Hamlet-Ophelia. Here the casting of Patrick Stewart- a star equal to Tennant in weight-  means our attention is focused on the duel of wits between nephew and uncle. Stewart's presence in the role raise Claudius almost to the status of second protagonist.  A smooth, affable, bespectacled figure- a masterly politician- one of the highlights of the production comes in the scene where he tries- and fails- to pray- and the body slumps and suddenly seems several sizes too small for its immaculately tailored clothes.  

Greg Doran's staging is swift and uncluttered- and delivers as full a text as is possible in three and a half hours. It's well cast in all the major roles, less so in some of the minor ones. This is a top-heavy company- with little strength in depth. Oliver Ford Davies gets laughs as Polonius, but without losing sight of the reality that Claudius' spymaster- though his wits may be failing- is a powerful, controlling, cold-hearted and unscrupulous man. Edward Bennett, who plays Laertes (and understudies David Tennant)  has wonderful presence and timing- and is clearly a star of the future.

Comments

[haikujaguar.livejournal.com]

I love to read your posts. I think of all the people I've accidentally discovered on Livejournal, you are one of the most scintillant. :)

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much.

I adore that word "scintillant"!

[haikujaguar.livejournal.com]

Doesn't it have such a nice mouthfeel? You can just see the radiance coming off it in rays. :)

[nostoi.livejournal.com]

I would just like to second this. :)

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Thank you.

[currawong.livejournal.com]

It has always been my reading of the play, (and especially when read or performed full-text) that Claudius is almost equal to Hamlet as protagonist, and that Hamlet's essential passivity as opposed to the dynamic Claudius makes it a finely balanced affair indeed, and that this is, in fact, one of the reasons for the play's enduring fascination ... I think many of us have a sneaking sympathy for Claudius.

I would have loved to have seen it, you lucky man. Ian saw Stewart as Oberon many years ago and he said he was spellbinding in the role.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Stewart also played the ghsot- a doubling I'd never seen tried before, but which makes remarkably good sense. Where his Claudius is a smooth and successful diplomat, his Hamlet Snr is a domineering military hard man- leaving one to wonder whether the usurper didn't have the makings of the better king.

Nestling within the Tragedy of Hamlet, prince of Denmark is the Tragedy of Claudius, King of Denmark. What a wonderfully rich play it is!

[currawong.livejournal.com]

...and a brilliantly complex portrayal of Gertrude too, he shows her warmly and humanely at one moment, then has Hamlet throw acid all over her with lines like " ... honeying and making love over the nasty sty." ... brrrr!

... the richness probably accounts for the long run ...though not quite as long as Aeschylus.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

But I'll wager Hamlet gets performed a lot more frequently than the Oresteia.

[currawong.livejournal.com]

True, but it surprises me how frequently the big companies will take on one of the big Greek tragedies or even the trilogies as a prestige event, and how popular with audiences they remain ... I remember playing in a season of " Antigone" in Sydney and being amazed at how moved by a work 2500 years old, the audiences were ... Euripides in particular seems to resonate with modern audiences .. "The Bacchoi" is still extremely potent.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Euripides is my favourite of those old Greek dudes- and I love the Bacchoi.

[currawong.livejournal.com]

I saw a little community theatre production over thirty years ago, in a church hall that seated an audience of about thirty people ... it knocked my socks off.

[currawong.livejournal.com]

"The Trojan Women" packs a wallop too.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I haven't read that one. I believe I may have a copy though...

[currawong.livejournal.com]

Check out the cast on this movie version directed by Kakogiannis, the director of "Zorba the Greek". if you find yourself desperate to see it, it is available on either through Movies Unlimited, or prbably on Amazon or E-Bay. I saw it years ago and I remember that everyone in the powerhouse cast gets at least one big scene.

Katharine Hepburn ... Hecuba

Vanessa Redgrave ... Andromache

Geneviève Bujold ... Cassandra

Irene Papas ... Helen

Patrick Magee ... Menelaus

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

What an extraordinary- and extraordinarily unlikely- cast! Fancy Hepburn and Redgrave turning up in the same movie!

[currawong.livejournal.com]

...and Brian Blessed's thighs appear as Ulysees. They're all good, but when Irene Pappas is on the screen, everyone else might as well be invisible. Talk about intense.