David Tennant’s Hamlet
I would like to comment on David Tennant’s performance of Hamlet. I believe that David Tennant did a great job to grab the audience's attention to the power of literature and words rather than visuals and the usage of the set design. He is like telling and narrating the story rather than presenting the actual scene. I will be talking about how the director’s preference of shooting the scene added quality to the performance of the actor through the usage of sound and set design and how David Tennant’s performance contributed to the meaning and meditative state of the original text.
The atmosphere and the location that he is in is dark and we don’t get much information about the surrounding. The camera movement is also limited, we first see Tennant’s back and he’s lighted with a harsh suspenseful, depressing lighting which adds to the vibe that they want to give and the meaning of the text then we get closer to him and get a close-up shot of his face. In this particular shot, we’re focused on the actor’s facial expression and the voice rather than the external elements that may support the scene. Since it’s a minimalist scene that we are forced to pay attention only to the actor’s voice and face, it directs our attention to the text as well as the way that the actor conveys his speech. Tennant’s voice doesn’t overpower anything, he is subtle in his way of speech, the words seem naturally at that moment coming out of the actor’s mind. He whispers rather than raising his voice and that makes a great influence on the audience, he uses the power of silence that can give more information rather than noise. This performance creates a Hamlet that is sensitive but at the same time like he’s about to explode. The ambiance sound, the silence of the room, and his way of delivering his speech quietly and by whispering creates tension. He’s like a person that kept his grief and his sorrow so much inside of him and never talked or shared his hurting to anyone that in any minute he acts like he can do something mad and loud in contrast to his naive conversation that he has with himself. Towards the end of his speech, he directs his sight to the camera which breaks the 4th wall. As the audience, we usually get uncomfortable and disturbed when someone does that in movies because we’re observers that observe fictional lives that are supposed to not know we’re watching them. In this case, Tennant looks at us and it feels like he looks at our souls. He is like saying to us that we all have these thoughts, fears about the afterlife. Which makes us wonder and meditate on the issue as well.
In conclusion, David Tennant’s performance of Hamlet is a subtle but effective one. He brings the more depressing, melancholic, fragile, and sensitive side of Hamlet. Therefore, he avoids being loud and theatrical, he draws attention to the power of the soliloquy the influence of sound and words on people. In the end, the audience is left with the same thought patterns that Hamlet had ended they recognized themselves and can relate to the character more.













