#nt hamlet

[ojiojioil]

[sobeautifullyobsessed]

Shakespeare himself would fall in love with him.

me, discussing Benedict C., with @thehiddenlawyer...because how could he not, seeing his work brought to life with such searing, gorgeous truth?

[animeandfilmotaku]

Watching Hamlet with the Sister @antiquelaceartist which I am so excited for months so here we go to our threatre obsession

[hubblegleeflower]

Off to see BC in Hamlet at the theatre.

Gonna get me some culture.

[iamtooslow]

Hamlet was so good, the staging was brilliant and the music and ahh ciaran hinds 5/5 would watch again and again

[conchs82]

Hamlet

Just arrived home from NTLiveHamlet in the US.  Such a wonderful production. Everyone was just blown away.  And for the record, no one in this audience of Americans swooned when the curtain came up, no one applauded inappropriately or did any of the other things “those americans do at the theatre”.  What a big difference from previews and the NT live performance (in the last weeks of the run--as expected)!  ....deeper, richer, intense...Nothing can beat being in the front row on 25 Aug. However tonight was pretty special, too.  I felt like a proud fangirl of 3 1/2 years finally getting to introduce my celebrity crush to my friends.  ...Loved hearing Cumberbatch, Cumberbatch, Cumberbatch in multiple American accents.  Now to pack and find my cellphone.  I have an early flight to the West Coast. I would not have missed this for the world.  Bring on the Special!

P.S.  While I played the serious subdued fangirl I did note his fabulous toned, muscular arms--Dr. Strange? They were even more developed than we had played Khan.  I said subdued fangirl, not brain dead! :0

[fiftysevenacademics]

NT Hamlet Bullet Points

This got way longer than I wanted so it’s all under the cut.

Ophelia steals the show. She is so broken down by the shitty men in her life I was sobbing my eyes out by the end of her arc.

Horatio is completely adorable. Even if his Hamlet never seems very emotionally connected. He’s still completely adorable and I love him.

This production has an “innocent” Gertrude-- not complicit in the murder, and genuinely shocked and contrite when she’s confronted by Hamlet. Then, when Claudius walks in, it’s really scary. You realize how much this production is emphasizing themes of abuse. I’m OK with either “innocent” or “complicit” Gertrudes. This one works well.

Benedict Cumberbatch’s Hamlet, though passionately and expertly acted, fails to connect emotionally with any of the characters with whom he is supposed to have a very intense connection: Horatio, Ophelia, Gertrude. He acts his heart out, but somehow, it’s kind of flat in the most important places. Wisely, they chose to make Horatio a sort of clownish foil for Hamlet, rather than a passionate friend. This may have been either because one of Cumberbatch’s limitations as an actor, from what I have seen in the various roles I’ve watched, is he always comes across as distant and cool, even in roles where he needs to be passionately attached. This may also have been a more strategic decision to not play into the Johnlock syndrome: They know Tragic Danish Boyfriends is a huge ship and didn’t want to play into the whole “Ben C x Male Costar” trope. Regardless, it made Hamlet dying in Horatio’s arms a really hollow moment.

This was a thoroughly de-sexed and un-carnal production, which I think is a great failing, seeing as how the body is the major theme of Hamlet. For example, the flute scene, where Hamlet’s talking to R&G about “playing upon this organ” etc. which is 1,000% double entendre, is played literally about musical instruments. That’s just one example. Hamlet has so many puns about the body, many of which are sexual and many of which are not, but most of them are flat or absent in this production. I mean, it’s still good? It’s just that the whole play is about “this mortal coil” and the inevitable fact that we will shuffle it off one way or another, and it doesn’t really matter how because we’re all just bones and dust in the end. All the carnality is in the play for a reason, and it disappoints me when Hamlet is so de-fleshed.

Cumberbatch’s Hamlet is at his best when he’s juxtaposing a rational, intellectual adult with childish play, for example, the scene where he’s dressed as a soldier and hiding in a play fort. This scene was really good and I loved it. I also really loved the way they did the first encounter with his his father’s ghost.

Something I had never really thought about before, but which this production either emphasizes, or caused me to notice for the first time, was the importance of Hamlet’s father dying unshriven. This seemed more emphasized than usual early in the play (or maybe I just noticed it more), and I realized it’s emphasized again when Hamlet chooses not to kill Claudius when he’s praying because he’d go to heaven, and instead, wants to wait for some moment when he’s engaged in some sinful activity to kill him, so he goes to purgatory instead. We usually talk about the psychodynamics and morality of Hamlet Sr.’s murder, but the fact that he died without receiving last rites is very distressing to Hamlet and I guess I’ve never paid enough attention to that till now.

Probably will have more to say later. This is just what I’m thinking now, and I really need to go to bed. 

[ntlive]

We hope you enjoyed last night's Hamlet screenings and apologise again for the short break in transmission to UK venues due to adverse weather conditions (international screenings will not be affected). Here again is Rory Kinnear delivering one of Shakespeare's most famous soliloquies, 'To be, or not to be'. Available until 31 October 2013. You can also download a free PDF of the Hamlet programme at http://ow.ly/q5IUV.