I’m not obsessed, honest guv December 6, 2008
Posted by CamdenKiwi in : Reviews , trackbackBy chance, I got a cheap ticket for Hamlet (yes, the RSC production, starring David Tennant) last night so, after an exhausting week at work, raced back into London for a night at the theatre. As an unexpected treat, it was a good evening, but somehow I’m left feeling a little ho-hum.
David Tennant in Hamlet
Maybe it was the audience, coughing away. At this time of the year, theatres should hand everyone cough sweets and tell them to use them, or give them to a neighbour who needs them. And theatre-goers with coughs should take their own.
Maybe it was the cheap seat (B3 on the Grand Circle), where the bottom corner of the stage was invisible, and I forgot my glasses so got a headache from trying to focus on faces. You gets what you pays for, and I paid a tenner to see one of the top shows in London, supposedly sold out for weeks with tickets trading for £400+ on the ripoff sites like getmein.com (no, I’m not linking to it).
Maybe it was the change of theatre. The Courtyard in Stratford has about the same number of seats as the Novello, but the thrust stage, and lower circle and balcony make it a far more intimate experience. The players enter through the audience, and interact with them in a way that’s not possible in the grand proscenium arch of the (truly magnificent) Novello. It’s such a pity the RSC didn’t go back to the Roundhouse, where they showed the Histories.
Maybe it was just me being tired and irritable.
Patrick Stewart was remarkable. This staging seems to suit him somehow. As he struggles to pray ‘My words fly up, my thoughts remain below’ you could have heard a pin drop (if it wasn’t for the coughing).
David Tennant is still wonderful, but the mad quirkiness and humour, which balanced and intensified the tragedy in Stratford last night seemed a little off. There were definitely moments when I found myself wishing he’d just calm down. At first, it seemed the intensity was lacking. In September, he delivered his first soliloquy a couple of meters from me, his whole body and face wracked in anguish as he crouched in a fetal position. In London, he does more of it standing, and, at least from a distance, it is flatter.
After a while, that picked up, and the bedroom scene with Gertrude (Penny Downie) was hugely powerful. He tears verbal strips off her, accusing her of complicity in his father’s murder, and both his performance and hers are gut wrenching.
I’ve got tickets to see this with friends over New Year, so I’m hoping that, in good seats and when I’m not exhausted it will be every bit the fabulous experience it was in Stratford. Hamlet runs at the Novello Theatre until 10 Jan. In theory it’s sold out, but there seem to be tickets reappearing, so check the theatre’s website and don’t pay silly tout prices. Avoid the front row of the Grand Circle if you’re over 5′ 5″, and be aware that there is a restricted view on the cheap seats.
This seems a negative review, but it is only that 5 stars fell to 4. I walked home exhausted but pleased through the back streets of Covent Garden, with the final scene replaying in my head.
The rest is silence.
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