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Ryan
Ryan
Thu, Jul 31, 2008 11:50am

Photo #5 is perfection. Go Time Lord!

Paul Hayes
Paul Hayes
Thu, Jul 31, 2008 2:23pm

I’m really not sure about the hat.

Katie
Katie
Thu, Jul 31, 2008 5:32pm

He looks wonderful. (I don’t know, kinda digging the hat). It’s amazing how different he looks just from a little hair gel, a bit of scruff and an even more tortured expression. So jealous of you MaryAnn.

Karen
Karen
Fri, Aug 01, 2008 1:28pm

Damn, those two look good in tuxes!

Maura
Maura
Fri, Aug 01, 2008 2:07pm

I like the hat. In fact, I think I would like that very hat myself for winter. I’d wear it.

Paul Hayes
Paul Hayes
Sat, Aug 02, 2008 10:02am

He must be *melting* wearing that winter gear in a theatre in this hot weather.

MaryAnn
MaryAnn
Sat, Aug 02, 2008 1:09pm

The weather outside has nothing to do with it. The hot stage lights are surely hellish, though.

Poly in London
Poly in London
Sun, Aug 03, 2008 12:03pm

More photos released by the RSC (the link through the Mail on Sunday):
http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1040935/First-pictures-Dr-Whos-David-Tennant-Hamlet.html

bronxbee
Mon, Aug 04, 2008 11:36am

“The play has seen a huge demand for tickets despite some criticism for its ‘celebrity’ casting.”

there’s no making some people happy. if you cast a fine, competent but not-well-known actor, the complaint is the audiences don’t come… if you cast a perfectly fine actor in the role, but he’s well-known, that’s cause for another complaint… i’m sure it would be a wonderful world if everyone just enjoyed shakespeare for its own sake… but it’s not the way of the world.

Jan Willem
Jan Willem
Wed, Aug 06, 2008 8:08am

The first reviews are up. The (London) Times and The Guardian both award this production four out of five stars:
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/stage/theatre/article4466565.ece

http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2008/aug/06/theatre.rsc

Cathryn
Wed, Aug 06, 2008 8:39am

Okay, I know its August, but the papers have gotten quite carried away. You don’t really get the impact online.

The Independent had a big picture on the front page, and a 2 page review.

The Guardian had a full page on page 3 (Tennant definitely my idea of a page 3 boy…)
The Mail didn’t like it much, but then they don’t like anything much. Especially if it appeals to women.

MaryAnn
MaryAnn
Wed, Aug 06, 2008 1:11pm

*Hamlet* appeals to women in particular? :->

Funny, but I thought it was a universally “human” kind of thing.

Poly in London
Poly in London
Wed, Aug 06, 2008 1:17pm

Daily Mail makes a comment that this Hamlet appeals in women in particular and uses it as a criticism. This is the Daily Mail for you. The vilest newspaper in the universe, full of bigotry, xenophobia and chauvinism.

MaryAnn
MaryAnn
Wed, Aug 06, 2008 1:28pm

Ah, so it’s *bad* if this Hamlet appeals to women?

Bastards.

Jan Willem
Jan Willem
Wed, Aug 06, 2008 5:48pm

The Brits have more than Hamlet on their minds, now that somebody has unearthed Will’s olde playhouse The Theatre in Shoreditch (East London), where he used to work before relocating to more famous The Globe:
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/afp/20080806/ten-entertainment-britain-theatre-litera-a56114e.html

MaSch
MaSch
Thu, Aug 07, 2008 2:32am

If this Hamlet has the main effect of making women go “Gosh, I wish David Tennant would tell *me* to go to a nunnery,” there would be a valid point in criticising it.
Or the women who feel so.

bronxbee
Thu, Aug 07, 2008 11:56am

any woman who wants David Tennant to tell her to get to a nunnery is crazy. “Woman, get thee to my bedchamber!” that’s what *i* would want to hear.

MaryAnn
MaryAnn
Fri, Aug 08, 2008 12:40pm

Maybe MaSch means that, if the production were so bad that even Tennant’s fans were thinking, “Sheesh, get me to a nunnery so I can get away from this,” then perhaps that would be a valid reason to condemn Tennant: ie, if he were actually terrible in the role. MaSch?

MaSch
MaSch
Sat, Aug 09, 2008 12:30pm

Hmm, no, I rather meant … If the aim of the production is simply to have a hot Hamlet, to “please women”, and they directed the play in a way that even at his most cruel towards a woman, women in the audience want to be in Ophelia’s place, then, in my humble opinion, the play went somewhat wrong.
On the other hand, if there is a woman in the audience who thinks during Act III, Scene 1: “Oh, David is so passionate in presence of this girl, I wish he would go so passionate over me,” the reason for this thinking could also lie with the woman.
But I liked your interpretation, too. :-)

Btw: Do you know the BBC Hamlet with Derek Jacobi as Hamlet and Patrick Stewart as Claudius? I would love to know how his approach to the role changed …

MaryAnn
MaryAnn
Sun, Aug 10, 2008 12:01am

Yes, the Jacobi Hamlet will be one I’ll be watching and writing about before I fly off to England.