Busy, busy day! This morning I went to my "Contemporary Britain" class at 9:30 to learn about the British political system, then ran home for lunch, then ran back for my "Museums" class, which was meeting at the Victoria and Albert museum. I had hoped he would let us out early, so I'd have time to run home and make a sandwich, but he kept us till 4, so I had to sprint back to the flat to make a sandwich so I could make it to the National Theatre for the backstage tour at 5. I can't believe I made it! I'm very glad that I made that pbj though, since the tour lasted till 6:30 and the show started at 7, so lots of people went hungry or broke buying expensive theatre food. The backstage tour wasn't terribly exciting. I had hoped we would see some interesting props or scenery or something, but we kind of just walked around behind the theatres. We were supposed to see the horse puppets used in the play "Warhorse" that we'll be seeing soon, but the puppets were having work done, so honestly, there was nothing at all interesting about the tour, I'm sad to say. We did get to see the scenery being made for "Frankenstein," which we'll see in April, but even that was a let-down, since they were just working on the gray-ish fabric backdrop. Oh well.
"Hamlet" was great. It was performed with a modern setting, which was interesting. There were men in suits with earpieces all over the stage, as though Denmark was a city where someone was always watching and recording, which was an interesting take on the play. Some of the soliloquies, especially Claudius' and Fortinbras', were done towards a news camera and crew, which I thought was a great touch. The actor playing Hamlet was incredible. He was probably a bit older than most Hamlets, maybe in his 30s (and starting to go bald), but wow was he good. When Hamlet goes crazy, this guy went all-out, spitting and screaming, and crawling and acting like he needed to be restrained. I've never seen Hamlet's madness portrayed so strongly before, but it was very effective. He was really bonkers. Ophelia, on the other hand, kind of failed. I didn't like her at all. Partly, I think it was because she seemed much younger than Hamlet, maybe in her early 20s, and was dressed in clothes that made her seem like a trendy teenager. When she went crazy, I was not at all convinced. I thought she was the absolute worst character in the show, which was a shame. Laertes was good, as were Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, but all seemed much younger than Hamlet, as did Horatio. I wished that they had all seemed of the same generation. Claudius was a perfect untrustworthy politician, and Gertrude was pretty good. The Ghost of old King Hamlet was phenomenally scary. I LOVED Polonius. The actor played the old windbag to perfection. He also played the Gravedigger as well, which was fun since the Gravedigger has some of the funniest lines of the play. He and Hamlet (and probably Claudius and the Ghost) just shone, especially since the cast seemed to me to be a bit unbalanced.
I was not terribly impressed with the final fight scene. I was with the modern setting up till that point, but then they pulled out blunted foils and helmets and Hamlet and Laertes fenced to their deaths. It was pretty anticlimactic and not terribly believable. I'm sorry, but two guys whacking each other with blunted fencing foils till they die from poison on the unsharpened blades? Not such a great idea. The choreography was good, I suppose, but honestly I kind of wish they had pulled out real swords, or even guns. Overall though, the show was great. It was almost 4 hours long, but well worth it. The theatre was sold out, and had even sold standing room in the back, so the place was absolutely packed. They said that this was their second to last performance before the show goes on tour, so we were very lucky to get in.
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