Hamlet, 2009
“Frailty, thy name is woman.”
Hamlet - David Tennant, Patrick Stewart, Penny Downie. Act one, Scene 2. - Pt.2
I couldn’t help but post Tennant’s Hamlet as well. I love a good Hamlet.
“Coward” speech from PBS Hamlet.
Ho. Ly. Shit. Guys.
This is a fucking good use of a Friday night.
(x)
In praise of Horatio
There are many things I love about the Tennant / Doran production of Hamlet, but one of my very favorite things is Peter De Jersey’s Horatio. Look at this scene, around 3:30. I’ve never seen a Hamlet look happier to see a Horatio, and that sense of joy and connection alters my sense of Hamlet throughout the entire rest of the play.
The great pleasure Hamlet takes in Horatio’s company enables us to imagine him as he might be under other circumstances—funny, smart, generous, strong. It convinces us that he’s merely playing madness (right up through the end) and it makes the final scenes (especially the “readiness is all” interaction, again with Horatio) so much more poignant.
And one more thing: yes, it’s Tennant’s Hamlet that usually does most of the talking in their scenes, but this actor (Peter De Jersey) brings such depth to this Horatio, in what he says and just in how he looks at Hamlet. Or the way he physically reaches out to Hamlet (4:30) and even takes his hand around 4:40. Or the way he prepares himself to broach the difficult subject (you can almost see him recomposing himself at 4:47, moving from school friend to loyal subject of a would-be king).
There is so much depth to that relationship. Amazing work from both actors. I would watch a four-hour play called Horatio, if it starred Peter De Jersey.
Act 5, Scene 1
Let me see. (takes the skull) Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio, a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy. He hath borne me on his back a thousand times, and now, how abhorred in my imagination it is! My gorge rises at it. Here hung those lips that I have kissed I know not how oft. —Where be your gibes now? Your gambols? Your songs? Your flashes of merriment that were wont to set the table on a roar? Not one now to mock your own grinning? Quite chapfallen? Now get you to my lady’s chamber and tell her, let her paint an inch thick, to this favor she must come. Make her laugh at that. - Hamlet
John Simm in rehearsals as Hamlet for the Sheffield Crucible’s production of Shakespeare’s play (2010).
(In honor of his favoriting my tweet and following us (@alwaysiambic) on twitter, apparently. hahaha oh stupid.)
