#also peter de jersey playing her dad????

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YOU GUYYYSSSSSSSSSSSSS

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Great Things About the RSC 2009 Hamlet

the security camera's everywhere, STELLAR choice that highlights how everyone in the castle is being watched and how Hamlet has to keep his mask on at all times

How Hamlet's carrying around his camera especially during the Mousetrap is him trying to mimic that and let Claudius feel the fear he's been feeling

Actually now that I think about it it also lends a significance to his scene with Gertrude. Cameras everywhere but surely not in the kings own bedroom, there he can be free.

The way Hamlet throws himself into Horatio's arms when he sees him, especially after having been so down

In fact the Horatio in general is phenomenal, Peter De Jersey was my favorite Hamlet for a while, and I always felt a little bad he was unseated by Michael Caine. Hamlet at Elsinore was so Horatio friendly and for example didn't cut any of his ending lines which was where Caine shined the most, whereas this production ends right after Horatio says now cracks a noble heart. but even with these limitations there is a great Hamlet Horatio dynamic.

How David Tennant works with the actors in general. He can carry a soliquoy just fine but other Hamlet's have done better. No where he shines (and I think this is true across his acting career) is when he has to portrary a relationship dynamic. His concern for Ophelia morphing into disgust, his disdain for the brash flattery of R&G it's why he's my favorite

Also I'm partial to the player king, I love his monologue it makes me feel cozy and draws me away from Hamlet's troubles into a nice story, I'm a fan of John Woodvine in general

Hamlet fussing with Horatio's tie & jacket before the Mousetrap? Great choice

Mmm the whole after play aesthetic with Hamlet's crooked crown and loose bowtie and how he plays R&G like a fiddle and how Horatio just sort of watches n smirks like "that's right my bae don't take shit now GO"

The way Horatio and Hamlet play Hot Cross Buns together to make Polonius leave

Now I can't stress this next bit enough.

Gertrude.

Gertrude.

Gertrude

This production is not flawless, and I can nickpick plenty of things that I think other renditions did better. Penny Downie's Gertrude is not one of them.

I have NEVER seen another actress come CLOSE to doing what Downie does with the character.

She is brave, she's sharp, she's shrewd, she's a mother, a politician.

Gertrude is someone even otherwise good productions can underdevelop, she doesn't have too many lines and often during her big scene with Hamlet she kinda just cries and whimpers while Hamlet monologues.

Not so here. Both Tennant and Downie give the performance of their lives for Act 3 Scene 4 it is RIVETING and probably the number one reason it's my favorite production is because this scene is so flawless.

Mmm mirror shattering when he shoots Polonius. It's been done before but for me that imagery of broken characters staring into shattered mirrors will never get tired.

The way Gertrude challenges Hamlet and the body language where they're both shoulders back head up eyes defiant and Gertrude just demands "What act is this that roars so loud and thunders in the index!!!"

How Hamlet just shrinks when the ghost appears, like a little boy. Hamlet's afraid of his father, and it's heartbreaking. Definitely think that ol' dad was abusive and Hamlet was in denial.

Just. Just the dynamic. Gertrude frantically trying to see what makes her son so upset and looking straight at her dead husband's face unseeingly. Oof.

That desperate hug. God that hug. It shows to the audience how under all the hurt and betrayal Hamlet loves his mother. He needed her after his father died, as a commiserator in grief, someone to be close to and that he was denied that hurt him more that he knows. He reached for that hug here, grasped for it and she returned it. I felt that hug in my bones, the desperation of it and the messed up familial love they have for eachother despite everything.

The calm cool down of the end of thescene, how all the anger melts from both of them into exhaustion

Gertrude ending the scene laughing like a madwoman

Okay moving on

Claudius tying Hamlet to the chair and drugging him. Nice. No more masks between these two. Their hatred of each other is out in the open

Hamlet going "to England," while sardonically rocking the chair forward. Sums up the whole "fuck this bullshit I don't care anymore" crazy energy Hamlet has is summed up in little acts like that.

Horatio n Hamlet best buds traveling back through the countryside to Elsinore

I love how Tennant plays Ophelia's death. When he acts it I get it. I get why he freaks out (already posted about that so I won't repeat)

Also how it's acknowledged when Horatio runs after him that Horatio IS the one looking out for him. The only one.

Patrick Stewart just swigging that poison like a boss

Hamlet dying in Horatio's arms. Nice