#british theater grindset

[aq2003]

SHAKESPEARE WRITING MACBETH IN 1607: THIS IS GONNA SLAP SO HARD WHEN DAVID TENNANT PLAYS HIM 400 YEARS LATER

[aq2003]

however good you think david tennant's macbeth is it is ten times better i am so fucking serious

[aq2003]

which DT plays did stratford have in archive to watch? - VQT

as you like it

the comedy of errors

romeo and juliet

love's labour's lost

hamlet (stage version)

richard ii (2016 version)

(supposedly he was also lysander in a midsummer night's dream but i don't think the recording of that is available)

[aq2003]

ok spoilers for macbeth i guess . incoherent ramblings and immediate thoughts abt it bc i'm crazy

- the opening scene made me gasp and cover my mouth the entire way through. the way it opens w a BANG and macbeth washing his hands of the blood while praises of his prowess on the battlefield ring around him but he just looks so haunted and miserable the whole time sets the tone of the play SO well

- macbeth is Losing his fucking mind. from the START. and this is such genius characterization. he is so unwell. he is so on the edge of something terrible from the very beginning of the play and the pushing from the witches and lady macbeth is the catalyst that tips him over the edge. there are remnants of his consciousness and guilt ringing around in there and when they bubble to the surface it is so heartbreaking bc you know they will be snuffed out as the play goes on

- lady macbeth's humanity. i think this is the most human lady macbeth i've ever seen she is so in the throes of loneliness and grief and she misses her husband and thinks the murder will bring them together but instead it sends macbeth into this awful downwards spiral and the guilt eats her alive. when she says macbeth is "too full of the milk of human kindness" it's a mischaracterization. she doesn't know how much her husband has changed while he's been away fighting the war

- THE DAGGER SOLILOQUY the way it's lit and staged and acted like he's talking to his own shadow and convincing himself to do the murder. this scene was fucking amazing from the balcony the way he crawled around on the ground UGHHHHH IT WAS SO SO GOOD

- david looked right up at me when the crown was put on his head and my heart fully stopped right there

- the "full of scorpions is my mind" line reading deserves every single theater award ever on its OWN i DO NOT CARE GIVE DAVID TENNANT EVERY AWARD EVER

- macbeth taking off the crown to talk to the murderers because his killing spree is driven by macbeth the sharp edged violent soldier and not macbeth the king. like Oh my god

- BANQUET SCENE IM CRAZYYYYYY OH MY GODDDDDD FJCKKKKKKK THE WAYYYYYYYY THEY LIT THIS SCENE TO SWITCH FROM MACBETH'S TERROR AT BANQUO'S GHOST TO THE PERSOECTIVE OF THE THANES !!!! I KNEW DAVID WOULD EAT THIS SCENE UP BUT GOD. MY GODDDDD.

- the second scene w the witches was staged SO good and SO creatively like macbeth hallucinating his peers and friends and family and his son being killed and brought back in some twisted possessed form to tell him the prophecies OUGH

- fleance walking up and down the side of the stage. both macbeth and lady macbeth repeating this motion like they're remembering their son and they're haunted by his ghost . FUCK

- the death scene of lady macduff and her son was so violent i gasped out loud again

- malcolm is so fucking good in this like i REALLY like the idea of him being a teenager and the friction between him and macduff comes out of a difference in amount of life lived. also the "face it like a man"/"feel it like a man" lines become so Interesting with transmasc malcolm i need to process my thoughts on this further

- tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow was SOOOOOO. IT WAS SOOOOOOOOO. LIKEEEEEEE even though she pushed him towards duncan's murder lady macbeth was the last tether macbeth had to his humanity at the end and it's so so fucking tragic and sad. like i felt that "signifying /nothing/" within the DEEPEST pits of my soul.

- THE YOUNG SIWARD SCENE. I THOUGHT I KNEW WHAT WAS COMING AND I DIDNT AND I NEED TO BE FUCKING SHOT I NEED TO BE SHOT I JEED TO BE SHOT I NEED TO BE SHOT JESUS FUCKING CHRIST

- macbeth's death was played so perfectly like i don't even have the words for it the whole final fight scene and his death was so fucking good i need to be shaken like ragdoll

- i'm insane

[aq2003]

i'm watching the archive recording of dt's stage hamlet and he feels so much more fragile and breakable than the film version i'm gonna eat rocks

[aq2003]

me tearfully taking down hamlet as "my favorite role in david tennant's filmography" bc macbeth has forcefully and violently taken the crown from him

[aq2003]

How's Love's Labour's Lost? I heard some critics at the time said DT was much more suited to Berown than Hamlet lol. Well, maybe one critic idqr, but I read something to that effect.

On that point, reading up on those reviews from that time, it's kinda strange that a significant portion of mainstream coverage of DT's mid-Doctor Who RSC season was taken up by hack writers being pretentiously disdainful about "Doctor Who in Shakespeare". I remember reading an article in Sunday Times or Daily Mail, the writer clearly thought he was being super clever and treated DT as if he had no previous theatre career, including RSC. Like he's some fleeting US sitcom star who's never been to drama school, but wanted to star as Hamlet in the West End for some reason.

As someone who became a fan about 10 years after that, it was really odd. I was used to DT being treated as a respected veteran Shakespearean actor, even before I was a fan, by reputation. But here he was, mocked and doubted and treated like an outsider.

i expected going in that i would love his berowne and i did god bless <33 hamlet will always be The dt role for me (well. um. besides macbeth. my brain is still processing that) but this LLL was SOOOO much fun.. it was so much better than the 2015 one sorry like greg doran understood the assignment the play is so fucking unserious and the lords are the most "me and the boys" friend group of all time and this production was this to a T. i think i will make posts on all of the archive recordings i watched later (need to organize my notes. and my thoughts) but yea!!

i think maybe theater critics back then were killjoys and got really snobbish about the doctor who guy bringing lots more young people to the theater. because david having a solid background in shakespeare/the theater is something you'd know if you looked into the stuff he's done for like 5 seconds. like hghhbshghdfw free him from the people that do not know what the hell they are talking about. he thinks of stage acting as his day job do not forget this!!!

[aq2003]

the huge fucking poster of ricky the second in the royal shakespeare theater

[aq2003]

the he when the

[aq2003]

also i forgot to post this but i recorded a little bit of the 2nd to last macbeth curtain call :'))

[aq2003]

i think it's so interesting also that david played macbeth's last line ("damned be him that cries hold, enough") like he was still a little scared and resistant at the end. he's resigning himself to his death, yes, but there's still a part of him that wants to keep fighting

[aq2003]

i keep doing things that aren't watching macbeth while yearning to watch macbeth

[aq2003]

[lying down in bed staring up at the ceiling] fuck dude i want to watch macbeth again

[aq2003]

aq in the macbeth daily ticket queue on the morning of december 14th moodboard

[aq2003]

bowl

[aq2003]

boarding the plane . this has been the longest day of my life