The Mirror in my Mind

First of all, apologies for the delay. First I was ill, and then I was travelling, and now I have time to transcribe my many, many notes.

To preface, I know a lot of people who saw this production and were disappointed, including several of my friends. I absolutely loved it -- but, this was my first experience seeing Hamlet performed live. I've seen three of the films (Olivier, Zeffirelli, and Branagh), and I've read it several times over (most recently with cesario's brilliant recaps), but seeing it performed was amazing, and I felt like I was rediscovering why I used to love this play so very, very much. I still do, but I think it's been spoiled by an excess of criticism, and watching it was astonishingly liberating.

Anyway. Here we go.

( Here there be ramblings. Very long and probably full of unnecessary detail. )

I do feel bad posting this, knowing that anyone who sees this production between now and Christmas won't be seeing David Tennant, but I do want to say that Edward Bennett made a fantastic Laertes (he made me like Laertes, something I never would have predicted), so I can only assume he'll be a wonderful Hamlet as well.

I didn't take as many notes this time, as I was mainly jotting down things I hadn't noticed before, or things that I thought were different.

The first set of reviews is here.

They've more or less transplanted the entire set into the Roundhouse, although the theatre itself is a different shape. My seats, which I thought were going to be extremely high up, and would have been at the Courtyard, turned out to be quite good (I was front row circle, far to stage right).

( Henry VI, Part I )

( Henry VI, Part II )

( Henry VI, Part III )

But now they're over. It makes me so very sad, even though logically I know that it frees up the histories so that other companies can technically do them. I am still sad.

I'm prefacing this with the admission that I don't actually know Richard II that well; most of my work has been on the other tetralogy. So some of the things I noticed might be completely obvious to people who know the play better than I do. Also, it's entirely possible that I might forget to mention things, so let me know if I miss something important.

( Long review below the cut. )

As I said last night, it was a fantastic production all round, and I'm thrilled that I got the chance to see it.