the hollow crown

the danish royal party: [kills each other]

THEATRICAL WOMEN!

Last night I discovered that William Shakespeare named his son Hamnet and I feel like this is an awful secret I shouldn’t know

I have so many problems with Mel Gibson’s Hamlet, but the fact that he plays “get thee to a nunnery” as a warning to Ophelia that shit’s about to go down is so fantastic and effective.

Reblogging myself to say that I saw a live Hamlet production the other day that did Gibon’s interpretation of the nunnery scene and the audience nearly cried it was such a good, emotionally moving, and logical interpretation of the scene.

When one considers that three different plays could be performed in a single week, the intensity of an actor’s personal study can be fathomed, as well as the strain on his memory. No wonder actors and actresses could be seen walking the streets of Covent Garden muttering and gesticulating to themselves. An anecdote is told of the actor Jack Verbruggen, who went out into the fields beyond London one morning to rehearse his part in a tragedy. Three passing highwaymen found him gesturing violently to himself, rolling his eyes toward heaven and shouting, ‘I charge thee not!’ to some imaginary foe. Taking him for a madman, they grew compassionate and urged him not to harm himself. When the furious actor told them that he was a player learning his part, they changed their minds and robbed him of his money.