#gregory doran

this was one of the few recordings that also had a prompt book that i could look at alongside it (i asked for it when booking the appointment). and i got to see what i think are greg doran's notes! this is the only prompt book that had notes scribbled on the backs of the pages, and some of the observations are things ik greg has specifically talked about before like the cold biting air being an establishing element of the setting

at the beginning there's a note saying "the genius of hamlet consists, perhaps, in the fact that the play can serve as a mirror. an ideal hamlet would be one most true to shakespeare and most modern at the same time. costumes do not matter. what matters is that through shakespeare’s test we ought to get at our modern experience, anxiety, and sensibility"

so true bestie. greg doran loves his mirror symbolism and i thank him every day for it

the lighting!! is so good!!! when the play opens it’s almost pitch black, lit only by the flashlights, it’s genuinely a bit unsettling and i love it. i have never been more jealous of the people in the audience etc etc

it's in the film version but i never noticed it until i watched this: i love gertrude's dress in 1.2. i love how it spills onto the ground. it's very royal and elegant and it tickles my brain (alsp the color grading in the film version is very desaturated so in this recording the blue of her dress sticks out more, esp againt the pitch black mirrored stage)

the way gertrude speaks to hamlet in 1.2 feels less gentle and more scolding, like she's a bit more fed up with hamlet's grieving already. and it contrasts really well with hamlet being more of a fragile mess

the too too solid flesh soliloquy works soooooo well on stage. it's like. it's such a raw display of emotion, hamlet is curled up in a ball and sobbing and he wants to be left alone, but he's still being watched. and there are no security camera shots interspersed to convey that here but you still get that feeling from all three sides of the stage being surrounded by an audience and the back of the stage being a mirror. there's nowhere he can hide and that adds a whole other Layer to it

tbh if i was shooting the film version i would film it similar to the angle in the archive recording, i.e. from the side and swamped in the set of the castle (and then moving/cutting closer as he stands up). there's lots of moments in the stage version that do a really good job in conveying how small hamlet feels in this inhospitable prison-like elsinore

the line delivery on "no more like my father, than I, to......HERCULES" was so funny. i love it. hamlet racking his brain for a second for a figure that is the most impossibly different from him and landing on hercules. really good

i really like having an audience here to laugh at hamlet's jokes... like not to say hamlet is better with a laugh track BUT david's hamlet is really witty and funny and him having an audience to bounce off does a lot

ophelia really shows off the condoms in laertes' suitcase for everyone with eyes to see LMAO. i get that it's for the stage and you gotta be able to see what she's holding even in the seats furthest back but my god is the energy for that moment different dhhfjshwjsjdhw

the lighting for the fireworks is so good. mwah. also re: hamlet's lines ripping into claudius' drinking habits, it's very funny to see hamlet shivering + his voice wavering from the cold and squinting from the bright flashing lights of the fireworks and generally being a sad pathetic wet cat kicked down the stairs out into the cold, but still being really uppity about a royal's dignity and honor. a very hamlet thing for him to do tbh

hmmmmmg the way hamlet spreads out his arms when he says "i do not set my life at a pin's fee, and for my soul what can it do to that". feels like it's leaning into the interpretation of like. he is kind of setting his life at a pin's fee. he doesn't care about what the ghost could do to him

also the way hamlet tries to run after the ghost after he exits in 1.5, how the mirrored doors shut in his face and he collapses to the ground. this flows REALLY well into how the production rearranges the scenes, i.e. hamlet's next appearance after this being to be or not to be. there's a part of him that just wants to follow his father in death but now that he's been tasked with killing his uncle he can't do that. he has to make good on his promise. even though he doesn't really want to

really interesting note from the prompt book: the ghost never calls hamlet "son" (or addresses him by entirely familial terms. the closest he gets is saying "thy mother" in 3.4). definitely feeding into hamlet's insecurity and feelings of failure, a "he doesn't even think me worthy enough to be his son" kind of deal, i think

this version of to be or not to be is reallyyyy good. best way i can describe it is that hamlet feels very lost and alone. it's raw and vulnerable and sad. in the film version he whispers it and stares into your soul and makes you feel his exhaustion and horror but onstage he plays into hamlet being this exposed nerve, very close to just breaking down into sobs, feeling defeated and miserable and very much Needing A Hug But Not Getting One Because He's Supposed To Be Killing His Uncle Right Now

generally in this recording you see more of how hamlet reacts to things via his body language rather than his facial expressions (obviously), and what really struck me abt the beginning of the nunnery scene is that hamlet is still trying to soothe himself, he's kinda wrapped his arms around himself like he's still haunted by his thoughts of the afterlife and he wants the intimacy and safety that he used to have with ophelia but now because of everything that has happened he can't (and that feeds into his paranoia, him lashing out at her, etc)

ophelia is ANGRY in her soliloquy after the nunnery scene. i'm so sick and twisted

when polonius asks "what is the matter, my lord?" and hamlet says "between who?", he looks at the two opposite sides of the audience surrounding him. really nice touch

yeahhhh the rosencrantz/guildenstern scene works so well here. the funny suspicious awkward pauses!! (where the audience is also given time to laugh!!) they don't know how the fuck to respond to hamlet's prodding and it's hilarious!!

rosencrantz’s "well if you delight not in man" + talking about the players feels like a super awkward pivot from laughing at hamlet saying "man delights not me", this is how i imagined this bit when i was reading it for the first time so it was very nice to see

the table thing that hamlet stands on when reciting the lines from the aeneas speech creaks loudly every time he moves around (and he moves around a lot). on top of this being a good way to liven up this bit i just know the players think hamlet is so fucking annoying god bless

during the coward soliloquy hamlet keeps looking around at the audience wildly, like instead of fixing his gaze in one place he keeps moving around and he's filled with such a nervous energy and it is very "average college student who hasn't slept in a few days" vibes

when hamlet does his "hold a mirror up to nature" bit, he shines a light on the audience rather than the players!!

hamlet doesn't say the passion's slave speech to horatio up close to his face while he's doing his tie, yaoi stocks have fallen -500 pts. however when horatio says his "if he steal aught the whilst this play is playing and 'scape detecting, i will pay the theft" line he holds hamlet's hand and then hamlet grabs onto him back like he's so severely starved of touch and affection (because he is) and there's a hot 2 seconds where they just look into each other's eyes. yaoi stocks back up 500 pts

the "country matters" line is played as hamlet doing this crab-walky-hip-thrusting motion which is funny, but i do like the film version (ie hamlet chomping on ophelia's arm) better because i think the unhinged clinginess fits david's version of him better

the ghost in the dumbshow flies all the way up into the ceiling !! hamlet really put in the work for the mousetrap's special effects lkmgsdlkfflw

hamlet doesn't have his funny little camera! for either this scene or the eggshell soliloquy. i wonder if the camera was something that became a thing during the west end transfer or if it's smth exclusive to the film version (if it was the latter, it was probably a way of translating over the production's play-within-a-play elements into a "film-within-a-film")

you see it in the above image but hamlet takes out his pocketknife for the "when churchyards yawn" soliloquy! (because he doesn't have his funny little camera with him, it's played pretty differently). he flicks it open when he says "now may i drink hot blood", and holds it up when he says "i will speak daggers to [my mother]". ooooo very murderous very scary. and it works really well with the cut to the intermission on "now might i do it pat while he is praying", because it's more convincing to the audience that killing claudius is something hamlet could potentially do in that moment

when hamlet shoots polonius, the glass panes of the mirrored back wall "shatter" and the cracked glass stays there for the whole rest of the play!! i love it, it's such a good way to communicate this moment being this real point of no return for all of the characters

i think it might've been bc this was pretty early in his run, but david's portrayal of hamlet here is much less loud/wild/shouty than his film version. which isn't necessarily a bad thing; in moments it even enhances the portrayal—like lack of confidence in himself is hamlet's whole thing, and there are moments that feel more reined in and grounded. but the tradeoff is that imo hamlet's really important moments of genuine rage and frustration don't hit as hard, and you feel that the most in 3.4 (and in the nunnery scene, the coward soliloquy, ophelia's funeral, and claudius' death, but mostly 3.4).

hamlet's voice wavers and breaks when he said "for this same lord, i do repent", he actually feels bad for killing polonius here :(

note from the prompt book: "'damned fingers'—even tips of fingers are damned". Yeah... yeah

claudius is wearing a bathrobe in 4.3. hamlet is really doing all this at 2 am

as described in that one comment i saw from the person that watched this live: after hamlet is sent to england he stays in the audience! and in 4.4 he walks down the aisle and talks to the captain of the norwegian army while standing next to the front row seats

for the graveyard scene horatio is just kinda vibing on the ground while hamlet stands and talks to the skull. tbh i like it in the film version a lot better bc it's framed more as hamlet having an honest conversation with horatio rather than "oooo the yorick speech, take your photos now". even if said photos are so iconic..

gertrude turns to stare right at claudius before drinking from the poisoned cup, penny downie really was making sure the audience knew gertrude did all that on purpose

also the way gertrude sort of stumbles over to wipe hamlet's face as like a last gesture of affection bc she knows she's going to die??? and hamlet pushes her off bc he doesn't know anything is wrong??? help me ???? my feelings??????

fortinbras actually walks out on stage at the end of the play! horatio still has the final line of "flights of angels sing thee to thy rest", but we get to see the transfer of power in denmark in addition to horatio cradling hamlet in his arms as the final image of the play