#nt hamlet

Ophelia steals the show. She is so broken down by the shitty men in her life I was sobbing my eyes out by the end of her arc.

Horatio is completely adorable. Even if his Hamlet never seems very emotionally connected. He’s still completely adorable and I love him.

This production has an “innocent” Gertrude-- not complicit in the murder, and genuinely shocked and contrite when she’s confronted by Hamlet. Then, when Claudius walks in, it’s really scary. You realize how much this production is emphasizing themes of abuse. I’m OK with either “innocent” or “complicit” Gertrudes. This one works well.

Benedict Cumberbatch’s Hamlet, though passionately and expertly acted, fails to connect emotionally with any of the characters with whom he is supposed to have a very intense connection: Horatio, Ophelia, Gertrude. He acts his heart out, but somehow, it’s kind of flat in the most important places. Wisely, they chose to make Horatio a sort of clownish foil for Hamlet, rather than a passionate friend. This may have been either because one of Cumberbatch’s limitations as an actor, from what I have seen in the various roles I’ve watched, is he always comes across as distant and cool, even in roles where he needs to be passionately attached. This may also have been a more strategic decision to not play into the Johnlock syndrome: They know Tragic Danish Boyfriends is a huge ship and didn’t want to play into the whole “Ben C x Male Costar” trope. Regardless, it made Hamlet dying in Horatio’s arms a really hollow moment.

This was a thoroughly de-sexed and un-carnal production, which I think is a great failing, seeing as how the body is the major theme of Hamlet. For example, the flute scene, where Hamlet’s talking to R&G about “playing upon this organ” etc. which is 1,000% double entendre, is played literally about musical instruments. That’s just one example. Hamlet has so many puns about the body, many of which are sexual and many of which are not, but most of them are flat or absent in this production. I mean, it’s still good? It’s just that the whole play is about “this mortal coil” and the inevitable fact that we will shuffle it off one way or another, and it doesn’t really matter how because we’re all just bones and dust in the end. All the carnality is in the play for a reason, and it disappoints me when Hamlet is so de-fleshed.

Cumberbatch’s Hamlet is at his best when he’s juxtaposing a rational, intellectual adult with childish play, for example, the scene where he’s dressed as a soldier and hiding in a play fort. This scene was really good and I loved it. I also really loved the way they did the first encounter with his his father’s ghost.

Something I had never really thought about before, but which this production either emphasizes, or caused me to notice for the first time, was the importance of Hamlet’s father dying unshriven. This seemed more emphasized than usual early in the play (or maybe I just noticed it more), and I realized it’s emphasized again when Hamlet chooses not to kill Claudius when he’s praying because he’d go to heaven, and instead, wants to wait for some moment when he’s engaged in some sinful activity to kill him, so he goes to purgatory instead. We usually talk about the psychodynamics and morality of Hamlet Sr.’s murder, but the fact that he died without receiving last rites is very distressing to Hamlet and I guess I’ve never paid enough attention to that till now.