Oh Mr. H., of all the plays you could do, you have to pick the one with Benedict Cumberbatch. Which has been sold out for ages…
Conniption Fit
03 Friday Apr 2015
Posted in Beautiful Men
Linnet Moss
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03 Friday Apr 2015
Posted in Beautiful Men
Oh Mr. H., of all the plays you could do, you have to pick the one with Benedict Cumberbatch. Which has been sold out for ages…
What? WHAT? WHAAAAT????? Really? No late April Fool’s joke???? That’s fabulous news. Well, for me, anyway, because I have tickets to the play. Not rubbing it in here, Linnet. But I’ll report back for you. (I suspect, though, that my accompanying hubster will not stand for stage door lurking. Or even sit.)
Great news for CH, though – a fabulous role, wonderfully veering between politically scheming monarch and loving husband/uncle. And in a production that is likely to be the most high-profile play of the season.
who are you kidding girl! you’ll be sending him to the bar while you take your camera to the stage door. You forget there is photographic proof of your admiration for Mr C:-p And hmmm, isn’t there a fan calendar of only-Bathcy somewhere in your home??? 😀 I am sure he expects a visit from his favourite photographer, you wouldn’t disappoint him now, would you?
I offer myself as a sacrificial lamb, decoy, i’ll go along and say hello to Mr Hinds while you look out for Batchy :-p
LOL!
I hope you get to say hello to Mr. H. He is such a sweetheart, you’ll become a fan immediately 🙂
yes, just what i need, more sweethearts in my life.. to ruin me! 😉 (financially that is ;-))) Well if the madness is well managed there i might brave it 🙂
I shall expect a full and detailed report!!
The stage door will be a madhouse, for sure. And yes, this is a fantastic role for him, really spot-on casting. I think H’s charisma and physicality (as the sexually potent and threatening Claudius) will be a good foil for BC’s cerebral qualities. Not that BC isn’t sexy. I’ve always liked him a lot.
right, i’m back home now 🙂 Still smiling like a cat, i swear i am buzzing with excitement here! Not rubbing it in, hand on heart! just excited at the idea to get to see him on stage for the first time after i heard so much about the man 🙂 Poor Batchy he’s just become more like accompaniments to the main 😉
I must have had some premonition as i have been talking about him today to my Irish friend at breakfast. I asked her to tell me how to pronounce his name correctly, i got it nearly right, which i am very proud of (as a foreigner it wasn’t easy to get the hand of things on that aspect). I did think Keiran, but after confirming the fada on the last a she corrected me and said it was Keiraaaan. That was after me alking about my indulgent plans to watch Persuation today. (that and then a few eps of Guy of Gisborne 😉 i have to confess).
And yes i will report with all detail, promise to take my binoculars with me and i wil chase returns with determination in the hope for a better ticket. And at least i can almost promise an audio if nothing else palpable 😉
And the director of the play is nice too, she’s had an award recently. But it will be good for Batchy to have have seasoned and experienced actors to play against, anything like that helps with a monstrous task like Hamlet.
I wish him all the best but i do wish i had had the opportunity to see another Hamlet first and not this one, i wish i had had the first life experience of the play earlier as this will be all too much to take in at once. I’l have to make sure i go through a few DVDs in detail first to take the edge off so to speak.
And i am pretty sure this will be a DVD i’d be really surprised if it wasn’t 🙂
It will be the experience of a lifetime! Definitely see a few DVD versions before going– the fascination of Hamlet is truly inexhaustible. BC will bring out the brainy side of him, which is all to the good because Hamlet is a genius who can’t put his thoughts into action. That’s how I see him anyway.
The very thought of audio has me salivating!!!
Your friend is quite right about the pronunciation of Ciarán–except that Mr. H. himself doesn’t pronounce it that way, with the emphasis on the fada. He just says “KEER-en.”
They have also cast Jim Norton who has worked with Mr. H. before and is quite a veteran. I saw him in “The Night Alive” in both London and NYC and he’s great. A big fan of James Joyce–he has done audiobooks of virtually everything Joyce wrote!
Ah, so he does pronounce it as i initially thought! interesting and easier for me to pronounce 😉
I’ll have to check out some of those audiobooks JN has done.
As to Hamlet, i have seen in on telly, 2 versions, long time ago 🙂 One was.. Laurence Olivier 🙂 I still remember that incredibly well and i did like it very much. I wonder if i saw it today what i would think of it. I think i would still like it, even though it may seem old fashioned as it had a dream like quality that i think works with Hamlet.
The other one i saw was.. Mel Gibson. I thought it would be bad, but it wasn’t and Glenn Close was beautiful, i still remember her very well.
I know the opera version really well 🙂 Simon Keenlyside is as compelling a Hamlet as any Shakespearean actor 🙂 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JM8ksmt2qGA
I see the whole opera is available https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYsis8n4ERM
I’ve read it a long time ago, but in translation, time for the original.
What was indeed very interesting, was this audiobook by Hartley&Hewson. http://www.audible.com.au/pd/Fiction/Hamlet-Prince-of-Denmark-A-Novel-Audiobook/B00KCTJEB0
Yes, it is narrated by you-know-who but it tells a very interesting and convincing back-story to the characters. It won’t be easy to forget this back-story when i’ll see the play.
I do actually have a DVD that’s waiting for when i have the time to watch it whole, it’s the David Tennant one, which is pretty modern but which i am pretty sure i will like very much. It is the Hamlet i wish i had seen live… Having seen him on stage i can imagine him to be the nearly perfect combination of brains and sensibility for the role. The other one i’m going to get is the Kenneth Branagh version. Sadly Ralph Fiennes’ is not available on DVD. Quite a bit to get through before the summer.
As to tickets, let’s hope they announce pretty soon what the plan is for those £10 seats and fingers crossed we can arrange something 🙂
Yes, I am keenly waiting to hear about the ten pound seats, but I fear it will either be a lottery like they have at the Donmar, or they will be reserved for schoolchildren, or some such thing…
The first Hamlet I saw was Olivier’s and I loved it. He was such a brilliant actor, even if the blond wig was hard to look at 🙂 I also liked Branagh’s.
I do plan to listen to the Hamlet audiobook, but as you say, fictional versions can reshape the way we think about the story, so I might wait. Right now I just want it to be about the words themselves.
Tennant and Fiennes are both so talented. I love the idea of being able to compare the different Hamlets. But I’m wondering, what is the age cut-off to play Hamlet? Ralph seems a bit mature, but he’s such a great actor that he could play anything. Certainly in “Oscar and Lucinda,” he made himself seem much younger.
Oh, Fiennes has done it quite a few years back at the Almeida and then on Broadway. It was a Jonathan Kent production no less and Fiennes won a Tony for it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JK0elA5s1z8
(and had a long relationship with his Gertrude in that production 😉 ) if my math is right he was 33 when he did Hamlet. He still comes across youthful on stage today, sort of ageless.
I don’t think there is an age limit to the role, well, not a very strict one. It depends a lot on the production i guess, but i don’t think an actor in his mid 40s would not be suitable for the role for example (yes, that is my wishful thinking speaking…).
Will keep eyes peeled on those £10 but i have the same concerns you do about them…
Wow! Great clip. And what a laugh, Hamlet hooking up with Gertrude 🙂 I have a feeling that they are going to play down the Oedipal undertones for this new production, and focus on politics.
i have that feeling too, they say – i sadly didn’t see it – that the Gertrude &Hamlet tension in that one was more than palpable, there was quite a bit of talk about it at the time 🙂 for good reason it turned out ‘ggg’
I’m re-reading the play, and he gives his mother such a scolding–in her bedroom, I think–for her marrying Claudius, that he seems more like a jealous lover than a son! I suppose those lines could be played up, or played down.
When I saw this announcement I immediately thought of you!! Why do they only announce these things when tix are sold out?? :(( Maybe someone will be selling a ticket? Maybe??
Well, I should have bought tix several months ago when they announced the thing, but I was not clairvoyant enough to realize Mr. H. would be in it. Too bad they didn’t have the whole cast on board back then… Still there will be screenings of it in cinemas around the world so I hope to have that consolation.
I thought of you when I read the news. Maybe you will manage to buy a ticket after all?
Well, it is difficult trying to do it from the US, but they say there will be some seats released closer to the time. Never say never 🙂
That’s the spirit! I’ll keep my fingers crossed for you!!!
Thanks!
I still have faith in you that you’ll get there if you wish. Might need to cut back on the wine purchases. What a great role for your guy.
LOL. Cut back on wine? Now that’s the sacrifice of a true fan 🙂
Indeed it’s a perfect role for him. I can’t wait to read the play again.
And perhaps listen to the audiobook “Hamlet:A Novel narrated by Richard Armitage. He does a good Claudius.
Good idea! He does make a delicious villain 🙂
actually he makes a very touching and emotional Ophelia 🙂 and i am being serious about this.
Oh yes, I can well believe it. I listened to the Georgette Heyer audiobooks (Heyer being a huge favorite of mine) and enjoyed his portraits of the female characters. In that way he reminds me of Mr. H. whose female characters are quite revelatory (I’m thinking of the audiobook of Ivanhoe especially).
ohhh, must get that! i’ve only started with audiobooks recently as i always thought somebody reading to me would be distracting but i’m liking it though it can never quite replace a book 🙂
Yes, I only listen to audiobooks while I am exercising. The rest of the time, it’s words on pages, though sometimes I use my Kindle 🙂
When I read the cast I thought OOOHHHH, MR. H! Claudius! Oooohhhhh. Never say never, linnet, who knows?
I was checking a few minutes ago the latest news on The Merchant that we will see in The Globe and about this Hamlet and hubby said: “we’ll have to buy a house in London to go and see the plays”. Please note the irony, we can just afford a rented apartment 30 kms away from the center of Rome! 🙂 A house in London? Maybe if we win the lottery… 😀
I have had a few fantasies about the lottery myself lately, given how many shows in London I want to see. And to think that I considered (and rejected) a London trip involving this play, back when it was announced!
Will you be seeing this Hamlet, then?
Now there is a fine pair of fizzogs if I ever saw them and what a smashing combination of fine actors. Clairvoyance can be such a hit and miss thing. 😁
Fizzogs? LOL, that is one I’ve not heard. I had to look it up 🙂
OMG! I thought it was April’s fool again ! ^^
It’s real 🙂
this has NOTHING to do with … whatever. but i thought Linnet would get a chuckle when i say that i was listlessly channel-surfing last night (not so listlessly sipping whiskey) and stopped to watch “John Carter.” so … C H, king of Mars also?
Hee, hee! Yes, he pops up everywhere, doesn’t he? And together with James Purefoy. They have quite the bromance going 🙂
No, I won’t see that Hamlet, unfortunately. 😦
And regarding the comment on Hamlet’s audiobook, Mr. A’s Claudius is my top ten favourite of his “voices”.
Ooooh. I may give in and listen to it before I see the cinema version of the play. If I get to see it, that is. I still don’t have tickets.