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hiddlescheekbones · 7 years

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Hamlet at RADA – a very long and very detailed collection of memories (2/4)

Below is a recollection of every single moment I can remember from one of the best days of my life. The day I saw Tom Hiddleston as Hamlet at the Jerwood Vanbrugh Theatre, RADA, London.

I wrote this as a journal entry for myself, in hopes that I’ll never forget each moment. But also, since this was such a limited availability performance, and we don’t know if it will hypothetically be transferred somewhere, I hope this can give you curious minds a little insight of the play.

Disclaimer:

This is not a review;

Contains detailed descriptions of some scenes from the play so read at your care;

All opinions and emotions are from my own point of view and I understand other people could have lived it differently;

I went to see it mainly for Tom so pardon me if my focus is mainly on him;

Unfortunately, I can’t remember every scene or in what order they played, but I tried my best; I wrote 5 pages worth of notes when I got back at the hotel so this is as close as I can remember.

This memory is divided into four parts:

Before the play

The play (I II)

After the play

If you attended and there’s anything you feel I missed or got wrong please let me know! If you didn’t and want details on some scene or a description of a scene I didn’t include, also the same.

Enjoy!

PS – English is not my first language, nor am I a writer in my daily life. Far from it. I probably didn’t find the right words and I repeat a lot of them. Forgive me. I have a more physical and materialistic approach rather than interpreting the play. For that, I recommend you read these brilliant reviews x x

The Play (I)

A tall shadow walks on stage from the back and sits at the piano. A single light focuses on it.

There he is. Tom Hiddleston live and in colour. I grab my friend’s hand as I’m holding everything inside me and try not to make a noise.

He’s looking down at the piano. He looks up, straight in my direction. The whole world freezes in that moment. There are tears in his eyes. His stare is piercing and intense. His eyes two blue marbles.

Some deep breaths.

He strikes some keys. He restarts and sings in a soft warm voice, the ode from Ophelia to her father, carrying such grief that is heartbreaking.

“And will he not come again?

And will he not come again?

No, no, he is dead;

Go to thy deathbed;

He never will come again.

His beard was as white as snow,

All flaxen was his poll.

He is gone, he is gone.”

There are tears running to my face at this point. I couldn’t have asked for a better first impression.

This song will return at least twice during the play. The melody reminds me of “Days in the Sun”, an original song from the latest Beauty and the Beast film.

The lights go down and the next scene is set. The black wall goes up, revealing a wall with windows at the centre and three doors: one at the left with the portrait of King Hamlet right above, one glass door at the middle, and one hidden door at the right, with a portrait of King Claudius on it. A desk and chair are placed facing the audience. A big square carpet with the coat of arms of Denmark in the middle is placed in the centre of the stage. The King seats at the desk and a technician (who I found out at the end was an actual theatre tech member) counts down from 5 to 0 like the scene is ready to go on air on live television.

Claudius first speech is delivered as a TV announcement to the people. He’s wearing a grey suit and tie. Nicholas Farrell, the actor who plays him, makes a noticeable pause in the middle of his monologue as he looks like he’s trying to remember his line, but recovers like a sir.

At the end, the rest of the cast cheers and Hamlet enters through the left door. Immediately his presence fills the room. He stands tall and with great posture. All actors have great voice projection.

Tom’s voice is loud but enjoyable like honey. There are an anger and bitterness in his first speech. He’s wearing a dark blue ripped sweater, a long black coat, black jeans (or they used to be black) and brown boots. His hair is long and curly, and his beard has grown quite a bit since the rehearsal photos came out.

Hamlet’s first soliloquy “O that this too too sullied flesh would melt” sets the mood for every other soliloquy of the play: all lights out, sudden sound, and a cold blue-ish light over the actor speaking. Tom makes an effort to look at all points of the audience: all around the several rows of the stalls and up to the balcony. Pretty sure he makes eye contact with a few people, but I’m not sure if it’s deliberate or not.

Enter Horatia, Hamlet (who has lost his coat) gives her a big hug that sweeps her off the ground. All their hugs are quite endearing and tense. Caroline Martin is wearing jeans, a long blue shirt, black boots and red lipstick. She has quite a presence and an excellent powerful voice.

Laertes says goodbye to Ophelia and Polonius gives his advice reading from a paper. Laertes wears some very laid back clothes, Polonius wears a dark suit, and Ophelia wears ankle long jeans, a black top and blouse and some flats. Ophelia tells Laertes to be safe and he shows her a box of condoms. Polonius tells Laertes to be safe and gives him an even larger box. Ophelia tells Polonius of Hamlet’s advances while crossing her fingers behind her back (I saw this because she had her back to me, not sure if it was evident for everyone).

Hamlet sees the Ghost played by the brilliant Ansu Kabia. The Ghost enters by the middle glass door, so Hamlet has moved to our end of the stage. First, he stands, back to us and I feel it. The so famous delicious smell that emanates from Tom. It’s quite indescribable but not at all what I expected. It’s a light but imposing smell, no other actor has a particular scent, which lingers after he walks by. It’s a citric sweet but fresh perfume. This is also the first time I realise how extremely tall Tom is. His clothes fit him perfectly. He also has great posture, large shoulders and small waist. He kneels. He’s so close I could touch him. Also, his feet are enormous.

After the Ghost scene comes the first comical moment of the play. The first time the Ghost shouts from the ground “SWEAR!”, Hamlet points at the ground under the carpet and proceeds to sneak himself under it and crawls towards us coming out from the other side as if he’s looking for him.

It makes the whole room giggle.

The set changes again. There’s now a three-seat white sofa facing us and two individual armchairs at the sides facing the big sofa.

The hilarious Polonius speaks of Hamlet’s madness. Rosacrantz and Guildastern (played by the same young actresses that play Marcella and Bernarda) are introduced. They wear fancy lady suits and Rosacrantz wears heels.

Hamlet appears behind the wall and can be seen through the glass windows. He’s wearing a hoodie with the hood on, carries a Danish flag on his shoulders, his face is painted like a football fan and he’s reading Matt Haig’s Reasons to Stay Alive.

The hilarious scene with Polonius takes place, three moments stayed with me:

“Have you a daughter? (…) Conception is a blessing.” As he says this he proceeds to do a thrusting move towards the sofa. One foot on the pillows and the other on the floor as his hips move back and forward in a very suggestive manner. One of the girls behind me lets out a hysterical laugh. I’m just left there with my chin on the floor. No one has told me about this.

They sit on the sofa. Hamlet still mocking Polonius mimics his movements by crossing legs at the same time

The way Tom delivers the following:

(joking) “You cannot, sir, take from me any thing that I will more willingly part withal—

(serious) except my life,

(laughing) except my life,

(crying) except my life.”

Rosacrantz and Guildastern are back and they bring a pill radio. Hamlet is immediately cheered up and they do a little group dance. And, oh boy, did I imagine I would ever see this day. This is the only moment in the play I can see traces of Tom in his face. He really does enjoy dancing. The dance involves some synchronized moves with their hands in the air and a few turns. Hamlet lifts Rosacrantz off the ground in a swing dance back lift. Everyone is genuinely laughing.

Edit [April 2018]. Finally a confirmation of the song:

youtube

After a heated confrontation with the two friends, they end up removing his face paint.

Cue “What a piece of work is a man” my favourite soliloquy. I can still hear it. He’s very mellow and sad, you feel sorry for him.

Polonius comes back announcing the arrival of the players (I can’t really remember if it’s at this point he trips in one of the chairs, great stunt). The Player King delivers Hecuba’s speech and what a performance that was. Pretty sure I saw some tears in the audience. Polonius obnoxiously interrupts the performance a couple of times with Hamlet shushing him like he’s a child and even threatening violence with a fist up.

Polonius gives Ophelia the Holy Bible to read. Enter Hamlet, the whole room goes dark and a single light shines on him. “To be or not to be. THAT is the question” He cries.

He finds Ophelia. “I loved you not.” They get closer and closer, the room is quiet. They kiss. “Get thee to a nunnery.” They kiss again. She takes her blouse off and there’s a noise from the back “Where is your father?” He gets mad, completely enraged.

The play within a play scene comes up. They’ve put the desk and chair on our side of the stage and the sofa and armchairs on the other side. The carpet is gone. The scene proceeds, with Hamlet sitting again very close to us why the play doesn’t start. Unfortunately, this was the only moment of the play that I couldn’t figure what was going on the other side, namely the King’s reaction, as we had the two players reenact the scene in front of us on the desk.

Hamlet rushes and interrupts them, and on the way to climb on the table, Tom misses the chair and almost falls but recovers like a champ. Everyone leaves and there’s the moment with the recorder of which I clearly remember Tom’s long fingers fiddling with the thing.

There’s the scene with the King praying and Hamlet appears from the back with his rapier. Very intense scene.

Jump to the scene with Gertrude, when Hamlet is pretty much possessed with rage. He kills Polonius through King Claudius’ portrait on the hidden door on the right and runs in tears to our end of the stage without realizing who he has murdered.

The scene with Gertrude is one of the most emotionally heavy and makes me tear up. Lolita Chakrabarti is amazing in portraying the despair of a mother.

Hamlet is sent away to England. The back wall with the doors goes up and a projection of clouds can be seen.

Ophelia has gone insane and is wearing some ripped clothes now. I got to say that Kathryn Wilder made me sympathise with her than any other actress has before. There’s a scene on the floor where she points to her belly or intimate parts.

There’s a loud plane sound and we see Guildastern, Horatia, Hamlet, and Rosacrantz all wearing long black coats. The planes are the soldiers from Norway. The four of them look like they’re about to drop the edgiest album of the year.

#hamlet #tom hiddleston #rada hamlet #rada #kenneth branagh #william shakespeare #rada hamlet a memory #2 / 4 #tbh i can't remember the order of these last scenes #or when the intermission comes #it's all becoming a blur #*cries*

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