Default PBS showing David Tennant and Patrick Stewart's "Hamlet"

[Count Zero]

It is certainly a powerful end to the play but unless you haven't seen or read the play before, Fortinbras appearing there at the end is important, especially if you leave most of the lead-up to it in. What we're seeing is the downfall of the Danish ruling house. While they were busy with their internal fighting and intrigue, they were invaded by someone else, someone young, someone who doesn't have the doubts and reflection of Hamlet. We already get this with Laertes but I think Fortinbras basically appearing out of thin air at the end really drives the point home.

Also, I always liked how his line that Hamlet would have "prov'd most royally" sounded rather hollow after what we've seen. I seriously doubt he would have.

What really bugged me though, was that they shortened the famous 'to be or not to be' soliloquy. I know that by heart and was thrown a bit by this.

 

[Peter the Younger]

I was really impressed. Tennant performance was vibrant and varied, and he handles the soliloquies a helluva lot better than Brannaugh did in his version. Stewart was also excellent; he had a lock on that banal, cowardly self-rationalization that makes the character understandable but still hateable. The only waek link for me was Mariah Gale (Ophelia), her madness seemed like something of a put-on.

I wasn't crazy about the cuts, although I sympathize with the exclusion of the Fortinbras bits; it may be important in terms of framing the "stakes" of the story, but the big wrap-up by Fortinbras is the weakest part of the play. It's a convention of Elizabethan theater that should be left in it's own time, IMO. In any case, the cuts were minor compared to the wholesale amputation of the Gibson/Zefirelli version.

 

[Brutal Strudel]

Also, I always liked how his line that Hamlet would have "prov'd most royally" sounded rather hollow after what we've seen. I seriously doubt he would have.

What really bugged me though, was that they shortened the famous 'to be or not to be' soliloquy. I know that by heart and was thrown a bit by this.

Agreed on both parts. Who would fardels bear indeed?

Rey, grunting and sweating