Benedict Cumberbatch in "Hamlet"

[jadpdr]

For my part, I listen to everything BC says wherever it is embedded! I just cannot get enough of that lovely voice talking about his work, his passions, what makes the real person tick, as opposed to Sherlock.

And thanks for asking, I actually had to go to another country (Jersey) to see the production, but found it well worth the travel time and the extra cost!

[Slithytove]

I don't consider Benedict to be long-winded, but that might be because I suffer from the same affliction myself.  It is such a treat to watch an interview with a personality whom you like and admire, and not have to cringe because it reveals that they are shallow, wholly self-centred or simply not very bright.  Benedict seems to be highly intelligent, passionate about the things he believes in and genuinely likable.  (And, yes, I admit that the voice is a joy - I could happily listen to him reading a shopping list...)

 

As for Hamlet....I had my tickets since March!  (My husband bought them as a Mother's Day gift.)  The live screening was everything I had hoped it would be.  I'm a lifelong Shakespeare fan - not just for the beauty of the language but the ageless insight into human nature - and Hamlet is one of my favourites.  No-one wrote moody, self-pitying young men more perceptively (Romeo springs to mind) and I thought it was interesting that they chose to portray Hamlet as an unhappy boy-man.  They took a few liberties with the text but nothing ridiculous, and the whole production was fresh and vivid.  And to hear that glorious language spoken in that glorious voice....Of course, the rest of the cast was excellent, particularly Cieran Hinds.

 

And now I have to admit to being shallow myself but Mr Cumberbatch is a beautiful man.  Sorry, but he is!

 

 

[Inge l-w]

And one is green with envy and would gladly go to school in Britain or send one's children there next year! Didn't you see the announcement before the play started about schools getting resource packs for Hamlet and Frankenstein? A whole generation of Cumberbatch-addicted teenagers is about to be created and subsequently unleashed on the world!

Concerning Shakespeare, I shall watch even the eulogising Henry VIII over any of the romances, but my absolute favourites are his Roman plays, with Coriolanus first and foremost!

[Carol the Dabbler]

I don't consider Benedict to be long-winded, but that might be because I suffer from the same affliction myself.  It is such a treat to watch an interview with a personality whom you like and admire, and not have to cringe because it reveals that they are shallow, wholly self-centred or simply not very bright.  Benedict seems to be highly intelligent, passionate about the things he believes in and genuinely likable.  (And, yes, I admit that the voice is a joy - I could happily listen to him reading a shopping list...)

 

Hey, Slithytove -- welcome back! 

[J.P.]

Inge, I was thinking something similar today - having bad luck not being a native speaker. The problem is that you can understand your native language with much more "holes" in it (like words you don't understand) than you would in any foreign language, no matter how long you speak it. Then, there is the fact of having the play taught in school, which is an opportunity to deal with the material, no matter if you liked it or not.

 

You would have had same problems if some of Polish Bards' stuff was thrown at you, and I don't mean only the matter of language. (Plus, we've had a bit more luck with it, the most of the national treasures were written in 19th century) Well, I think that's the disadvantage of being a fan of a foreigner, who happens to like old classics...

[Carol the Dabbler]

Inge, I was thinking something similar today - having bad luck not being a native speaker. The problem is that you can understand your native language with much more "holes" in it (like words you don't understand) than you would in any foreign language, no matter how long you speak it. Then, there is the fact of having the play taught in school, which is an opportunity to deal with the material, no matter if you liked it or not.

 

You would have had same problems if some of Polish Bards' stuff was thrown at you, and I don't mean only the matter of language. (Plus, we've had a bit more luck with it, the most of the national treasures were written in 19th century) Well, I think that's the disadvantage of being a fan of a foreigner, who happens to like old classics...

 

 

You guys never cease to amaze me! 

[J.P.]

Erm... why? -_-

 

Talking about classics. Mark Gatiss just posted a link you can watch the reading of Iliad at Almeida this August.

[Carol the Dabbler]

Well, in the first place, watching a tv program in a foreign language -- and basically understanding it and loving it.  And then taking part in a forum that's full of people who not only write in English, but like to use fancy words.  I can carry on simple conversations in Spanish (as long as people don't mind me skipping the niceties of verb conjugation), but I can't imagine doing all the stuff you do!

 

 

[Inge l-w]

Dear princess among amphibians, English was very thoroughly drilled into me, along with French, I can carry out a meaningful conversation in Italian, manage to be understood by a Spaniard, a Bulgarian and a Russian alike! Look at Mycroft, he should be an example to us all, although his intonation, stress on the words in TEH, leaves much to be desired! Oh, well, he admitted he learned it in two hours, probably being in a tearing hurry to extricate his little brother from that hellhole!

I do hope everyone realises that this is a fairly universal theme, from Aeschyulus' Oresteia and Sophocles' Electra to Chinese opera, namely The Banquet, although there the revenge scheme is more complicated!

From a historical point of view, of course, Hamlet is pure bilge water, since Norway belonged to Denmark, along with Greenland, Iceland and Schleswig-Holstein. It took a French former Marshal, Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte, to wrench it from the Danish crown and annexe it to Sweden. The only credible thing is about both Fortinbras's nephew and Claudius wanting to attack the Poles.

[J.P.]

Forgot the link to Illiad, in case someone is interested

http://www.openculture.com/2015/10/watch-the-entire-iliad-read-by-66-actors-in-a-marathon-event-for-an-audience-of-50000.html

[J.P.]

Carol, speaking foreign language is mostly exercising. My school English was hardly useful in real life, as well as my German. The first started to improve after I've got internet access and joined discussion groups in English. I have a very strong need to communicate about things I'm passionate about, so I had a reason for trying it again and again. Still, for years it was spending most of the time with my nose in dictionaries, before we've got well working dictionaries online. And I still use them.

Speaking is - as my London visit sadly proved - a completely different animal. It requires training, training, training... and the middle age doesn't help.

 

And back on track: Part 4 of the BC interview

https://vimeo.com/143050345

[sittything]

I can only reiterate how impressed I am by all of you non-native English speakers on here.  I would have never known if you all hadn't said something.   

[J.P.]

It's the edit function :P

[Carol the Dabbler]

The what?  Well, how about that, didn't know we had one.  Thank goodness I never need anything like that! 

[Inge l-w]

Of course you don't, dear Carol! You are a secret Prescriptivist (deep down)!

[J.P.]

Part 5 and 6

 

https://vimeo.com/143233767

 

https://vimeo.com/143243433

[T.o.b.y]

I just can't get over the "King" jacket. That was priceless. I want those to be sold in stores.

Okay, I give. Which one was the "king" jacket and why are you all calling it that? I hope it's the one he had on at the banquet, because that was cool.

I meant the coat with "King" written on the back that other people have kindly provided links to pictures of it. I just love that thing.

Edited October 22, 2015 by Carol the Dabbler
Repaired quote box

[J.P.]

https://vimeo.com/143263257

[Slithytove]

 

 

I don't consider Benedict to be long-winded, but that might be because I suffer from the same affliction myself. It is such a treat to watch an interview with a personality whom you like and admire, and not have to cringe because it reveals that they are shallow, wholly self-centred or simply not very bright. Benedict seems to be highly intelligent, passionate about the things he believes in and genuinely likable. (And, yes, I admit that the voice is a joy - I could happily listen to him reading a shopping list...)

Hey, Slithytove -- welcome back!

Thank you! Nice to be back.

[Inge l-w]

I DO like his reiteration (beginning and end) about being tired and hungry and longing to get back home to his family! Also, the fumbling around for feelings after the final curtain. Melvyn Bragg has never been my cup of tea a a social historian, and his attempt at pithiness in the end did nothing to change my mistrust of his motives: did he really set out to embarrass Benedict right at the end of a two-hour long ordeal? That's even worse than Mr Moffat's attempts at ridiculing Sherlock Holmes under the guise of modernising the character!

[T.o.b.y]

I DO like his reiteration (beginning and end) about being tired and hungry and longing to get back home to his family! Also, the fumbling around for feelings after the final curtain. Melvyn Bragg has never been my cup of tea a a social historian, and his attempt at pithiness in the end did nothing to change my mistrust of his motives: did he really set out to embarrass Benedict right at the end of a two-hour long ordeal? That's even worse than Mr Moffat's attempts at ridiculing Sherlock Holmes under the guise of modernising the character!

Oh - is that what you think they're doing with Sherlock? Interesting... The series never struck me as a parody, although it is funny in parts. I don't think the character is being ridiculed. He isn't presented as infallible, but that would be kind of boring... There are enough superheroes around anyway. I like Sherlock the way they write him an awful lot. But if you see the series this way, then I think I can understand some of your previous complaints a little better.

 

Anyway... Back to Hamlet. (I am on my phone and haven't figured out yet how to shorten quotes or take them to different threads with the mobile version of the forum, sorry.)

 

After watching the screening, I had this whole theory in my head about Hamlet and his father... How the old man was probably very strict, very distant and demanding and how the son probably had a hard time loving him. That would explain a lot. I had this whole psychological profile of the character and the family in my head and suddenly, the play made more sense to me than it ever had before.

[J.P.]

I think those two guys have a great chemistry. Having an interviewer who's knowing the matter so well must be rare for Ben.

 

Now, it makes me watch the play one more time - but still not in one piece. Did I wrote that I almost hope for a bootleg record? All I could do was to write to NT Live to reconsider their decision of not publishing the play.

[J.P.]

What a fandom to be with!

 

Here starts the transcript of the SkyArts Interview. Not finished yet, but it will be completed soon.

[Inge l-w]

Yep! You get the Old Guard, like me, Sherlockian to the core, don't mess with my childhood hero too much or I could turn about as monstrous as the redundant Mummy Holmes, the Sherlock fans and anyone in between! Good luck with that!

[J.P.]

The person with whom I watched Hamlet wrote (yay, she wrote to me, what a relief) something interesting about the interpretation of Ophelia: that the girl was mentally unstable from the beginning and she understands her childish behavior as a sign of it. Interesting idea and it definitely makes sense.

 

Well, with a good obsession you never know where you end -- now, after the SkyArts interview, I decided to give the show a second chance on 8. of November, this time in Mannheim. It's Sunday, so it might be a bit more relaxed.