Benedict Cumberbatch in "Hamlet"

[Inge l-w]

Quibble: with whom you watched; which is strictly for things. And I got a second bite at the bittersweet apple of Hamlet on the same date in Bremen!

[Carol the Dabbler]

Quibble: with whom you watched; which is strictly for things.

 

Oops, did they change the rules when I wasn't paying attention?  Used to be, "whom" was only for reference to people.

 

Or did J.P. edit her post already, thus bewildering the heck out of me (easily done!)? 

 

[Inge l-w]

Of course it was edited, dear Carol, it started as the person with which I watched, producing the above knee-jerk reaction! J.P. has already lauded the edit function!

[J.P.]

What have I said?
 

I'm expecting some new cosplays soon. :D

 

https://twitter.com/blameACD/status/658347162389098496

[J.P.]

Found an audiobook of Hamlet in Polish, so I can at least knit while listening
What I noticed is that it has a nice flow and rhythm, and is pleasant to read or listen to, while the original feels like a very bumpy road. Does the original text has a metre? (Not sure if that's the right term - I mean I don't feel any rhythm in it)

 

Now a question: is there a translation into modern English, but not like those I found already, written in plain and "common" language - but in the way poetry is translated?

 

ETA: Actually, it's not a wonder that Shakespeare feels so exclusive to people - you have that funny syntax, then there are like two unknown words per verse... It's almost like listening to Dutch - it somehow resembles German, but it's still a foreign language. :P

[Inge l-w]

Most Elizabethan era plays were written in iambic hexameter, but didn't fall under the constraints of sonnets or palimpsests, so you should go for an annotated copy, like the ones they use at school, to have both the original and the meaning of the word in modern English, although this production seemed particularly easy on the ears, with very few dated or confusing words.

[Carol the Dabbler]

Does the original text has a metre? (Not sure if that's the right term - I mean I don't feel any rhythm in it)

I'd never thought about the meter (which is a perfectly good word there).  Like you, I never got the impression that Shakespeare wrote his plays in any explicit style, just that there was generally a pleasant rhythm to his words.  However, Google brings up a number of sites that say Hamlet is written in iambic pentameter, and I'm willing to believe them.

 

There are several possible explanations for our not noticing.  One might be that Shakespeare was a bit relaxed about the meter, perhaps letting the actors supply a bit of emphasis in just the right places to bring it out.  But my first guess would be that the language has changed enough since then to obscure the meter.

 

That happened to Chaucer -- people a few hundred years later referred to his verse as "rough" because they no longer pronounced many words the way he had, so the lines had a different number of syllables and no longer rhymed.  More recent scholarship has reconstructed Chaucer's pronunciation, and his verse now sounds almost too rhythmic.

 

... it's not a wonder that Shakespeare feels so exclusive to people - you have that funny syntax, then there are like two unknown words per verse... It's almost like listening to Dutch - it somehow resembles German, but it's still a foreign language. :P

That's a very apt analogy.  (And Dutch is also close enough to English to sound funny to my ears in a way that, say, Japanese would not.)

 

[Inge l-w]

Oh, dear! Pentameter is much more restrictive! Thanks Carol, that explains a lot about the original play's cadences! Racine, Moliere and Corneille preferred the hexameter, perhaps because French uses longer words to say the same thing anyway!

[J.P.]

This is the end, my friends... Even if we can see it in cinemas.

 

I think there will be a hell of a party tonight.

 

And that's how it looked like from the stage:

 

[J.P.]

From Twitter:

 

Benedict was a teary mess at the end during the appeal and when he said this has been the most extraordinary thing. #HamletBarbican

 

Benedict visibly overcome at the encore, said #HamletBarbican had been everything he wanted it to be

 

Benedict's voice just broke doing Hamlet has "been an incredible experience" speech. The rest is silence.

 

Benedict was in absolute pieces at the curtain call & he wasn't the only one "This has been the most extraordinary thing" #HamletBarbican

 

Him in tears then the audience then his mum, dad & Sophie. It was very emotional he said "it had been everything he wanted it to be"

 

3 months 12 weeks 76 days 92 Performances 253 hours on stage 100000 tickets £150000 raised for Save the Children. #HamletBarbican is history

[J.P.]

... also first pics:

 

https://twitter.com/cumberbatchspam/status/660723298557370368

 

http://duskybatfishgirl.tumblr.com/post/132314086046/stunning-photo-by-jswan-its-so-poignant-that

 

Poor baby...
 

[J.P.]

another nice pic of the whole cast

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CSv1UzsWIAAXvKp.jpg:large

[Arcadia]

As we don't know if they will last:

The Interview. Part 1 and 2, 3 to come later, I hope.

https://vimeo.com/142805097

https://vimeo.com/142824123

 

JP, thanks for posting these links, I've only watched the first one so far but I'm already wishing I'd seen them before I saw the play .... their discussion is bringing the play to life for me in a way that simply watching it "cold" did not. Rats, I wonder if there will be another airing in my area.......

 

BC is notoriously long-winded and admits it himself, which is one of the reasons he has said he doesn't use Twitter.  I didn't say he wasn't articulate, highly intelligent, and all that.  Just long-winded.  I had to even stop listening to him talk about THE IMITATION GAME.  I'm not sure he's ever effused as much on Sherlock as he did on Hamlet.

 

What I DID like about the interview, however, was the intelligent exchange between the two men.  BC wasn't being asked rote questions about the work but in-depth questions by someone who actually understood it.  BC was relaxed and thoughtful as opposed to his canned answers on the red carpet or press junkets.

Yes, this is the BC I remember first becoming fascinated by. It's a pleasure simply just to watch him talk; he's so animated. As you say, far different than the TIG stuff he had to do.

 

 

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

Yes he is, and I'm not just talking about his appearance. And welcome back, Slithytove!

 

 

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.

Oh no, I hadn't heard that. If you find a bootleg version, I want a copy! (Ooops, did I just say that?)

[Inge l-w]

Don't be daft, dear Arcadia, everyone here would download a bootleg version faster than it had been uploaded! And I subscribed to Vimeo, so I have seen all seven parts, which is why I queried the last part's feelings caused by deliberate (or not) manipulation of BC by Lord Bragg!

[jadpdr]

I would be very much interested in a filmed version of this production! The last Shakespeare play I have on DVD is Kenneth Branagh's Henry V! That far back!

[J.P.]

Some final thoughts about the play

[Boton]

OK, wish me luck this weekend.  I've had these NTL Hamlet tickets for months.  We weren't required to read the play in school, so I didn't, but I swore I would read it before I saw the filmed play.

 

I did not.

 

I swore that I would at least read the Wikipedia entry on Hamlet.

 

That's not looking likely either.

 

So, I guess I'm going to go watch BC bring the pretty for 3.5 hours.  It's going to be an actual field test of my decision to put him on my phone book list.  (For those of you not in that discussion, it's the men I would pay to watch or hear read the phone book aloud.)

[T.o.b.y]

Boton, I doubt you'll have any trouble following and / or appreciating the play because you have not read Hamlet or read about it in advance. I have never seen a production that made it so clear what's going on and what it's all about without significantly altering the source material. I predict you will have a great time.

[sittything]

Boton, I want to hug you for that post.  lol

 

 

[Slithytove]

Thank you for the welcome back, Arcadia!

 

Is there any serious possibility, I wonder, that the film will ever be on DVD? Because I would buy it like a shot. I'm just doubtful that it will happen, as the NT's screening of Frankenstein has never made it to DVD. This was supposedly because the actors - Jonny Lee Miller, specifically - wouldn't sign it off, but I wonder whether the NT feels it can make more money from cinema screenings than by releasing their films on DVD.

 

Just a thought.

[T.o.b.y]

Oh, how I wish they would make a DVD, though! They could probably make a lot of money off of that, too.

 

Still, I am really thankful I got to see it at the cinema. That was such a lovely experience, almost like being in the theater with the live audience.

[Arcadia]

I don't know, JP was the one who said they decided not to release it to DVD, but I don't know where she got that info from. JP, are you there?

 

I'd buy it in a heartbeat, one viewing simply wasn't enough. I'd buy Frankenstein too. Maybe there's too many legal issues.

[Carol the Dabbler]

They surely won't announce any DVD or Blu-ray before they milk the theater showings, and there's at least one more of those already scheduled, right?

 

The fact that they've given a specific reason for not releasing Frankenstein on home video may imply that they're not totally opposed in principle, they just couldn't do it for that particular production, for the reasons given.  So for Hamlet, who knows?  I certainly wouldn't give up hope.

 

[J.P.]

I don't know, JP was the one who said they decided not to release it to DVD, but I don't know where she got that info from. JP, are you there?

 

It was an info on Twitter from NTLive.

Edited November 6, 2015 by Carol the Dabbler
Added quote

[Boton]

Boton, I doubt you'll have any trouble following and / or appreciating the play because you have not read Hamlet or read about it in advance. I have never seen a production that made it so clear what's going on and what it's all about without significantly altering the source material. I predict you will have a great time.

 

 

Boton, I want to hug you for that post.  lol

 

And, you know, I'm not really that out of touch.  I've just never liked Shakespeare because I don't really like the Elizabethan period of English history.  I like the pre-Norman Conquest stuff.  But I got these tickets about the time BC did the "Seven Ages of Man" advertisement for the BBC last fall, and I figured this was my chance to finally see Shakespeare done well so that I might enjoy it.  Of course, I've done none of my homework, so I'm banking on what Toby said that the material will be accessible without too much background info.