Oct 03 2007
ToDo in 2008: Go to England, take in some RSC productions
I first read Hamlet when I was in high school during the year Dad was my English teacher. I loved it. Studied it again my first year at Colby for a Freshman Seminar course on “The Fate of Being Human”, and have seen three movie versions of the play (hate Gibson; love Branagh; alas, can’t remember Olivier). I’ve only once seen it performed live, however; something I’d like to experience again.
This blurb from The Stage about the Royal Shakespeare Company’s upcoming season makes me wanna put on my travelin’ shoes:
Gregory Doran will revive his production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream and direct Tennant in both Hamlet and Love’s Labour’s Lost, in which he will play Hamlet and Berowne respectively. Patrick Stewart will also feature as Claudius in Hamlet, while an ensemble of actors will be cross-cast across all three plays. It is expected that Hamlet will later transfer to London.
Sigh. How FREAKIN’ AWESOME would it be to see Doctor Who and Jean-Luc Picard in one of my favoritest plays evah?
The only way that could possibly be more awesome is if they cast Jeri Ryan (Seven of NIne) as Ophelia.
I dunno, I think I’d prefer Xena-era Lucy Lawless as Ophelia. Or maybe even Renee O’Connor (Gabrielle)…
I dunno it seems more complete to me to pick something at least out of the same genre of space (or time) related scifi rather than straight fantasy. Or else you may as well choose any of the female roles from any Conan movie (with accompanying garb).
Jewel Staite (Kaylee, Serenity/Firefly). Although in that same company, Summer Glau (River) has a proven track record of being able to pull off ‘crazy chick’ which are Ophelia’s longest and best lines in the play…I just prefer looking at Jewel. On the other hand, Summer was also in that ‘the Sarah Connor Chronicles’ TV series…so that’s time AND space going for her.
Of course then you’d have to cast Adam Baldwin (Jayne) and Nathan Fillion (Mal) as Laertes and Polonius respectively.