Over the last year I’ve been to the theatre three times, all different and all fantastic shows. The Mckellen/Stewart Waiting for Godot, a production of Pirates of Penzance that was gloriously, riotously silly and the David Tennant-fronted Hamlet. I reviewed it here, and I wasn’t alone in hailing Tennant as one of the greatest Hamlets of all time.
What I didn’t know until recently was that Tennant didn’t reach the amount of performances needed to be considered for an Olivier award. Whilst he did over seventy shows in Stratford upon Avon, a back injury meant he could only perform eleven times in London.
Now, multiple sources are reporting that the RSC are planning to re-unite the cast to film the production. Oliver Ford Davies, who played Polonius, revealed that the play would be filmed in early June and he was hopeful the entire cast would return. The story, reported in the Telegraph, was confirmed by the RSC although the exact form the film will take remains unclear. Ford Davies said “It won’t be a full feature film as there isn’t time but it will certainly be more than just the filming of the stage.”
Even if it is, this is fantastic news. Hamlet at it’s best is a play like no other and this production really is Hamlet at it’s best.
Hey, I hope that is successful because it would be an amazing chance to see what I feared I would otherwise have missed! Thanks for the news. -DT