Posted by Bel. The time is 2.49pm here in Wellington NZ.

A San Francisco based theatre company will be performing Shakespeare's Hamlet in a site-specific production later this year. The site? Alcatraz Island, home to one of America's most notorious prisons.

Known as 'The Rock', until 1963 it was the final resort for incarcerating criminals such as Al Capone and many other mobsters and scumbags. It is now part-tourist attraction, part-nature reserve - and some say still haunted by its troubled past. Lou told me it gave her the heebee-jeebees when she visited here in daylight hours!

We Players will be staging a show that delves into the themes of isolation, justice and redemption, leading the audience on a journey around the island setting...

Hamlet has always struck me as a story where the character's lack of criminality caused him more trouble than anything else - perhaps a more fitting choice would have been MacBeth (that guy needed to be locked up!) or The Tempest (Island! Helllooo!)?

Posted by Lou. The time is 11.50am here in London, UK.

The day of my tickets to Hamlet, the 4th of Donmar Warehouse's year-long season of plays in Wyndham Theatre, finally arrived with a mixture of trepidation of excitement. Despite having eagerly read the play (this is big for me - I've never enjoyed reading Shakespeare (though hope the recent spate of excellent productions may finally bring me to it)) and lapped up cinematic adaptations, I've never seen it in its true form - on stage. Kenneth Brannagh had disappointingly stood aside as director, but the brilliant and capable Michael Grandage stood up to the plate to replace him.

And Jude Law... well, for starters I was concerned - his cinema work of late having been whingy, self-pitying, dislikeable characters and performances - but then I realised that this a potentially interesting Hamlet it would make. Well, he far exceeded my expectations - his Hamlet was not whingy or self-pitying at all, but rather a ball of despair and rage at the state of Elsinor, and anger and deteriorating self-respect at himself for failing to turn his thought into action. His physicality is charasmatic and energetic - spasmodic even - whilst also seeming pitiably contained, constantly dropping to his knees as if he might collapse into himself... or pounce. His delivery of the soliloquies [is there anything more pressured for a film star than the moment of delivering the most known of soliloquies to a full house?] was superb, absolutely fulfilling the 15 years of expectation since I memorised them in 4th form. He came across as a much better stage actor than he ever has on screen*, though I see has been criticised for the lack of wit and humour (I liked the earnestness, personally).

The supporting cast were almost wholly brilliant - Gertrude in particular stood out, and Polonius was hilarious. Ophelia unfortunately, though, provided a major disappointment. The performance completely lacked interpretation, seeming merely like a drama student delivering the lines in her best voice. A small mercy was her singing of her final scenes of madness to at least do them some justice.

The art direction was wonderful - the colour palette was all variations of slate grey with the exception of the glowing white play-within-a-play. This and the stone floor and walls conjured the immensity, cold and isolation of a stone castle to frame Hamlet's sense of being trapped.

Overall I thought it was a brilliant production, totally dominated by Jude's Danish Prince. Pray love, I'll remember.


*for the record, I actually loved him in Cold Mountain

Posted by Lou. The time is 8.53pm here in London, UK.

In the weekend I headed out to Stratford-Upon-Avon to enjoy unbeatable Englishness and see an RSC production of As You Like It. The production was, of course, magnificent. As were the giftshops...

Here is me reading one of my purchases, a manga version of Romeo and Juliet:

"O, I am fortune's fool!"

It's pretty cool - original text, but a cut down version of, set in modern day Japan.

My friend picked up the graphic novel of King Lear, which uses the full text, allowing me to acquaint myself with the storyline on the train home.

I love that they're continuing to adapt and evolve Shaky-spear's works for a new and modern audience without losing the original words.

PS yes, the primary purpose of this post was indeed to copy Bel and insert a photo of me looking all bookish too, with the secondary purpose of capturing my new haircut but it's not really that clear in the photo