The Doctor's The Thing Wherein I'll Catch The Conscience Of The Captain

[filkertom]

I heard about this on NPR this morning, and then maiac had a link to it.

Tonight on Great Performances on PBS, there's a television adaptation of the 2008 Royal Shakespeare Company production of Hamlet, starring Sir Patrick Stewart as Claudius and David Tennant as the Prince of Denmark. You can watch a preview here, and after the broadcast tonight you can watch the whole episode online.

Who would you like to see do Shakespeare? Or, what existing production would you like brought to video? I'd love for them to release the 2003 production of Henry IV with Kevin Kline as Falstaff. The Harry/Hermione shipper in me would adore Romeo and Juliet with Radcliffe and Watson. Rickman as Shylock in The Merchant of Venice would be fascinating. And Jackman and Winslet (or Anne Hathaway or Keira Knightley) in The Taming of the Shrew -- or, better, Kiss Me Kate -- could be hysterical.

Comments

[ericcoleman]

Oh man ... now I really really really want to see Jackman and Winslet in Kiss Me Kate. I wonder if she can sing?

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

no no no no no! You need a redhead for Kate. Or somebody that at least has the Shrew 'tude. Watson might could cop it, though she's a bit young. Oooooh, I know! Catherine Tate! (After seeing her opposite Tennant doing Comic Relief from a few years back... she could TOTALLY play the Shrew.)

[peachtales.livejournal.com]

I've been seeing previews for this on pbs for a couple weeks. I will be watching!
Your other suggestions sound excellent, but I disagree with you on Keira Knightley. At this point she's just not a good enough actress, imo. Perhaps in a few years.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

I think she is, but I'll grant you that I think that about her comedic talents. I thought she was excellent in the Pirates movies, but better in the scenes where she got to be funny. Kind of a Candace Bergen/Marion Davies thing, where a lot of time is spent doing Serious Drama when the acting chops are more suited for lighter fair. Bergen figured that out eventually, with the result of Murphy Brown; let's hope someone gets Keira into period pieces that require a touch less angst.

[peachtales.livejournal.com]

Yes, that would be better. She did fine in the Pirates movies. Of course, she was mostly "the girl". :P
She just about made the version of Pride and Prejudice she was in unwatchable for me. Sad, that.
Personally, non-period pieces would be better for her, I think.

Well...

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

I want to see a production of Hamlet presented as described in "Shakespeare in the Bush," the African version performed by all black actors.
http://law.ubalt.edu/downloads/law_downloads/IRC_Shakespeare_in_the_Bush1.pdf

[ladywench.livejournal.com]

I would like to see Johnny Depp do Richard III.

[ann-totusek.livejournal.com]

Do you really think that Depp could pull off the "physically unattractive" that that role calls for? Even as Sweeney Todd he was pretty hot. Ian McKellan nailed the part for me in what I think of as the Harry Turtledove version of Richard III. I'd love to see him do it in the original period setting.

[ladywench.livejournal.com]

I once saw Dereck Jacboi (live) play the role with the deformity and his own personality making him repugnant rather than the face. His face remained noble, twisted only by his own cruelty and malice. It really heightened the "romance" and his intereaction with the women in the play - attracted to his face, repulsed by his body, attracted to his power, repulsed by his personality . . . I think Depp could get the personality to a point where he becomes a character you can't help but be attracted to, and hate yourself for it.

Perhaps with Helena Bonham-Carter in one of the leading-lady roles.

[ann-totusek.livejournal.com]

You saw it live? With Derek Jacobi? I am going to be jealous and go sit in a corner and snivel now.

The trick with mixing and matching appearance and personality is wonderful. Rickman's Snape is a great example of how to make a physically not-so-hot and a personality not-so-hot really attractive regardless. Of course, with Snape as a tragic/heroic/"man apart" figure, that only adds to it. Every tender-hearted chick in the audience has a quivering lip and is thinking "Oh, you poor tragic man, you. Let me kiss it and make it all better. I'll pull your inner beauty to the outside if you take your clothes off..."

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

This on both counts.

(I'm still kicking myself for not going to see Sir Patrick Stewart play in The Tempest on Broadway. Had I the opportunity to see Jacobi do just about anything, I would so go... LOVED him in Cadfael.)

[ladywench.livejournal.com]

I went to Londen with a college "Shakespeare & Contemporary Drama" class and we saw Jacobi in Richard II. We went to Stratford, and when we came back to Londen, he was doing Richard III. Stunning!! I was also blessed enough to see Sir Alec Guiness in "A Walk in the Woods" on a rare night we didn't have a play planned for class. I still have all the programs. :-)

Oh, and I SO obsessed over Sweeney Todd. The whole thing, not just Depp. Adding music to anything draws me in, include Depp and Rickman and I had no chance. Have you seen Rickman's "Rasputin"?

Can't you just see Depp doing the "I'll never know the sweetness of a woman's love, what woman could love me in this body, I'll have to be sneaky and mean and manipulate someone into bedding me" speech? Or am I being mean giving you that visual? :-D

[gridlore.livejournal.com]

Speaking of Turtledove and Depp, I'd love to see him play Jake Featherston in some grand miniseries based on the books.

[wiliqueen.livejournal.com]

I dearly wish I had a video record of either of the performances I attended of the insane Original Shakespeare Company Shrew in Toronto in 2001. Preferably the night Geraint Wyn Davies ordered pizza, had it delivered on stage just in time for the "let's starve Kate" scene, and proceeded to pass it around to everyone in the cast but her. Patrick Tucker (the mind behind the OFC insanity, whose show this ostensibly was) was laughing so hard I thought he was going to asphyxiate.

[druidsfire.livejournal.com]

Oh, I heard about Ger doing this. I too wish there was a video of it, because the story is just so epic. :)

[wiliqueen.livejournal.com]

It was the most insane thing I've ever seen, and utterly brilliant. Both nights -- I saw the Friday and Saturday. There were three performances, but I can't remember whether the other was Thursday or Sunday.

There was a talkback on Saturday afternoon as well, with Tucker and some of the ensemble members. At one point I mentioned that I had gotten the same vibe from it as from the stage shows at faire (I had worked Ohio Ren a couple summers, and was a regular patron besides), to the point where I was squelching the urge to heckle. To which Tucker said, "You wanted to heckle? Why didn't you?" So I promised I would when I came back that night, and ended up getting used as a prop in the Sly frame.

In. Sane.

[ldyerzsie.livejournal.com]

The cast of the Lord of the Rings doing A Mid-Summer Night's Dream or The Tempest.

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

Ooooooh. Gollum and Caliban are VERY close in character... I'm not sure The Tempest has enough slots for the HUGE cast in LOTR, but you could cover the majors.

[ann-totusek.livejournal.com]

Rickman would do great as Shylock, but it would spoil the production for me. You're not supposed to watch it and be horning over that particular bad guy.... I think Richard Roxburgh might be a better choice. He's so good he just disappears into his character. Occasionally I can forget that I'm watching Rickman, but not often.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

There's that. He's frickin' electric. It would also be fun to watch him take a more-or-less heroic turn, e.g., Prospero.

[realinterrobang.livejournal.com]

I'd really like to see Leonard Nimoy doing something Shakespearian. Lear, maybe.

I love David Tennant, but he's way too old to be playing Hamlet. Hamlet (the play) doesn't make any sense unless you understand that Hamlet (the character) is about fourteen years old. He'd make a perfectly swell Puck, though.

[redaxe.livejournal.com]

Have you seen this version? Tennant manages to convince me that he's, not fourteen, but seventeen or eighteen, all gangly limbs and teen angst. I know that's a touch too old for the original production, but it makes perfect sense in context. Do see it.

[redaxe.livejournal.com]

This version of Hamlet is terrific. Three hours of my life I'm just as happy I don't need or want to retrieve :-)

I think I'd enjoy seeing Hugh Laurie play Puck. Oh, okay, he can be Oberon if you don't want to go that way :-D

There is an excellent version of Kiss Me Kate from the last revival; it's a London 2003 production (although ISTR that it originated on Broadway, rather than the West End. Or was that Oklahoma!, with Mr. Jackman?) with Brent Barrett, Rachel York, Nancy Kathryn Anderson, and Michael Berresse. No really big names, but nearly perfect casting nonetheless. (And an awesome production of "It's Too Darn Hot", with only one flaw, and that only for us baseball geeks.)

[jrtom.livejournal.com]

Hugh Laurie as either Puck or Oberon would be brilliant. Hell, let him play both parts in the same production. (Admittedly, I haven't seen it in a long time, and don't recall how much time they spend on stage together.)

[markbernstein.livejournal.com]

Given the subject, I feel obliged to point out (or remind, in some cases), that The Stratford Shapespeare Festival this summer will feature Christopher Plummer as Prospero in "The Tempest". I've seen Plummer there as King Lear, in a one man show as John Barrymore, and more recently as Caesar in Shaw's "Caesar and Cleopatra", and he's always great.

(I'm in California at the moment. I set the DVR to record Hamlet tonight, so I may wait, and watch it with Sharon when I get back.)

[smallship1.livejournal.com]

I'd love to see the Antony Sher Richard III. I have the book he wrote about it, and it sounds amazing.

[sarekofvulcan.livejournal.com]

Heh. How about Jackman/Winslet in _both_ TotS and KmK, directed by the same director, using the same sets? :-)

[wiliqueen.livejournal.com]

That would be the AWESOMEST REP EVER.

[siliconshaman.livejournal.com]

I kinda want to see Macbeth in the original Klingon...

[purpleranger.livejournal.com]

SIR Patrick? When did he get knighted?

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

End of 2009 ({http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_Stewart) -- Knight Bachelor for services to drama.

[ldyerzsie.livejournal.com]

Of course, the boys from Big Bang Theory would be fun in a play, too. Just pick any of the comedies and it'll be fun.

[dragon-avatar.livejournal.com]

Finished watching the special a few minutes ago. Wow, I was simply blown away by how well all the characters (actors) meshed VERY well in this production. I'd like to re-find the "modern" remake of Henry V and actually watch the whole thing, while I wait to see who they use for "That Scottish play". (Yes I saw the link to the preview but didn't follow because I want to be "surprised" by the actors.) I for one would think an Asian "Scottish play" done in a modern setting would be interesting to say the least. (there are so many Asian variations of "The Scottish play" that its not funny!)