Hamlet Bondi Pavilion (2 Viewers)

[kgemmill]

hey, has anyone seen the 2010 harlos production of Hamlet at Bondi Pavilion????
i cant find any reviews on it, and i don't know if i liked it or not like the neo-nazi stuff?? and what about hamlet's 'madness' ??

what did anyone else think of it??

thanks for your help

 

[thongetsu]

lol @ bump. Yeah i watched it. It's ok, I'd give it a 5/10. There was a weird bit how Hamlet started groping Ophelia. He got carried away and it got really creeepy. Also Laertes slapped Ophelia's ass. Creepy.

 

[Chevalier]

the play completely did away with textual integrity, I mean why have a king as the leader of a bikie gang or some influential family? Why not just set the drama in the Danish royal family. Also, Hamlet and Gertrude were laughing at the death of Polonius? I'm pretty sure that didn't happen in the play...That is to say, it didn't. Also the notion of ophelia coming back as a ghost and giving a short speech on feminism in modern day english completely destroyed what little textual integrity there was left (and the mention of the gas oven-sylvia plath o_o) All in all the production completely failed to rightfully place the play into a modern day context without preserving textual integrity.

 

[untitlednine]

Yeah, I have to agree, they started laughing at random parts, Laertes groped Ophelia, Hamlet groped Opehlia and Gertrude, everyone basically groped everyone. Cladius lit up a cigarette in a packed theatre, indoors, which just isn't right (Not because I'm anti-smoking, I am a smoker, more that its a closed space, and its illegal), they modernised parts, left some traditionally, and cut out Fortinbras, and various other characters.

Go watch the Lion King instead, it's a much more accurate adaptation.

 

[JTwin]

i didn't particularly enjoy this play either- i found it difficult to stay awake in it. but that could've been because of my late night the previous night. i didn't like the modern part of it, especially the bikies. and i didn't like how they had the same people playing four different characters. the props weren't that great either...
and i've read a book, where ophelia is pregnant. instead of dying, she fakes her death, is buried, then horatio digs her up and she escapes. good book- called ophelia, can't remember the author though.

 

[vyre]

The play WAS utter shite, and Fortinbras wasn't in it. The guy who...acted (although he didn't really act) Horatio was the last person to speak.
When the queen died she didn't even fall out of her chair. WTF?!?! And randomly a guy pulled out a vaccum cleaner and was smiling and stuff. In the middle of the play. As part of the play. Shittiest thing I have seen in my life.

 

[vyre]

she is traditionally depicted as pregnant lol

In the play this is never mentioned. In fact, Hamlet tells her to go to a nunnery- only virgins are nuns ( I believe? I might be wrong on this point though). The only time when pregnancy is mentioned in regards to Ophelia is when Hamlet is pretending to be mad and tells Polonius not to let her daughter out in the sun or she might conceive...
When is she depicted as being pregnant in the play?

 

[mminch]

The bikies show claudius as less business like that Hamlet Sr

 

[strangevege]

I'm not too sure how I felt about the production, I mean on the one hand it was good to see a different interpretation of it, but on the other I couldn't get past the (to me) bad acting of Gertrude. Particularly during the last scene in which she slumped on the chair after being poisoned, my class was somewhat confused at that point whether or not she had died.
Another thing that put me off this production was the violent relationship between Hamlet and Ophelia. While I know it is shown within the play they had a "passionate relationship", there were a few scenes within the play that made me flinch, it was so violent and in-your-face.
Another part of the particular version I saw that did not exactly mesh with my expectations, (I'm not certain if the production has changed over the years) was the soliloquy after Ophelias death BY Ophelia. While I can see it was used as a method of moving the actress off the stage, I did not really feel the vibe they were going for - It was something like "I am the girl who took all the pills, pulled the rope" I can't exactly remember the correct language. I'm not too sure I would use her soliloquy in an essay, and I was left with a feeling of confusion more than a feeling of awe.

This being said, I did like the production in a section of its acts, excluding the things I listed above. It provided insight and while I know people who did not go as they thought it would not be beneficial, I thought that even if you're not going to mention it in an essay, it's a good thing to see to broaden your scope of knowledge on the topic, and I found it opens your eyes to the ways in which Hamlet can be interpretated.

 

[SpaceboyLOL]

Mmmm, fortinbras does not feature in the production at all. they didnt hav enuff cash to pay for another actor lol.