eternumviti
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I took my ballet-dancer niece to watch the intriguingly précised Sean Mathias Hamlet in Windsor last night. 'Age blind' - it stars Ian McKellen (82) as Hamlet and Jenny Seagrove - who must be a good 20 years younger - as his mother - and both casted and set in an androgynous 20th century, it was certainly a bit of a mind-bender, and played at times openly for laughs. Jonathan Hyde was more than a safe pair of hands as the uncle/stepfather, Seagrove rather good if a bit wooden, and so convincingly Danish that I assumed the part was actually being played by a Danish actress till I looked up the cast afterwards. Standouts were Frances Barber as a brilliant Polonius, and Ali Wyn Davies, who by common consent steals the show as an increasingly damaged Ophelia, singing (beautifully) most of her lines - self-accompanied on a guitar - partly fragile hippie singer-songwriter, partly deranged rock chick.
McKellen was a joy to watch, in turns both his age and youthfully lithe - he seems to retract in age through the play. The only problem was that we were up in the circle, and his voice has lost that edge of 'throw', going back into his jowls somewhat, and becoming slightly muffled by 's's that have thickened to 'shs' as it were, as though his mouth has shrunken slightly around his teeth. As a result, we couldn't quite hear a lot of his dialogue. He charmingly thanked the audience after the curtain, and informed us that is was their 82nd consecutive performance.
Drove back along an M25 so empty as to be unfamiliar, but after drop-offs didn't get to bed unto 1.30. Overslept this morning.
McKellen was a joy to watch, in turns both his age and youthfully lithe - he seems to retract in age through the play. The only problem was that we were up in the circle, and his voice has lost that edge of 'throw', going back into his jowls somewhat, and becoming slightly muffled by 's's that have thickened to 'shs' as it were, as though his mouth has shrunken slightly around his teeth. As a result, we couldn't quite hear a lot of his dialogue. He charmingly thanked the audience after the curtain, and informed us that is was their 82nd consecutive performance.
Drove back along an M25 so empty as to be unfamiliar, but after drop-offs didn't get to bed unto 1.30. Overslept this morning.