Ensemble member Keith Osborn on the first week of rehearsals for Hamlet...
Athens to Elsinore
We've just completed our first week's rehearsal for Hamlet. As a company we've bonded well over the last three months which makes starting the second show easier than the first; we know each other better and polite conversation has given way to healthy banter and trust. But of course now we get to greet some new boys and girls!
It was lovely to see Patrick Stewart again (who I worked with on Antony and Cleopatra last year), Oliver Ford-Davies (who I worked with at the Barbican over 20 years ago!) and John Woodvine (I did the Deep Blue Sea with him at Edinburgh). I'd never met David Tennant or Penny Downie before, both of whom seem very nice, and there is an air of excitement and anticipation in the air as we all gather – ordinary mortals, starship captains of The Federation and time lords – to chat over cups of tea, coffee and biscuits before venturing into the rehearsal room for the first time.
Greg Doran is brilliant at first days, his intellect, passion and enthusiasm are infectious and he effortlessly rallies the company, setting us off on the road ahead and outlining how we'll start our journey. The designer Rob Jones shows us a model of the set, which is beautiful, and some ideas for costumes. Greg talks about the various versions of Hamlet from the so-called 'Bad Quarto' to the First Folio, and the chain of Hamlets stretching from Richard Burbage to the present day. There are various editions of the play, pictures and reference books for us to peruse.
Then in a departure from the norm, Greg produces several boxes that contain what he calls 'props'. He dons a pair of blue rubber gloves … there is a moment of puzzlement. In fact the 'props' are precious artefacts from the RSC's collection that need careful handling. First he brings our attention to two long, black, rectangular plastic boxes. The first of these is opened and inside is the son of Edmund Keane Charles Keane's sword that he used when he played Hamlet; it is worryingly sharp. From the other he produces Henry Irving's Hamlet sword, which is blunted, made by Wilkinson (now more famous for manufacturing razor blades!). These items start to bring home the real sense of history surrounding this play. There is more to come as next Greg brings over large cardboard box. First he produces a small innocuous-looking lamp, clearly very old, made of dark metal with thick green glass lenses; apparently Henry Irving always kept with him. The rather grim details are that it turns out he got it from a murderer who used it to illuminate his crimes … whether whilst committing them or after is not known. Greg reaches deeper into the box and slowly produces … a human skull, the skull of a murderer (apparently not same as above-mentioned) that appeared as Yorick when Irving played Hamlet; again it is clearly very old, the bone dark-grey with age.
That afternoon we take a trip to the Shakespeare Centre and are shown copies of the first folio and the Hamlet quartos that they hold – again absolutely fascinating – and a group photo is taken.
For the most of the rest of the week we have been carefully unpicking the play and making sure we all know what we're on about in the simplest possible terms. We go through Hamlet reading each scene in short sections, the readers then have to put Shakespeare's language into their own words. This part of the rehearsal process means of a lot of sitting around, we actors tend to be practical people who are more comfortable in action, on our feet rather than just sitting and talking but that said this exercise is absolutely invaluable and well worth a few days rooted to our bottoms. The rules of the game are that no one is allowed to read or comment on their own role, this means that there is a shared sense of ownership of the ideas in the production, everyone having the opportunity to contribute to a collective understanding of the play regardless of the size of their role. I must say I enjoy this process of digging around a play immensely and nerdily arm myself with dictionaries, different editions of the text etc. It never ceases to amaze me how these plays travel with you through your life, different meanings emerge at different ages and even having been in Hamlet three times (the first time being the RSC Regional Tour 1987/88), I still find myself surprised by what new stuff there is to be mined, things that I've not noticed before or haven't fully understood. But its not all sitting around a table, through the week there are other hands-on, on-your-feet activities. The ongoing vocal and physical work we do as a company, on one afternoon we split into groups to present our own playlets of the story relating the death of Priam that Hamlet's asks the 1st Player to tell him. After lunch on another day, as part of our esoteric, in-depth research, we're shown a section from 'Tales From The Public Domain', this iconic masterpiece is actually an episode of The Simpsons the 'Do The Bard Man' section being a radical re-working of Shakespeare springing from Homer relating the story of Hamlet to Bart and Lisa. Bart is the eponymous Dane, Lisa Ophelia etc; of course it was very funny and if we all end up wearing yellow make-up you'll know where the idea came from.
Respond to Keith's blog
Responses to Keith's blog
"Hi Keith, thanks for taking the time out of your busy schedule to fill us in on what's happening - I'm looking forward to the next instalment! I went to Greg Doran's Director's Talk last Saturday and he mentioned that the first day of rehearsal for Hamlet was the most scared he had been on a first rehearsal day - sounds like he managed to mask his apprehension very well and just got on with it!
Best wishes
Jackie"
