Offline
Agree, and that moment of his kindness and generosity towards you is perhaps the most valuable about it
Offline
Oh, most excellent wonderful, mrshouse...! What a great experience! And what a wonderful man!
Offline
Great adventure and a lovely experience, mrshouse!
Offline
Hooray mrshouse!
Offline
Harriet wrote:
Agree, and that moment of his kindness and generosity towards you is perhaps the most valuable about it
Not just pretty and smart and talented, but kind. I think Mr. and Mrs. Cumberbatch (Carlton) raised their son right, and it shows.
Offline
Oh mrshouse, I'm so happy for you! That must have been the experience of a lifetime -a fantastic evening at the theatre plus meeting with some actors...and cherry on cake, meeting Benedict !
What a lucky girl you are
Offline
Did Benedict get a little emotional at his last curtain call? I don't blame him at all. What a bittersweet moment for him.
Last edited by ukaunz (November 1, 2015 10:21 am)
Offline
Knew he would...
He's a big sloppy puppy!
I remember the hugs and blubbering with Jonny, after Frankenstein.
Offline
Very happy for you, mrshouse. I think the whole Hamlet experience does not only confirm again his incredible talent (who would need confirmation of this?) but also his generosity towards his fans and his social conscience towards people in need.
Offline
Well said.
Offline
Its finally, finally, Hamlet day for me. Even if it's not "live" I am beyond excited to see this production.
Offline
Great! Tell us how you liked it (if you are able to, that is).
Offline
I'm waiting for the last of the play to start in the cinema now.
Gosh.
I do think it looks like the changes made since I saw it before the premiere suited the play better.
But wow.
EDIT:
I'm on my way home now... wow.
Nothing beats seeing it live, but this came very close.
I think I said I was seeing it with my very honest friend today, and it was great to be able to discuss certain things. She loves and knows the play like I do... and we both almost had to scream out our frustration about this Ophelia. One of our favourite characters in Hamlet... though we both were sobbing wrecks at her exit... This only got worse at the very end.
Benedict is so damn talented. He has a magical and even comical deliverance of his lines, he just puts the tension and emphasis perfectly for me!
It came very well through on screen and I almost thought I was back at the barbican some times.
This was ruined a bit in the second part as some of the mics got distorted... Leartes was almost completely muffled during a scene.
Last edited by This Is The Phantom Lady (November 1, 2015 9:57 pm)
Offline
What can I say that hasn't been said before. This was an incredible piece of theater. Benedict was incandescent. All fangirling aside I have never seen a better Hamlet. This was a performance for the ages.
I liked the staging. A large space was needed to hold such big emotions. I love the use of light and shadow.
I was left breathless by the end of the show. I will always be envious of those of you who got to experience Hamlet live, but I will also always be greatful to National Theater Live for spreading it around the wolrd.
And, taking a final dive into the shallow end of the pool, damn that man is fine!
Offline
I wonder if this will ever be released on DVD. I'd pay real money to own it.
Offline
Me too and I'd love to show it to my parents.
Offline
I would so love the DVD... I have my doubts... but maybe someone could be persuaded it would be good for educational purposes?
Offline
From what I understood, it's being used in English schools now.
Offline
It would be great to have it on DVD, but maybe they'll save it for another broadcast next year before releasing it. The one at my cinema sold out very quickly. It might also be good to show on TV one year for Christmas.
I saw the broadcast version before I saw the stage version, so the other way round from most people, but actually I'm glad I did. The filmed version was great for seeing detail, facial expressions and so on. I thought it might spoil the live experience for me, but it didn't at all - the live version was magical! And much more gripping - the person I was with got bored a couple of times in the first half of the filmed version, but felt it was finishing too soon when it was live! It goes without saying that Benedict was amazing - and he has such a beautiful voice, just incredible to listen to. I did feel that he "should" be doing this rather than TV/film, but of course he's so wonderful on screen too.
I did have a couple of minor gripes. One was that anybody sitting on the left side of the auditorium would not have been able to see the balcony at all. I don't mean people right at the end of the rows, but quite a big swathe of the left side of the auditorium. I suppose the layout wasn't known when the tickets were sold, but I did feel that they shoujld have been sold as restricted view, or that the set could have been designed to move the balcony more to the right - it felt a bit too big for the stage. Having said that, I loved the set! The other thing was, when I saw it there was a standing ovation, but the cast didn't really linger for bows, and only Benedict came forward for an individual bow. I've recerntly seen another production that got a standing ovation, and there was a lovely feeling at the end of appreciation from the audience, and the cast seeming to be genuinely delighted with that, with plenty of bowing and waving. It's ages since I've seen a huge star as part of a bigger cast, so I can't remember if it's normal that the star is the focus in that way (I have seen one very big star who I remember coming back for multiple bows - I thought we were never getting home! But I'm sure the other leads had their individual bows too). I know Benedict was the star and essentially sold the tickets (and gave a standout performance), but I was surprised - I think partly because he comes across as so humble, and I thought he might push the other cast forward more. How did it go when the rest of you saw it?
Last edited by Liberty (November 2, 2015 7:51 am)
Offline
Liberty, it was the same when we saw it in September. But the things is, there wasn't that much time for the audience to applaud anyway, because Benedict pretty quickly calmed everyone down so he could give his little speech for the refugees. I felt that he could have given the audience a bit more time to applaud, because let's face it: Even after minutes of applauding him and the rest of the cast, the audience still would have listened to him patiently.