Chris Pennock in Hamlet

If you can stand one more review, this one's in L.A. Weekly:

HAMLET  This production couldn't possibly spring to life without re-casting Hamlet, played by artistic director Francesco Vitali. Aaron Mullen directs Vitali in an intimate Strasbergian style with churning emotions, while the star mangles Shakespeare's prose through a combination of indecipherable mumbles and an impenetrable Greek accent. Katy Brisbois' contemporary costumes feature lots of black silk shirts and cocktail dresses -- as though the fashion-model-pretty cast has just flown in from Sardi's.


I can't say I was surprised when Bette told me the Tamarind now has a sign outside proclaiming that Vitali is no longer associated with the theatre. 

Well, what a slap at Sardi's! 

I have never heard of a theatre using a sign to advertise that they've booted an artistic director. I could maybe understand using one to announce that they've hired a new artistic director thereby indirectly noting the axing of the previous one, but to flat out say they've canned someone . . . Geez.

but to flat out say they've canned someone . . . Geez.

Yes. Even if it's a case that Vitali managed to soil the theater's reputation on several different levels, the sign would still seem to be in extremely poor taste.  :-

I popped my VHS of the Branagh version of "Hamlet" into my VCR last night not having watched it for a few years, and I think Chris Pennock (at least the Chris Pennock we know and love as the Leviathan Jeb  ) would have fit right into this version of Hamlet!  Not to put too fine a point on it, Branagh's production is, er, bombastic, to put it mildly --  both in the overall production he directed and in his performance.  There were a few scenes where he toned down the shouting, but talk about overblown ... I'm amazed that I used to proclaim Branagh to anyone who would listen, but time sometimes tempers one's youthful enthusiasms.  The frenetic camera work, the staging of the hyperkinetic action scenes, and the earth-shaking special effects seem to foreshadow the worst excesses of the truly godawful "Mary 'Branagh' Shelly's Frankenstein"!  But it amused me to think of "Jeb" chewing the scenery like mad alongside Branagh (I couldn't remember which role he played in this "Francesco Vitali" version). 

My new reaction to Branagh comes after being touched much more by the naturalistic performances in the maligned Ethan Hawk/Almeryeda version (which was far more innovative) where the acting was so understated and psychologically realistic in comparison.  From my many posts here regarding acting on DS, it's clear I prefer the "subdued" approach -- which we didn't always see on DS!  (Now I'm wondering if the Mel Gibson version could have been better than I thought ...)

.........


  After posting the above, I went back and re-read the thread (always a good idea, though maybe not in that order)    Chris Pennock was Claudius!?  'Zounds!  Not an easy part ... Derek Jacobi (as Claudius) was the best thing about the Branagh version I thought ...  It's too bad the recent L.A. production flopped as this would have been a major role for Mr. Pennock.

Vlad,

You should check out the 1980ish BBC version with Derek Jacobi as Hamlet and Patrick Stewart as Claudius. A great deal of the staging of scenes in Branagh's film is taken from this version. A lot of what he gets praised or blamed for with the film was actually "borrowed." It's not 100% vanity. Maybe more like 95%. 

C.