Like a cross between a British butler and an audiobook narrator.
Wow, that in itself sounds weird enough. It's good when you can tell the cast is rocking out, though—for their sakes at least, given that it tends to be so hot at the Free For All, they're practically melting out of their clothes.
While he obviously got the "yes, this character is a bad guy" thing, the way he did it encompassed both the good and bad of the man, the "mafia boss slick" and the inner turmoil over killing... well, everybody. Dunno if he would have stood out as much in a more sedate cast, but when everyone else was like, LA LA LA LA CRAAAAAZZZYY he was very cool.
Claudius as a mob boss! That's a connection I've never made before, but it does work well. For years I've held the theory that Claudius is actually pretty good at ruling the country, or at any rate better than Hamlet Sr. was, and certainly better than Hamlet himself would be. There's textual evidence, what with the old king Hamlet busting out wars left and right; Denmark's relations with its neighbors seem to be calming down some under Claudius. And you just have to look at Hamlet and think about what he'd be like, running the kingdom. I was just thinking about rewatching the four-hour Branagh version, being inspired by this post (http://selenak.livejournal.com/381098.html?format=light&mode=reply) on Hamlet:
One of the elements I loved in the Kenneth Branagh Hamlet on film - that Derek Jacobi as Claudius and Branagh as Hamlet were made up to look as alike as possible given that they as themselves really don't. For the first time, this made me wonder how long the Claudius/Gertrude tryst had been going on, and whether in fact the Ghost's ultimate revenge on Claudius wasn't setting up Hamlet to avenge Hamlet Senior's murder when in fact Hamlet was Claudius' son.
I love that idea, although I don't think there's the support in the text that there is for the Claudius-for-stability interpretation.
Those sets sound great! I remember the Pericles sets were sea-greenish, too (of course, the sea's important there), and a lot of beautiful moving fabric waves across the stage for scene changes and so on; the costumes were all color-coordinated with the sets, and the music was orchestral.
Yeah, I thought that Amy Manson was rather awful, but to be honest I didn't like/notice any of the Jack backstory. Mostly, I spent the time during that storyline shouting, ENOUGH JACK, WE DON'T CARE! BRING OUT THE IANTO!
It's true, just about every second of the Jack backstory was painful anyway. And I totally felt sorry for Tosh, sitting through his smarm when she was desperate to get out of UNIT Guantanamo. I was wondering what more substance we could get of Ianto's backstory from these writers, but I did enjoy what it turned out to be.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2008-06-04 05:52 pm (UTC)Wow, that in itself sounds weird enough. It's good when you can tell the cast is rocking out, though—for their sakes at least, given that it tends to be so hot at the Free For All, they're practically melting out of their clothes.
While he obviously got the "yes, this character is a bad guy" thing, the way he did it encompassed both the good and bad of the man, the "mafia boss slick" and the inner turmoil over killing... well, everybody. Dunno if he would have stood out as much in a more sedate cast, but when everyone else was like, LA LA LA LA CRAAAAAZZZYY he was very cool.
Claudius as a mob boss! That's a connection I've never made before, but it does work well. For years I've held the theory that Claudius is actually pretty good at ruling the country, or at any rate better than Hamlet Sr. was, and certainly better than Hamlet himself would be. There's textual evidence, what with the old king Hamlet busting out wars left and right; Denmark's relations with its neighbors seem to be calming down some under Claudius. And you just have to look at Hamlet and think about what he'd be like, running the kingdom. I was just thinking about rewatching the four-hour Branagh version, being inspired by this post (http://selenak.livejournal.com/381098.html?format=light&mode=reply) on Hamlet:
One of the elements I loved in the Kenneth Branagh Hamlet on film - that Derek Jacobi as Claudius and Branagh as Hamlet were made up to look as alike as possible given that they as themselves really don't. For the first time, this made me wonder how long the Claudius/Gertrude tryst had been going on, and whether in fact the Ghost's ultimate revenge on Claudius wasn't setting up Hamlet to avenge Hamlet Senior's murder when in fact Hamlet was Claudius' son.
I love that idea, although I don't think there's the support in the text that there is for the Claudius-for-stability interpretation.
Those sets sound great! I remember the Pericles sets were sea-greenish, too (of course, the sea's important there), and a lot of beautiful moving fabric waves across the stage for scene changes and so on; the costumes were all color-coordinated with the sets, and the music was orchestral.
Yeah, I thought that Amy Manson was rather awful, but to be honest I didn't like/notice any of the Jack backstory. Mostly, I spent the time during that storyline shouting, ENOUGH JACK, WE DON'T CARE! BRING OUT THE IANTO!
It's true, just about every second of the Jack backstory was painful anyway. And I totally felt sorry for Tosh, sitting through his smarm when she was desperate to get out of UNIT Guantanamo. I was wondering what more substance we could get of Ianto's backstory from these writers, but I did enjoy what it turned out to be.