Because I love David Tennant: (Any Doctor fans out there?)
In the opening act Hamlet warned us that he would begin to act crazy- for, who would view a crazy man as a threat to their crown?- but it has become my belief that he is also quite actually, cracking up. His rude - and downright crude- behavior towards Ophelia is what finally convinced me so. In what way does it further his plans to push her away? Would it not be beneficial to let his uncle and others believe his madness is due to love and has nothing to do with his Fathers death? It would be complete distraction and would make his story more believe after he enacts his revenge -and reveals the truth to everyone- if he could prove it was not an act of distraught madness. Perhaps he really no longer cares for Ophelia, but then why, when he first learned of the truth from the ghost, did he run to Ophelia and simply sigh into her arms? His logic and actions are inconsistent- like that of a true mad man. He has full grounds to be mad also. He lost his Father, has met a ghost, has to kill the king of his kingdom and be betrayed by his family, then re-earn his kingdom's trust to rule it once they are again without a ruler and prove he is not mad, all the while not being able to trust hardly anyone and find a way to execute his plan AND lose the girl he may care for but can never be with anyway. In the end, I believe the stress got the best of Hamlet.
The Drama departments production of Salem was pretty much exactly how I expected to be. I've heard a lot of people say they were surprised by the fact that they- God Forbid- enjoyed the production. Am I the only one who expects them to put of decent productions? Yes I enjoyed it, though it didn't blow me away. NO matter how I try to silence it my inner critic still feels the need to point out every time an actor seemed to "hide" behind the puppets or didn't fee very sincere in a scene. Analyzing them though, defiantly helped me think about the play more from an unbiased standpoint. I tried to picture their lines as written in a script vs how they acted ti so see how much they actors interpreted for themselves. Since I haven't seen the script myself, I won't know for sure how much they came up with on their own. From what I could tell though, it seemed to be quite a lot. These characters focused a lot on stereotypes but still managed to break them. The over concerned goth girl seemed almost bubbly(while still not "giving a damn") which I cant picture written as a direction in the script. I would assume a typical Gothic character to be more apathetic in her reactions. The janitor too had several physical cues that he must've come up with on his own. Overall it was a good production and the actors impressed me more than the script.
