Donmar’s Hamlet Enrages The Guardian
Published on Monday 8th June, 4.28pm, Written by Jonathan Dudley
What is it about depressive Dane princes with Oedipal complexes and unnecessary fuss? Whenever there’s a high profile production of Hamlet, off-stage drama seems to spring up all around.
The Donmar’s production of Hamlet starring Jude Law has been attracting harsh words since its inception in 2007. The Guardian’s Andrew Dickson suggested that Law’s casting was perhaps not the wisest, describing the actor as “at best, mediocre.”
That blog was written a fair old while ago, back in the heady days of 2007 but recently it’s been resurrected and it’s causing a whole new round of controversy.
According to a far more recent blog on the Guardian, Jude Law’s people contacted the paper and requested they take down their earlier blog which suggested that Law might not be all that good.
Does this strike anyone else as utterly ridiculous? Surely the good people at Premier PR are aware how freedom of speech works? Fair enough they did not demand the blog was taken down but even the request is pretty offensive. To me it basically translates as:
“We appreciate that you have an opinion but we’d be really grateful if you didn’t express it on the interwebs. People may read your opinion and lose their ability to form one of their own”
It’s insulting to Mr Dickson to request his work be removed and it’s insulting to the general public to assume that we are incapable of seeing that the blog was written years ago. Yes the offending blog was still rather high up on google but people are more than capable of discerning between a recent review and an out-of-date opinion piece regarding one particular actor.
Urgh, as if this little hiccup was not enough, who remembers the David Tennant using a human skull online drama? I’ll refresh your memories, when it came out that the skull of André Tchaikowsky may be used on-stage in the RSC’s Hamlet, a little flurry of very well timed publicity blew up around the production. The skull was never used in the end but ticket sales were incredible. Quelle surprise!
Well guess which other high-profile Hamlet now has its own human skull?! You guessed it, the Donmar’s version. Unfortunately being over the age of 7 prevents me shouting COPYCAT! all over the place. I’m sure the Donmar’s team have a very legitimate and arty reason to obtain their own former human bonce but it strikes me as borrowed interest.
I feel at this point that I should say that both of these problems have absolutely nothing to do with the artistic content of the show. My grievance does not lay with Mr Law, The Donmar or Shakespeare, it’s with the PR and marketing folk, surely the Donmar could do better?!
Couple of things:
Hamlet is Danish not Dutch and Andrew Dickson, not Dickenson wrote the original article.
Read my personal review of Hamlet at the Donmar Theatre!
http://theradreviewer.blogspot.com/2009/06/jude-law-as-dane-review-of-hamlet-at.html