David Tennant's Hamlet

[Melmoth]

Who else knows of this and what did you think? It's one of the best productions of Hamlet I've seen, which surprised me, because all I'd known of Tennant beforehand was his role in Dr. Who... and I'm not much of a Dr. Who fan.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8C4gPU_hEU

[The Black Jester]

Who else knows of this and what did you think? It's one of the best productions of Hamlet I've seen, which surprised me, because all I'd known of Tennant beforehand was his role in Dr. Who... and I'm not much of a Dr. Who fan.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8C4gPU_hEU

I will venture an opinion (Shakespeare was my first love when I began acting, and my last when I left it).  It is difficult to see Tennant as anything but whimsical and light.  He certainly has the chops, as far the use of language goes - he does quite well.  But he does not have the gravitas, in my opinion.  While I agree that Hamlet has moments of that levity, particularly when "feigning mad" (if that is your fancy), there is a kind of danger in his humor, and something about him should be on edge - enough to frighten you.  Tennant doesn't frighten me.  I see Tennant more as a Rosencrantz or Guildenstern.  He'd be wonderful in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, as either main character. 

[Melmoth]

Ooh an actor! I can't act for toffee, so I'm very jealous.

It is difficult to see Tennant as anything but whimsical and light.

That worried me before I saw it. Despite being thoroughly unchivalric, an intellectual driven to do something that doesn't befit his character and all the rest of it, I think Hamlet's really very ruthless in his own disjointed, slightly Machiavellian way. Very intense, almost scary, like you say. He's got this kind of hard intelligence that can raise the hackles. And his humour is always mean-spirited and slightly sinister. I don't like the tendency of some productions to portray him as either zany and fun, or just as a moping depressive (the Ethan Hawke version bored the hell out of me for that reason).

I have to say though, Tennant won me over. I got that sharpness from him that you're talking about, though I didn't expect to, and it actually made me see him in a different light. I always thought of him as a slightly goofy actor before, better for playing the comic relief.