Eyewitness: Experiencing Hamlet completely fresh.

This comment from The Guardian is self-explanatory:


This is why, even with classical theatre, I'm trying to stay completely spoiler free.  Not too long ago I attended the theatre and ten minutes before the play was due to start, the audience member behind me began reading a full synopsis of the play she'd pulled from the web.  I sat with my fingers in my ears.

In the end I left the performance at the interval.  It was an awful production and I decided that I'd save the ending for a version I was enjoying.

1 comment:

Lisa Rullsenberg said...

There was a similar reaction (plenty of gasps and muffled sobs) when I saw the John Simm version in Sheffield a couple of years ago. It was actually rather lovely to have the freshness of response in our midst to remind our sometimes jaded palettes of what theatre can be. I too tend to avoid reviews/synopses of even very classic plays. (I also generally avoid reading film reviews in advance as well). I like to get as fresh a reaction as is possible.