The RSC production of Hamlet at the Courtyard Theatre in Stratford has been under siege. Apparently hundreds of Daleks, Cybermen and Borg have been gathering at the stage door. Lights flashing, ray guns poised - the glittering robot army stands ready to rain doom and destruction on Shakespeare fans.

Why are all the biggest baddies of sci-fi lurking by a stage door in Stratford? Do robots/droids/collective electronic hive minds dislike the bard? Are they put out by their lack of representation in Shakespeare’s work? Or is the stage door perhaps just a bit magnetic? The actual explanation is far more earthbound. Wowing audiences inside the theatre are non-other than Captain Jean-Luc Picard and Doctor Who, or to be more precise Patrick Stewart and David Tennant.

This is the point where I should really tell you there has been no robotic assault on the Courtyard Theatre. Those gathering outside the stage door have been harmless fans, the robots I so over-excitedly described are nothing more than bags of Doctor Who and Star Trek merchandise . The doom and destruction - just a flight of fancy.

Robots aside, there has been a phenomenal amount of interest in the RSC’s latest production of Hamlet from actual people, as opposed to figments of my over-stimulated imagination. The director, Gregory Doran, has recently been reported as saying that fans arrive at the stage door with “bags” of sci-fi merchandise for Tennant to autograph. Although the RSC described this surge of interest in their production as “flattering” they are imposing some restrictions on what can be autographed by Tennant and Stewart.

These restrictions allow members of the RSC to sign Shakespeare related items only, and rightly so. Although I myself am a big fan of Tennant as the Doctor and Stewart as Captain Picard (and professor Xaiver) I feel it is a shame that the impressive careers of both men seem to be slightly overshadowed by their high-profile sci-fi roles.

Although he is now best known for his role in Doctor Who, David Tennant is a multi-talented actor who has performed extensively with the RSC. The comic roles of Touchstone and Antipholus of Syracuse in As You Like It and The Comedy Of Errors were both performed superbly by Tennant. As was the demanding role of Romeo in Romeo and Juliet. Away from the RSC Tennant has performed admirably in the saucy BBC miniseries, Casanova and made a truly sinister Barty Crouch Jr. in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

Patrick Stewart has a theatrical pedigree perhaps even more impressive than Tennant’s. Stewart has had a truly distinguished Shakespearean career appearing in productions of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Hamlet, The Tempest, Othello, Anthony and Cleopatra and Julius Caesar. On top of this already impressive list of credits Stewart has also performed a one-man adaptation of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol which saw Stewart performing over forty characters. Stewart also provided voice talent for the 2004 Japanese animated film Steamboy. Widely considered to be a masterpiece of animation, Steamboy took ten years, £14,000,000 and 180,000 drawings to complete.

What I’m trying to say here is that although these man have played superb roles in wonderful science fiction they have done far greater things. Both have performed in some of Britain’s greatest stories, not only that but they performed stupendously. They have displayed great talent as actors. To be able to be the tortured, murderous Hamlet one day and a time travelling, double-hearted Timelord or stoic Space-Captain the next is nothing short of remarkable.

Although it cannot be denied that getting children interested in Shakespeare can never be a bad thing, what must be kept in consideration is just how interested in the bard the children waving plastic Tardis’ and K-9’s outside the stage door really are. Whatever their reasons for attending the show in the first place I can only hope that the audience will not be expecting Ophelia to be played by Billie Piper.

Technorati Tags: courtyard theatre, dalek, david tennant, gregory doran, hamlet, patrick stewart, rsc hamlet, stratford theatre, stunt casting

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This entry was posted on Monday, July 28th, 2008 at 1:30 pm and is filed under Theatre. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.