A gloriously well-timed flurry of publicity has blown up around the RSC’s production of Hamlet just as the show opens in London.

You may recall our news item earlier in the week regarding a surge of dodgy tickets for the play. Curse those naughty counterfeiters! It would seem that the trade in Fauxlex watches, Goochi handbags and shady DVDs is not as lucrative as it once was. Sweaty men in dingy boxrooms are now cobbling together Hamlet tickets instead, those fiends!

Before the fake ticket fiasco, Hamlet was in the news for a slightly unorthodox casting choice. An actual human skull was ‘playing the role’ of Yorick. The former bonce once belonged to a Polish pianist, composer and holocaust survivor named Andre Tchaikowsky.

Tchaikowsky left the skull to the RSC in the hope that one day it would be used in theatrical performance, a slightly unusual but understandable request considering his creativity. Now, after everyone in theatreland has expressed their opinions in blogs, forum posts and impassioned pub chats, the RSC has decided to pull old Andre. Why? Because apparently he will be “too distracting for the audience”.

I can’t say I’ve have a great deal of first hand experience with detached human skulls but I’m pretty sure their capability to distract is somewhat limited. Just what is it the RSC expect Andre to do? Spin around in David Tennant’s hand and scream profanities into the audience? Do they consider the average theatre-goer to be so small-minded that the mere sight of a skull, something we all have attached to us right now, would put us off?

Yes, the use of a genuine human body part is somewhat macabre but it’s Hamlet for God’s sake! It’s hardly the chirpiest of plays and it seems a shame to scupper Mr Tchaikowsky’s dying wish for some vague and dubious reason.

Don’t be mean RSC, it’s nearly Christmas after all. Let Andre back on stage!

Use the comments box ladies and gents, let us know what you think of this whole situation. Was it right to pull Andre? All opinions welcome.