(no subject)

So seeing Hamlet in England fell through... mostly because I have many other things I'd like to spend $600 on, things like rent, or food, or the plane ticket back to Cardiff in November. The fact that it's you-know-who in the lead and you-know-who as the king means that the reviewers have been giving it mixed reviews: two people who are too well-known for slightly campy science fiction can't get an unbiased review. Plus it would be weird seeing it done all in modern dress. I keep telling myself I'm not jealous and that I really didn't have $600 to spend on a ticket, let alone the bus fare up to Stratford-upon-Avon. Not jealous. I'd spend the entire show watching David Tennant in jeans that I wouldn't watch the show. Not jealous at all.

Now, the Hamlet in Stratford, Ontario has been getting rave reviews. I like the play quite a lot, and how could you not: a 30-something black-wearing emo-prince perpetual student takes three hours to navel-gaze and whine about his life while slowly going insane and murdering everyone he knows. That, my friends, is entertainment. More than that, it's theatre.

The point: I was poking at the cast list for the Ontario-Stratford-Hamlet and it's Geraint Wyn Davies playing Polonius. Polonius, the character I'd fight to read aloud in the two times (grade 12 and OAC) my class read the play aloud. Polonius, the adorable stuffed shirt who plays the unwitting straight man to Hamlet's teasing. Polonius, played by an actor that - despite his impressive theatre credits - I'll always and forever see as Nick Knight: Angsty Vampire Cop. That's so cool!