Hamlet

Synopsis: A live sound recording of Laurence Olivier’s Hamlet for the National Theatre Company with Peter O’Toole in the title role.
Language: English
Country: Great Britain
Medium: Audio
Recording date: 22 Oct 1963

History: The opening play by the National Theatre Company staged at the Old Vic. This was the first stage recording to be recorded by the British Library Sound Archive, then the British Institute of Recorded Sound, in its live drama series.
Reviews: Daily Sketch, 23 Oct 1963.
`Trying hard not to be grossly hysterical - I clapped critic’s non-flappable hands. Containing myself with sober words - magnificent, beautiful, triumphant, noble. Pretending indifference to gorgeous acting, the like of which I’ve rarely seen. Ignoring the Sean Kenny sets - a blinding piece of revolving poetic engineering. Hardly giving credit to Sir Laurence Olivier’s brilliantly sane and madly lovely interpretation of this (until today) almost impossible play...let me, after five hours, loudly and hoarsely sweet praise for this great Hamlet by Peter O’Toole’.

Sunday Telegraph 27 Oct 1963:
...Devastatingly attractive to women, a natural leader of men, the most brilliant brain of the year at Wittenberg University - if such a man can make a mess of his life, who can blame us for not fulfilling our early promise? Hamlet is the most famous excuse in literature for failure’.
[Both quotations from reviews on the National Theatre website accessed 1/2008].

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