Hamlet

Synopsis: Live sound recording of Richard Eyre’s staging of Hamlet at the National Theatre with Daniel Day-Lewis in the title role.
Language: English
Country: Great Britain
Medium: Audio
Recording date: 28 Mar 1989

General: It is not known whether Brian Swanton or Grant Olding played the role of Player Queen in this recording.

Daniel Day-Lewis collapsed in the middle of a scene where the ghost of Hamlet’s father first appears to his son. He began sobbing uncontrollably and refused to go back on stage; he was replaced by Ian Charleson before a then-unknown Jeremy Northam finished what little was left of the production’s run. One rumour following the incident was that Day-Lewis had seen the ghost of his own father, although the incident was officially attributed to exhaustion. He confirmed on the top chat show PARKINSON that this rumour was true. He has not appeared on stage since. [Summarised from Wikipedia, 11/2008).
History: Opening night 16 March 1989
Stills: "John Gunter’s design is dominated by a grey, stone, Comendatore-like statue of the old king, and his careful recreations of lance-infested battle scenes are inset in a grim corridor that extends the Denys Lasdun concrete nightmare into the very heart of Elsinore." Michael Coveney, Financial Times, 18 March 1989).
Reviews: Dessen, Alan C. Shakespeare Quarterly 41 (1990), pp. 352-65 (in review-article).

SHAKESPEARE