Edward Bennett 새로운 햄릿의 탄생

 

Edward Bennett is no great Dane, but takes a notably plucky shot at the impossible task of replacing David Tennant as Hamlet.

Edward Bennett (right) in his usual role as Laertes in Hamlet at the Novello Theatre

 
David Tennant

If David Tennant really was Dr Who there would of course have been no problem.

He could have jumped into the Tardis, gone back in time a few weeks, had his back injury fixed and then whizzed back to the West End to make his eagerly awaited London debut as Hamlet both refreshed and restored.

But there was no Tardis parked outside the Novello last night, and no Dr Who either. Those punters who spent many hundreds of pounds buying tickets on eBay to see Tennant playing Shakespeare's great Dane in this sold-out-production had to make do with the understudy.

What a stressful day it must have been for Edward Bennett, who only learnt late yesterday afternoon that he would be going on for Tennant last night. Admittedly he'd had a crack at the role on Monday night, but this time he was facing the critics. In the immortal words of 42nd Street, from which director Gregory Doran quoted when he explained the change of cast before the show started, Bennett was going out there a youngster (29 actually) but he'd got to come back a star. Did he pull off a sensational coup? Was a new star born? Certainly the audience seemed to think so and gave Bennett a standing ovation.

And for sheer nerve and self-confidence Bennett undoubtedly deserved the cheers. As Hamlet, he has to hold a glass of champagne during the opening scene. The understudy's hand betrayed not the faintest tremor of nerves. And throughout the longest role in Shakespeare he was impressively word perfect.

It has to be said, however, that he is not a natural Hamlet. In the past he has specialised in silly asses. Here he seemed to be making a strenuous effort to be deadly serious however, and the result in the first half was a slow, stolid competence that lacked the quicksilver wit and intelligence of Tennant's performance. After the interval he greatly improved, bringing a thrilling mixture of anger and anguish to the closet scene with his mother, and suggesting a hint of spiritual understanding in the last act that eluded Tennant.

It was, in short, a notably plucky shot at an impossible task and no one could complain that they had been forced to endure Hamlet without the Prince.

 출처: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/

데이비드 테넌트가 갑작스런 등부상으로 고대하던 런던 데뷔 무대에 설수없게 됐으며 그를 대신해 29살의 배우 Edward Bennett이 햄릿역으로 무대에 섰다고 합니다.
데이비드의 부상으로 공연 전날 오후 잠깐의 연습만으로 무대에 오른 에드워드는 엄청난 암박감에도 불구하고 훌륭한 연기를 펼쳤고 이에 관객들 역시 기립박수로 성공적 무대를 축하했다네요.
비평가들 역시 초반엔 어색했지만 갈수록 좋은 연기를 펼친 그에게 후한 점수를 줬다고 합니다
극적인 스타탄생이군요!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!