Too close...

...or the most-reviewed play? Last night, Friday night, nothing to do, so popped off to see Hamlet for the third time. This time without translation but with a programme. It states that the performance uses 'excerpts of the classic translation by Ivane Machabeli'. That explains a lot....

The theatre being a bit empty, I slipped into the front row. I like being in on the action at concerts and other performances, and in Vilnius Opera and Ballet Theatre it works well. But there's a pit 'twixt the performers and me. Here the performers were sometimes no less than a metre distant from me. If they were lying on the floor I had to look round the uplighter at the edge of the stage. It was like watching TV with your nose pressed against the screen. And there were far too many sharp, pointy, swords flying around for me to be entirely relaxed in the front row!

Agonising moment and illustration of the sharpness of the swords - Hamlet was stabbing Claudius; on the second insertion the sword tip caught slightly on Claudius' coat (which Hamlet could not see) and did not 'go in' far enough - I wonder what he thought (Have I stabbed the guy??) - what to do. Eventually, seeing as the actor did not collapse, he 'extracted' the sword and shoved it in again - this time right through the folds of the coat.....