By Georgette Gouveia
Have you been watching the “Shakespeare Uncovered” series on Thirteen/WNET? It’s like a rehearsal, kaffeeklatsch, symposium and lecture with your favorite prof all rolled into one. There’s Ethan Hawke looking at “Macbeth”; Joely Richardson on the comedies; Derek Jacobi, a brilliant Richard II, on the play of that name; Jeremy Irons, who plays Henry IV in PBS’ upcoming “The Hollow Crown” series, on the Bard’s Henriad plays; and at 9 p.m., Feb. 8, David Tennant, a fabulously febrile Hamlet, exploring everybody’s fave melancholy Dane. The program is followed at 10 p.m. by director Trevor Nunn discussing “The Tempest.”
I, myself, am a collector of Hamlets, and I can say that there are as many as there are actors, and each does at least one thing better in the role than anyone else. You’ll meet a number of them in the program, including Jude Law, who gave the part a particularly lucid performance on Broadway.
Why do I love “Hamlet” so? Probably because it’s the story of an especially attractive young man who asks perhaps the fundamental question: What’s it like to live – really live – until we die?
For more on “Shakespeare Uncovered,” click here . And to check out WAG’s look at the Thirteen/WNET from our October ’12 salute to New York, click here .
