Posted by Cervaise:
Heh-heh-heh . . . heh-heh-heh . . . he said “cunningly”!
As a tourist visiting Stratford-on-Avon, I once saw a hilarious production of Twelfth Night. In the scene where Malvolio confronts Olivia, and repeats back to her the words of what he thinks is her love-letter to him, he says, “Some are born great . . .[bends down, picks up one dangling corner of the front of his coat, tucks it into his waistband] . . . some achieve greatness . . . [repeats operation with the other corner, exposing his cross-gartered-yellow-hose-clad groin, puts hands on hips] . . . and some have greatness [pumps hips] THRUST upon them!”
You had to be there.
BrainGlutton: I agree with your read of Polonius. He should be a goofy, obnoxious blowhard, not a ponderous stiff. I saw him portrayed reasonably well in Calgary’s Shakespeare in the Park a couple years ago. They have done some absolutley wonderful renditions of Shakespeare’s plays, including a hilarious rendition of R+J and a fabulous version of Henry V (the big speeches put a lump in my throat), among others. Which reminds me, I must check out their website to find out the when their shows open this summer and what plays they’re playing…
I’ve got to be the dissenter on this one. I spent a good deal of time tracking down as many versions of Hamlet as I could, and found Richard Brier’s Polonius to be the most rewarding. He’s the only one that managed to convey the many sides of Polonius. The father, the hypocrite, the blow hard, etc. He’s the only one who gave me a sense of what was lost when he died. Compare his reading of the "Neither a borrower speech’ to Ian Holm’s rambling mess from the Gibson version.
Polonius may be a comic figure, (probably played by the same actor as Malvolio) but he is definately not “goofy.” Most of the time he is playing either the straight man to Hamlet, the stern father or court schemer. His only stand alone comic scene is the delivery of the “Hamlet is mad” exposition, and while it is quite funny, it isn’t exactly “goofy.”