What I Watched -- Three Days (of Hamlet)

Wednesday night, T and I went to see what was basically a test screening of the movie Three Days (of Hamlet) (Facebook) at the Tivoli.

As the website says, it's "a film about a documentary about a play."  Alex Hyde-White (son of the famous comedic British actor Wilfred Hyde-White, better known as Colonel Pickering) decided to get a group of actors together, and give them three days to rehearse and perform Hamlet.  The coming-together of the cast (which included Richard Chamberlain) was a focus of the movie, as well each of the actor's individual take on the focus or purpose of the project.

Cut in with that, though, is footage of Alex's father and children overlaid by Alex's commentary about their relationship. Those scenes plays off the father themes in Hamlet, and that's the link that holds it all together

In his Q&A after the movie, Alex Hyde-White, whose manner of speaking is precise and measured and flows in a very British rhythm probably learned from his father (his mother was American actress Ethel Drew) greeted the crowd and patiently listened as people regaled him with stories of their days as Shakespearean actors.  And he answered a few questions too, mostly about the process of getting the movie made.

Frankly, he was such a pleasure to listen to, I have to say that if not for the scenes from Hamlet, the Q&A would have been as entertaining as the movie.  But, as with any Shakespeare, it steals the show.

Bottom line: Hamlet was great, and the three day limitation was an interesting idea.  I understand why Alex used that story as a parallel to his relationship with his father, but I missed some of the import of that personal perspective.  Possibly it isn't quite universal enough.