The Royal Shakespeare Company have declared a ban on the signing of science fiction materials at the stage door on their current Hamlet production. With David Tennant and Patrick Stewart involved the RSC has, understandably, generated a lot more interest across a wider potential audience than they might other wise have done, but say this increase in passionate fans has lead them to have to impose limits on what fans can ask their favourite stars to sign: “Due to the huge amount of interest in the RSC’s current production of Hamlet, only Royal Shakespeare Company or production related memorabilia will be signed by members of the company. It is very flattering that there is so much interest in this production, but the sheer volume of requests means that we need to set some limits which will be as fair as possible for everyone. We apologise if this causes any disappointment.”
(David Tennant in the RSC’s production of Hamlet)
I’d imagine such a policy probably will cause a fair bit of disappointment – it is fair enough that this isn’t a Who or Trek production, its the RSC and if they are getting too many fans then it is understandable if they have to impose certain limits. On the other hand let’s be honest, both Tennant and Stewart are extremely good, versatile actors and while the RSC will have cast them on their abilities as artists I’m also quite sure they aren’t blind to the fact that with such high profiles actors from shows with a large following their presence would help generate more publicity, interest and also perhaps bring in fans who might not otherwise have gone to a see a Shakespeare production (which is surely a good thing all round). But the other side of that increased interest is fans who will hope to perhaps get something related to their favourite shows signed afterwards and it seems a bit odd to use the high profile of those actors to draw that extra audience in, then deny some of the fans who they undoubtedly attracted to a performance they might not otherwise have thought about going to. None of which should stop anyone from going along though – there’s nothing quite like live theatre and, let’s be honest, with that remarkable voice we could listen contentedly to Patrick Stewart if he were reading his grocery list. (via the BBC)
Fri, Jul 25, 2008
Film, TV and radio, General