The final scene of hamlet leaves me feeling. hey, i've been here before - everybody dead. Jacobean drama like Webster, the Revengers Tragedy by Tourneur - everybody dead. It feels like a cliche to me.(sorry don't know how to do accents)

Jacoby is something else as an actor. he was s doing this gig a while back Richard 2 and richard 3 back to back. One night after the other. I'd always had trouble understanding why Richard 2 was considered the greater play. Til those two nights.

When you're at home Richard 3 reads better. But you can't cut people's heads off onstage - not convincingly.

All I can say is jacoby's command of the poetry was atonishing. the poetic reality was so much more intense than anything you could do to convey someone's head being cut off in the next room.

as a director Jonathan Miller in the 1960's gave us a few memorable nights at Nottingham Playhouse.

He directed Michael Hordern in Lear, which was astonishing. For all crazy reasons. Sets like francis Bacon paintings all bare and existential.

He gave us a really shit Richard 3 with Leonard Rossiter, trying to regal in a pair of football shorts, like the rest of the cast. You just felt sorry for every poor sod onstage.

the best production of Shakespeare I ever saw was Brian Cox as Titus Andonicus in a production by Deborah Warner at The Swan theatre in Stratford. they cut his hand off onstage - you heard it plop into the bucket, like a conjuring trick - which shows Grand Guignol can be accomplished, if the director believes its possible!