So, as promised, I saw the sadly David Tennant-less Hamlet.  Not a problem for me; as a member of the RSC, my tickets cost 16 quid.  How much did you pay for yours on eBay?

It was a very good show, even without Doctor Who, though I must say extraordinarily long.  The programme notes say that Shakespeare probably never did a Hamlet longer than about two hours and that the four hour version folio is probably a "Director's Cut".

From which the RSC hardly cut anything.  It's two hours to the interval.  Two hours.  And I've seen, what, a good dozen Hamlets in my life, and this is the first time I knew there were Ambassadors to Norway in it.  Seriously. 

Edward Bennett is perfectly fine as Hamlet, though with the bumping up of the understudies through the various roles, we got a distractingly bad Guildenstern, the poor love.  Nicely shaped head, though.  The whole show was stolen by Oliver Ford Davies as the best Polonius I've seen by a mile.  Too bad he kicks it shortly after the interval.

Still, it's a very good Hamlet, clean and tasteful as the RSC always is (though, shockingly, no water!  The RSC puts a pond in everything), and goodness knows there were plenty of empty seats in the Circle.  Which is a shame, so you should go.  God knows it's going to be better than the Jude Law Hamlet coming in the Summer that I've also got tickets for.  The mind boggles...