Fans of Top Gun: Maverick, Everything Everywhere All At Once, and RRR happily embraced the insides of cineplexes after avoiding them since the pandemic (or, for some, even earlier).

Fans of Prey, Disenchanted, and Glass Onion bemoaned the full theatrical releases that could have been. Netflix and several of its competitors took a financial hit in 2022 meanwhile, certain audiences expressed exhaustion with the idea of watching movies at home as the default option. This year, the iron grip that streaming has held on our culture seemed to have loosened a bit. My favourite film version is still the 1948 Laurence Olivier version.Photo-Illustration: Photo Illustration: Rowena Lloyd and Susanna Hayward Photos: Courtesy of the Studios This version when performed live is by far and away my favourite. I have seen Hamlet performed live a dozen times and have left before the end on at least six occasions.

The cast is absolutely superb and I do mean the entire cast, not only the big name leads.The delivery of the dialogue is so beautifully done that even a Shakespeare novice will understand what is being conveyed. All that said, this is a tremendous production, the comedy is brought to the fore which makes the tragedy even more profound. I also feel that the nature of filming in close up and multi angle sometime gets the viewer too close to the characters. The DVD version is a very good representation of the stage version but it lacks the magic of watching a live production, the interaction that the characters have with the audience, the emotional responses of a theatre full of people that allows you as an individual to show greater emotion than sitting in front of a TV. It was spellbinding, every actor on the stage was immaculate in their performance, the audience laughed and cried openly. I was fortunate enough to see one of the previews this production on stage while David Tennant was still fit.

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