Put a question to Bridget Phillipson, Shadow Education Minister

My feed
Premium

Please
or
to access all these features

Get tips on theatre and art from other Mumsnetters on our Culture forum.

Culture vultures

David Tennant RSC Shakespeare early 2000s productions

4 replies

Star555 · 02/06/2021 00:28

I'm a huge fan of David Tennant and love his Shakespearean roles. I have already seen him in Hamlet, Richard II and Much Ado about Nothing.

Besides the above-mentioned plays, I know he has starred in many other RSC Shakespeare plays in the early 2000's (Romeo and Juliet, Midsummer Night's Dream, etc.)
Does anyone know how to obtain a recording of these earlier productions starring David Tennant? I checked the RSC shop website but none of these earlier performances are available on DVD. Youtube doesn't have any either.

OP posts:
GCAcademic · 02/06/2021 00:47

The RSC doesn't routinely film and release DVDs of its productions, so if you can't get hold of them, it seems likely that these productions weren't recorded. They do have archive recordings of productions, I think, at the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust in Stratford, but accessing those is obviously a bit of an endeavour.

WhatWouldPhyllisCraneDo · 02/06/2021 00:50

There are some on BritBox

Star555 · 02/06/2021 15:27

@GCAcademic Thank you so much for suggesting the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust! I emailed them and they replied saying that they do indeed have the archival recordings, which can be viewed only at their centre. I didn't know that the RSC archives were managed by the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust and not RSC themselves...I had emailed the RSC directly but got no response earlier, and the RSC website strangely doesn't mention anything about the archives at the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust!

@WhatWouldPhyllisCraneDo The Britbox ones are the more recent productions, and don't include the early 2000s productions I'm looking for.

OP posts:
DappledThings · 29/06/2021 14:48

I was obsessed with DT from my teens after he was in his first TV role, Takin' Over the Asylum. We lived near Stratford and used to go to the RSC a lot anyway so I was lucky enough to see him in Romeo and Juliet, The Comedy of Errors, The Rivals and As You Like It.

I was a bit put out when he got the Doctor Who gig and suddenly everyone knew who he was!

Please create an account

To comment on this thread you need to create a Mumsnet account.