As Jen and I were leaving the Courtyard Theatre in Stratford on Thursday night she said to me: 'Do you feel like you've just seen something historic?'.
There is a reason why there are probably half a dozen actors at best whose Hamlet's remained emblazoned on theatre-goers and critics memories, it is probably one of the most complex roles an actor will undertake and probably one of the most mentally and physically demanding. It is, after all, the longest part in any of Shakespeare's plays.
The 'interesting energy' I hoped David Tennant would bring to the role when I first heard he'd been cast was there in abundance. He managed to convincingly pull off languid melancholy to barely contained coiled spring and erratic lunacy.
But the 'historic' question of Jen's wasn't merely refering to Tennant but to the whole cast and production. While Hamlet was like a bomb waiting to go off and occassionally doing so, Patrick Stewart's Claudius was considered and quiet.
Mariah Gale's Ophelia, a happy, confident young women who is completely broken by tragedy. I could go on (and on).
What director Gregory Doran has done is create a Hamlet that is both satisfying to aficionado's while being accessible to those attracted to the theatre by the stage appearance of Dr Who. He has also managed to draw out the tragedy and comedy in the play, the latter often neglected, to produce an imaginatively staged and thoroughly entertaining play.
When we got back to our hotel we sat up for hours talking about what we had seen and the interpretation of the play. And that is why I think I answered 'yes' to Jen's question.