It was 1988. Kenneth Branagh, now one of the stalwarts of the British theatre, was still in the process of making a name for himself. A year earlier he had started a theatre company of his own, The Renaissance Theatre Company, and for its second season he wanted to stage a production of the greatest of all the plays in the English language, Hamlet, with himself in the leading role. He persuaded celebrated actor, Sir Derek Jacobi, a successful Hamlet in his own right to make his directorial debut in the production. The story of that collaboration from its production meetings, through its rehearsals to its dress rehearsal and opening night is the subject of Mark Olshaker's 53-minute documentary narrated by Patrick Stewart, Discovering Hamlet, soon to be available in a two-DVD set from Athena.
The actual documentary is supplemented by more than three hours of interviews with Jacobi and the cast and crew together with backstage footage of rehearsals, director notes and even the opening night cast party. Anyone at all interested in the process of taking a play from the page and putting it on its feet will be fascinated by the insights gleaned from both the final product and the extensive collection of additional material. It should be noted that most of what is here seems clearly to have been unused footage shot for the documentary. Indeed, bits of interviews and shots from the rehearsals cut into the film can be seen in their original context. What is left for this supplementary material is often very raw footage. Sound, especially during the notes and some of the rehearsals, is not always up to par, and the camera jumps about at times. This is the price one has to pay for this kind of intimate access behind the scenes.
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