Shakespeare Magazine 14

Two of Stewart’s
paintings inspired
by Tom Stoppard’s
Hamlet-referencing
play Rosencrantz
and Guildenstern are
Dead.
By now you may be wondering why I am not
writing about the stars, the roles, other nitty-gritty.
Well, I can’t, time-travellers take a vow of omertà
when they sign on the dotted line. I cannot tell you
what I saw, what happened. I can say that it was
a good-natured place, it was a good set. I might
be able to tell you about a prank I pulled – an
absolute blinder, to be honest – but unfortunately
it is connected with a key moment in the story
and would be a spoiler. I’m no spoiler. I might be
able to tell you about the dead body, a life-cast, an
avatar identical in the smallest detail to an actual
dead man, that lay on the grass and why that was so
hilarious... but I can’t. I can say the villagers noted
it but were apparently unfazed and that too was
amusing.
Ophelia has an excellent cast. As I’ve said, Daisy
Ridley as Ophelia but also starring Naomi Watts
(Gertrude), Clive Owen (Claudius) and Tom
Felton (Laertes). Two you may not know – George
MacKay as Hamlet and Devon Terrell in the role of
Horatio – are both superb actors. I didn’t realise I’d
seen George in one of my favourite TV shows of the
previous year. He was in the miniseries 11.22.63,
about a time traveller, played by James Franco,
attempting to prevent the assassination of John F
Kennedy. I wished I could have told him how much
I enjoyed the series.
Stranger still, when I got home my son suggested
we watch a film after dinner, one he’d been waiting
to see. He’s very interested in politics and told us
about a film about the young Obama, he chose it
out of the blue. I was stunned and found myself
saying “You’re not going to believe this, but I was
just in the car with that guy... today!”
It is interesting to see how actors shape a scene
and, in some sense, are guardians of logic in the
story. The time machine sometimes remains on
standby while an actor questions the logic of an
action. It may all become clear to the actor and we
move forward in time as planned. Or the director
may be alerted by the actor to the lack of logic in
the scene, make some adjustment, and the timeline
shifts slightly and the scene becomes more logical,
it can go either way. This is the alchemy of motion
picture storytelling at its heart, and actors don’t get
much credit for those key moments.
Before you know it, it’s a wrap and the set and all
its players evaporate. Before you know it, the whole
crazy event is over and “Tis in my memory lock’d...”
Stewart Kenneth Moore (aka Booda) is a painter,
graphic novelist and actor. He has recently completed
acting work on Lore for Amazon, and is currently
developing a new comic strip with writer Pat Mills.
You can buy his graphic novel of Macbeth
Here
30 shakespeare magazine