David Tennant Rehearses Hamlet

WhatsOnStage

Previews begin on Thursday (24 July 2008) for one of the year’s most hotly anticipated plays, the Royal Shakespeare Company production of Hamlet, with Doctor Who star David Tennant returning to the stage to take the title role. But for those who can’t wait, take a sneak peek at the rehearsal pictures from Stratford-upon-Avon, where the production runs in rep in the Courtyard Theatre from 5 August to 15 November prior to a West End transfer in December.

The production is directed by RSC chief associate Gregory Doran, who also directs the same company in Love's Labour's Lost, the RSC’s first staging of the play in more than 12 years, with Tennant playing the lovelorn Berowne from 2 October 2008.

Tennant said in a recent interview he was thrilled to be teaming up with Doran, who he worked with early in his acting career: “It’s great to be working with Greg again. There’s a great feeling about the company and a real sense of something new and exciting about the RSC at the moment.” He also described it as “very exciting and humbling and terrifying and thrilling” to be rejoining the RSC in Stratford, a town he describes as a “very special place to work” (for more interview extracts, visit www.whatsonstage.com/ midlands ).