Doctor Who actor David Tennant has pulled out of a second performance of Hamlet due to a back injury.

The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) has decided to go ahead with Tuesday’s press night performance with understudy Edward Bennett in the title role.

The play’s director Gregory Doran said Tennant was “gutted” to disappoint the audience at London’s Novello Theatre.

Tennant, 37, who also missed Monday’s preview performance, is due to play Hamlet until 10 January.

Doran said: “David is gutted, not only at the thought of disappointing audiences, but also to be unable to perform a role that he has worked on and developed throughout 60 performances in Stratford-upon-Avon.

“Before this injury, he has only ever been off for one performance in his entire career to date, and is hoping that he will be able to return to the show as quickly as possible.

“It is an indication of the RSC’s investment in understudies that Ed Bennett can take over from David in one of Shakespeare’s largest roles at such short notice.”

Bennett, who normally plays the role of Laertes, received a standing ovation from at the the theatre on Monday when he stepped into Tennant’s role.

Source

Feel better soon, David!

Comments (0) »

No comments yet.

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI

Leave a comment

You must be logged in to post a comment.