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<\/div>\n<\/div>\n‘Hamnet’: Jessie Buckley, Paul Mescal star in Shakespeare drama<\/p>\n
Paul Mescal plays Shakespeare and Jessie Buckley is the Bard’s wife, Agnes, in Chlo\u00e9 Zhao’s historical drama “Hamnet.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Friday night I was humble-bragging to my Lady Macbeth \u2014 and assistant director Exa \u2014 how I was NOT hurting this time, unlike in 2009, and 2017, from swinging swords, fighting to the feigned death against kids 20 years or more younger, and such.<\/p>\n Because why?<\/p>\n Theories:<\/p>\n Then came Saturday night’s performance of “The Tragedy of Macbeth,” and Sunday morning, I woke up with a lower-back knot the size of a groan or 17. When I could finally arise, I stumbled around the house like an even older fart than I actually am.<\/p>\n So what changed? Kids. Kids have changed.<\/p>\n The four kids in this show \u2014 Asa, Hendrix, Aidan and Cara, who are all splendid at the dying-children parts \u2014 are growing, as they do, when you feed them. I’ve warned the parents, but they just keep regurgitating partially masticated comestibles into their upturned mouths. I guess. I’m not a parent, which at this point in the narrative probably seems like a plus.<\/p>\n There’s a show-biz admonition about never working with children or animals, one frequently attributed to W.C. Fields, and as is the too-frequent case, is utterly wrong. Far as anyone can tell, Fields never said such a thing, though the irascible character he played may have thought it. Closest any authoritative sourcing can tell, at a 1939 roast of Fields, Leo Rosten said “The only thing I can say about W. C. Fields \u2026 is this: Any man who hates dogs and babies can’t be all bad.”<\/p>\n Aside from being poorly attributed, it’s wrongheaded. What should be said: “Only work with kids or animals if your ego’s strong.”<\/p>\n\n