Royal Shakespeare Company to stop using 'distracting' real skull in Hamlet
The Royal Shakespeare Company will no longer use the real skull of Polish pianist Andre Tchaikovsky in its performance of Hamlet when it transfers to West End as it is "too distracting for the audience".
 
By Urmee Khan
Last Updated: 9:39AM GMT 03 Dec 2008

 

David Tennant has used the skull of a former pianist in performances of Hamlet at Stratford.

 
The use of the skull had been kept a carefully guarded secret throughout the play's four month run in Stratford until leading man David Tennant disclosed that the skull belonged to the late pianist Andre Tchaikovsky �?who bequeathed his skull to the RSC for this very purpose.

 

Andre Tchaikovsky left his skull to the RSC in 1982 after he died of cancer to be used on stage in Hamlet. It took a quarter of a century to happen �?and he posthumously appeared as Yorick in the recent production of Hamlet at Stratford.

Now the RSC has confirmed that they are no longer planning to use the skull of Mr Tchaikovsky when the show transfers to the West End despite Mr Tchaikovsky's dying wishes.

 

It is thought, after the publicity, audiences had begun to over-react when they saw the skull.

 

Mr Tchaikovsky's former agent and friend Terry Harrison has said that he is "disappointed" by this decision.

 

"I understand that artists are very sensitive, most are�?and I could imagine someone not being very comfortable�?so I think that David Tennant was wonderful that he did it" he told Channel 4 News.

 

Mr Harrison added that the pianist "hated" the use of a plastic skull.

 

"He hated the way it was done. When he saw it with the RSC, he (Andre) said 'I am going to leave my skull to the RSC, they really should have a proper skull. It doesn't work with the plastic thing they have'. And then we looked at his will, and there it was."

 

 

According to Tchaikovsky's Wikipedia page (which uses the Polish spelling of his name), "Despite his success as a pianist, Andrzej Czajkowski's greatest passion was composition."

 

Or at least it was until 1982, when he started decomposing.