The David Tennant Theatre Archive

ONE MAN IN HIS TIME PLAYS MANY PARTS

A REAL SKULL

November 26, 2008 - BBC NEWS
The skull held by actor David Tennant in the Royal Shakespeare Company's Hamlet was a real one, it has been revealed.

Tennant was the first actor to use the skull in a performance of Hamlet.  Pianist Andre Tchaikowsky left his skull to the RSC when he died in 1982 in the hope it would be used on stage. But since his death at the age of 46, it had only been used in rehearsals.
 
Although the RSC initially reported the skull would be used only on 22 performances and that it would NOT be used in the London transfer, the production did in fact use the skull from July to November, 2008, in the graveyard scene and continued to do so right through to the last performance at the Novello on January 10, 2009. 

Thus, André had his time on stage and was returned to a box in the RSC prop room, but for only for a short while because the BBC decided to make a TV dramatisation of the RSC production with David Tennant, and to once again use André's skull.                    
January, 2010 - The DVD was released of Hamlet featuring the skull of André Tchaikowsky, used in the graveyard scene.

You can view the scene, be prepared - the opening of Act 5, Scene 1 shows André's skull in close up.

THE STORY OF THE SKULL

October 1979 - Mr Tchaikowsky in his will he wrote that his skull "shall be offered by the institution receiving my body to the Royal Shakespeare Company for use in theatrical performance".
 
June 1982 - He dies of cancer, aged 46

July 1982 - Terry Hands, the RSC's artistic director, accepts the bequest

August 1982 - Mr Tchaikowsky's unusual bequest is reported in The Times

1982-1984 - The skull spends two years on the roof of an RSC building to be 'aired'

1984 - The skull is used for a photo session with actor Roger Rees to promote that season's production of Hamlet.

1989 - Mark Rylance rehearses with the skull, but a cast is used for the performances and the real thing was returned to the props department, where it resided in a tissue-lined box for almost 20 years. 
 
August 2008 - Mr. Tchaikowsky's wish to appear in Shakespeare's play Hamlet as the skull of Yorick is finally realised. Greg Doran, who directed Tennant in Hamlet, retrieved it for his production. "It was sort of a little shock tactic. Though, of course, to some extent that wears off and it's just André, in his box," Doran told the Daily Telegraph.
ITN NEWS DEC 2, 2008
 
He added that he did not want the story to get out before Hamlet opened. He said:

"I thought it would topple the play and it would be all about David acting with a real skull."

RSC curator David Howells: "We hope Mr Tchaikowsky would have been pleased that his final wish has been realised in Gregory Doran's acclaimed production of Hamlet."
 
The RSC had to receive permission from the Human Tissue Authority to use the skull on stage in Stratford.