“The Royal Shakespeare Company is to stop using a real skull in Hamlet as it is ‘too distracting for the audience.’ The use of Polish pianist Andre Tchaikovsky’s skull had been kept a carefully guarded secret during the play’s four month run in Stratford. But then leading man David Tennant disclosed that the skull was real and had belonged to a Shakespeare fan, reports the Daily Telegraph. Mr 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 for him to posthumously appeared as Yorick 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.” (12/04/08)