Using a real human skull helped Tennant's performance, Mr Doran explained. "Yorick's skull, and Hamlet's lament to him, is probably one of the most famous icons in Shakespeare, and one most frequently satirised and misquoted. It was through André that the company tried to get beyond those cliches, to investigate something deeper. You can't hold a real human skull in your hand and not be moved by the realisation that your own skull sits just beneath your skin, that you will be reduced to that at some stage.