“It breezes through the dialogue and reaches for laughs. It decides Hamlet is conflicted but not tortured. He might be mad but his rapid delivery might make the point faster but leaves a lot of the grey in the shade.”
Con Nats
3 Stars or equivalent
National Theatre Live have revisited Hamlet, the play that has launched billions of remakes, lots of spin offs. We’ve had plays about the making of the play, (The Motive and the Cue) and local actors doing Hamlet Camp, a play about rehabilitating actors.
Hamlet is a play full of doubts and internal questions. A character driven by grief and loyalty to a dead father and duty to a new King, while madness grips him,
In this production director Robert Hastie and lead actor Hiran Abeysekera take a new modern direction. This interpretation is aimed at Gen Too Bored With Anything Longer Than A Tik Tok Clip.
The set is a large ballroom with Renaissance artwork on its walls. Outside scenes are played in darkness and flashlights. The clothing is modern and Polonius takes a selfie, but smart phones are otherwise absent.
The casting is unconventional. Abeysekera is Indian and delivers his lines with a modern sensibility. He has worked on many theatre productions and was outstanding in The Life of Pi. Heavy lines are treated as quips; sideways looks are used to ridicule contradictions. He wears coloured fingernails and has a touch of bi-sexuality in him. When he rejects Ophelia (Francesca Mills), you’re not sure if it is to protect her or because the boys are back in town.
It’s a very emotional and comical Hamlet. Geoffrey Streatfeild as Polonius plays for laughs and is more sycophant than Machiavellian. Rosenkrantz (Hari Mackinnon) and Guildenstern (Joe Bolland) are portrayed as private school twats who elicit some laughs.
King Claudius (Alistair Petrie) And Queen Gertrude (Ayesha Dharker) are played conventionally as is Laertes (Tom Glenister). Ryan Elseworth carries his multiple roles well, playing them all as a Scot and Tessa Wong plays Horatio with conviction. Siobhan Redmond has a nice turn as the First Player, but I have seen the play they perform (The Murder of Gonzago) done with much more creativity. No wonder the King walked out.
The surprise and standout is Francesca Mills as Ophelia. She might be a small person but she towers over the cast with her performance. Director Hastie seems to push his actors into overacting but her scene when she descends into madness is chillingly good.
This lighter more comic approach will make the play more accessible to a new younger audience. It breezes through the dialogue and reaches for laughs. It decides Hamlet is conflicted but not tortured. He might be mad but his rapid delivery might make the point faster but leaves a lot of the grey in the shade.
It is a big difference to other classic Hamlets. It defers to shortening attention spans rather than introspection. It avoids prosaic delivery for function. It is still an entertaining production but for those who love their Shakespeare, perhaps not a satisfying one.
3 Yoricks
Con Nats, On The Screen
