HAMLET till 16 October
London
HAMLET
by William Shakespeare
Albery Theatre 18 November - 11 December 2004
Mon-Sat 7pm Mat 25,27 Nov, 1,3(understudies),4,8,11 Dec 1pm
Audio-described 1 Dec 7pm 4 Dec 1pm
Captioned 11 Dec 1pm
Runs: 3h 20m, one interval
TICKETS: 0870 060 6621 (booking fee)
ww.rsc.org.uk
Review: Rod Dungate 5 August 2004 at Royal Shakespeare Theatre Stratford-upon-Avon
Workmanlike rather than inspiring, but with beautiful moments in surprising places.Michael Boyd has gives us a clear reading of the play. It's direct and, in Tom Piper's admirably sparse setting, uncluttered. Yet, despite vigorous performances, the production remains workmanlike rather than inspired. Intellectually you follow the arguments but the heart is rarely brought into play.
Toby Stephens's Hamlet is an energetic figure, full of anger. This Hamlet is mad because he's angry (the double meaning was stronger in Elizabethan English) and rarely 'lunatic'. Stephens begins his journey on a highly passionate note and while this makes good character sense it leaves him little room to manoeuvre during the first part of the play. His quieter moments really register, though; in particular after the first appearance of the players 'Ay, so, God bye to you. Now I am alone.' There are a few moments like this and they're marvellous. A real sense of the smallness, the vulnerability of Hamlet fighting against the power of the state.
Stephens's Hamlet, once established on his journey, makes much of the few real connections he makes with other characters; the moments are, necessarily, few and far between, but they're mighty telling. His relationship with Horatio (Forbes Masson) is warm and genuine but the most poignant are with Greg Hicks in two different manifestations (Player King and Gravedigger). The warmth of human spirit flowing between them shines like a homing beacon.
Hicks's murdered King is truly a haunted being. Spectrally white, he is gaunt and hunched; he drags his sword behind him like a grotesque cross. The sound of it rasping over a metal ramp in long auditorium entrances and exits is a lasting memory and neatly closes the play.
Richard Cordery is a big man and his Polonius is double-edged. You sense the kind father but see lurking in the background a bullying parent. The is particularly so when he cross-questions Ophelia about her relationship with Hamlet. Meg Fraser's Ophelia, neat prim even bears this out. She is a woman with little knowledge of the real world; perhaps, you think for an instant later, she would be safer in a nunnery.
Clive Wood and Sian Thomas offer us a reserved Claudius and Gertrude. This is fine as far as it goes though it's hard to image the passion that brought him (or them) to murder the old King.
Ghost of Old Hamlet: Greg Hicks
Claudius: Clive Wood
Gertrude: Sian Thomas
Hamlet: Toby Stephens
Polonius: Richard Cordery
Laertes: Gideon Turner
Ophelia: Meg Fraser
Lady: Jessica Tomchak
Horatio: Forbes Masson
Rosencrantz: John MacKay
Guildenstern: John Killoran
Francisco: Neil Madden
Barnardo: Ian Drysdale
Marcellus: Sion Tudor Owen
Voltimand: Edward Clarke
Osric: Jonathan Forbes
Fortinbras: Trystan Gravelle
Player King/ Gravedigger: Greg Hicks
Player Queen: Anita Booth
Switzers/ Norwegian Soldiers: Andrew Anderson, James Barnes, Joseph Curdy, Kevin Eaton, Darran Foxon, Philip Hollingsworth, Miles Nicholls, Morgan Monroe
Directed by: Michael Boyd
Designed by: Tom Piper
Lighting Designer: by: Vince Herbert
Music Composed by: John Woolf
Sound Designed by: Andrea J Cox
Movement Designed by: Liz Ranken
Fights Directed by: Terry King
Assistant Director: Gavin Marshall
Music Director: John Woolf
Company Voice Work by: Lyn Darnley and Tess Dignan
2004-08-06 13:49:33