LA TRAGEDIE D'HAMLET. To 14 June.

Coventry

LA TRAGEDIE D'HAMLET
by William Shakespeare adapted by Peter Brook translated by Jean-Claude Carriere and Marie-Helene Estienne

Theatre des Bouffes du Nord company at Warwick Arts Centre To 14 June 2003 7.30pm Mat Sat 2.30pm
Runs 2hr 25min No interval

TICKETS: 024 7652 4524
www.warwickartscentre.co.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 11 June

Words like 'essential' and 'unmissable' are made for this production.People often confuse the English words simple and simplistic. This production shows how far apart their meanings are. If you didn't know it was Hamlet you were about to watch, one look at the stage and it would be near-certain it was going to be a Peter Brook production. The simple square of vibrant orange carpet, defining the playing area, the clump of instruments, with an eastern tang, in one corner, the spare setting – all suggest Brook's actor-focused, untricksy open-space style.

Many highly-touted international directors add - concepts, technology, visuals. Brook strips away; there's not a wasted move or moment here. It has the beauty of true economy (as opposed to mere cheapness – this economy is rich in implication). Repeatedly moments strike afresh – from the self-parody pre-show opening to the remarkable ending. Everything's part of a coherent whole inspired by the script.

This is Hamlet's tragedy. It starts at his first (solid flesh) soliloquy. Externals must take second place. There's a surprising lightness early on. But this undecided young man – egotistically veering between jokiness and intense seriousness – moves swiftly from open talk to the audience towards introspection.

You can tell where it begins: his father's Ghost, a regally still figure, does not vanish but stands unnoticed in one corner after speaking with his son. When old Hamlet echoes his son's 'Swear' to Horatio, it's no ethereal utterance. For the prince, it's his father's voice, unexpectedly in the room. And it gives him a jolt.

When he stabs Polonius behind the arras (concealed characters hold up the hangings that hide them – keeping the staging simple while emphasising the deliberate act of eavesdropping), Hamlet smiles and sighs with relief – at last he's done his duty. Till he discovers it's not Claudius, but the courtier he's killed and the burden returns.

The anger he turns on Ophelia stabs into himself too. Brook reorders the soliloquies – the reference to Ophelia that ends 'To be or not to be' shifts forward, tacked on to an earlier speech. When, logically late on this journey within himself, 'To be' arrives, Hamlet ends up ignoring the young woman who silently crosses the stage behind his reflective presence. It's no wonder we next see her, only moments later, in her mind-crazed flower scene.

Nor that Laertes' return to Claudius' court is watched from one shadowy side by Hamlet, while Veronique Sacri sits the other side for Ophelia's funeral: death is ever presence in this murder zone.

Even the slightly effortful bounciness of the gravediggers goes with a setting out of three skulls: when Yorick's is taken the remaining pair stand for Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Then in an astounding ending, where swords and poison bring death with physical economy so severe reality gives way to symbol, Laertes, Claudius and Gertrude are suddenly joined in death by other cast members, entering the acting area and collapsing with choric grace.

Till, as we hear 'the rest is silence', the lights brighten and Hamlet steps forward with the words – addressed direct out to the audience – that open Shakespeare's play. 'Who's there?' ends this questioning play on an apt interrogative note, re-establishing the sense of forward-driving purpose in human existence.

The acting, of course, is truthful, making everything seem inevitable; the tone trips easily between moods, with room for moments of near caricature – as when Rosencrantz cannot hurry off quickly enough to do Claudius' bidding. The small cast never fels constricted, nor the doubling strained. And it imparts a chamber-like focus on Hamlet himself.

Brook's approach is radical; but it's not that of someone kneading a play into a contorted shape. Rather he holds it up to light, every twist and turn revealing new aspects of its identity, all consonant as part of a seamless whole.

In Brook's hands, Shakespeare's play is alive and kicking; the drama of Everyman becomes a poem of human life.

Ghost/Claudius: Emile Abossolo-Mbo
Gertrude: Lilo Baur
Polonius/Grave Digger: Habib Dembele dit Guimba
Guildenstern/Second Player/Laertes: Rachid Djaidani
Rosencrantz/First Player/Grave Digger: Bruce Myers
Hamlet: William Nadylam
Ophelia: Veronique Sacri
Horatio: Antonin Stahly

Director: Peter Brook
Lighting: Philippe Vialatte
Music: Antonin Stahly
Costume: Ysabel de Maisonneuve, Issey Miyake
Assistant director: Marie-Helene Estienne

2003-06-12 12:37:12