Hamlet represented my first professional Shakespeare production. And what a production to be the first! Rory Kinnear in Shakespeare’s most famous role at the Royal National Theatre! Excitement, as you can imagine, was high. Especially considering that the fact that I was seeing it on the same night that it was being beamed into 14 countries globally as part of the new “NT live!” scheme by the National Theatre, which sees some of its most popular productions being shown in cinemas worldwide.
The Oliver Theatre at the National was the perfect venue for this production, having a traditional theatrical feel (which just seems right for Shakespeare) mixed with a contemporary, experimental vibe, which, of course, was the essence of this production.
Directed by National Theatre artistic director Nicholas Hytner (famed director of Miss Saigon and The History Boys), this production is a modern re-imagining of the play. Set in the modern world (though in a non-specific place) Hamlet is still the prince of Denmark, his father the king still dies and is replaced by his uncle, but this time, there are modern costumes, sets and props, and CCTV cameras constantly spy on the public, following the characters wherever they go.
Hamlet follows the story of the Prince of Denmark who, after his father’s death is convinced that the king was in fact murdered by his uncle who ultimately became king and married Hamlet’s mother. Hamlet becomes infatuated with Ophelia, whose father is convinced that Hamlet is mad. The play follows Hamlet’s journey to avenge his father’s death, and the royal family’s journey to prove Hamlet’s insanity.
Rory Kinnear as Hamlet.
Hytner’s vision and idea is not terribly different to those of other Shakespeare directors who have come before him in the modern world, and some of those productions, indeed, worked better. Hytner has a great eye for movement. He has a great ear for music in dialogue, and he has a great knowledge and understanding of characters. But his relationship with his designer was the downfall of this production. Only a small downfall though it was, it meant that the audience couldn’t fully connect with the play – Hytner seemed to be stuck in two worlds. Part of him seemed to want to be modern and different, but it didn’t feel as if he quite escaped his traditionalist other half, who wanted to do things properly. Vicki Mortimer’s cumbersome, clunking design didn’t help either – a set that should have moved fluidly and freely with the title character turned out to be at worst an obstruction, at best, functional. It created a restricted view (which is hard to believe in a theatre like the Olivier) and just seemed to want to do so much more to aid the performers. The best thing I could say about the set is that it did manage to create a black-and-white image where everything looked the same. This could be interpreted as how Hamlet sees the world after his father’s death, how everyone is equally against him. How the world and its people are all the same, all as bad as each other.
Rory Kinnear’s interpretation of Hamlet was masterful, and more importantly memorable. It’s easy to take a performer in this role for granted when so many great actors have played the role over the years, but Kinnear’s interpretation is definitely fresh and unique. Kinnear wrings the play of its humour, adds much physical acting and farcical elements and immediately juxtaposes it with the serious thinking of a man filled with inner turmoil. Kinnear’s Hamlet is a personal character. There are elements that any person could relate to. Consequently, you feel yourself more drawn in to the character, you laugh with him, you cry with him, and you feel involved in his relationships with Ophelia and his mother amongst others. His immediate switch from funny to serious in one scene shows great natural comic time, Kinnear plays a rather camp-insane Hamlet – this works for his mental state, it blends well with the serious side of the character.
Two other cast highlights were Giles Terera as Horatio and Clare Higgins as Gertrude, Hamlet’s mother.
Terera and Kinnear played wonderfully off each other. The perfect level of angst and tension built up between them, you felt for both characters and understood the almost brotherly-love between the characters. They are there for each other from the start to the end – almost the only constant in each other’s lives.
From the start, we felt absolutely no compassion towards Gertrude whatsoever. A woman who marries her husband’s brother right after he dies? Not attractive. We are on Hamlet’s side, we want him to hate her, and she deserves it. Clare Higgins’ played this character well in that way. She created the stuck up cow that Gertrude appears to be, but she really showed off her real acting skills in her emotional tension-filled scenes with her son, being powerful yet showing a vulnerable side, a side that Hamlet knew how to get to. Higgins gave a strong, balanced performance, though it did seem apparent that she was battling a cold. Her voice frequently became hoarse, and therefore some of her lines were lost.
The supporting cast were also all strong; Patrick Malahide as Claudius, Alex Lanipekun as Laertes and David Calder as the Gravedigger to name but a few.
The only cast member that was slightly under-whelming was Ruth Negga’s Ophelia. A character that we’re supposed to see and sympathise with, understand her and her motives, the reasons for her insanity. But this wasn’t exactly clear in Negga’s interpretation. We didn’t really understand the reasons for some of Ophelia’s movement, insanity and reactions to other characters. She played the mad side of Ophelia very well, but her progression and dramatic arc throughout the play was not clear – the audience didn’t see Ophelia’s transition from one state to another as the play progressed.
Rory Kinnear as Hamlet and Ruth Negga as Ophelia.
The score of Hamlet, by Alex Baranowski is distinctly different to what we’re used to hearing in a theatre. With a more cinematic sound, Baranowski’s music is not limited to scene change, it represents characters in their entrance, and it underscores – even when sometimes we don’t notice it – to add spookiness to the piece. It works well in the theatrical scenes to accompany Hamlet’s play, and worked particularly well when characters were in motion. Baranowski’s tension filled score kept the audience on the edge of their seats and was well suited to Hamlet, both the character and the play.
The National Theatre is a fantastic venue, and it was great to see Hamlet whilst it was being broadcast through NT Live. However, there were sound issues with the production, mostly to do with the microphone balance of the actors. Under normal circumstances of course, this problem may not have existed, but at this particular performance, some actors appeared to have microphones, some didn’t. This was a huge mistake as the overall sound of the production was not balanced. Some actors seemed to have issues with projection (many of them sounded ill), some didn’t. However, the advisable thing would have been to have given everyone microphones or given no-one microphones. However, admittedly, these problems may have been unique to this performance due to the fact that it was being broadcast live.
Nicholas Hytner’s Hamlet is a fantastic production, superbly acted and alive with energy.
4*
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