This is the best version of Hamlet I have ever seen on a stage. Go and get tickets for it while you still can.Now, if you feel so inclined, the more detailed version...
... Many previous reviewers have already commented on Andrew Scott's brilliance in the role of Hamlet, but it's fair praise: he is astonishing. His performance felt so light, so vital, that it could have been of a text written yesterday. Having seen Benedict Cumberbatch, Rory Kinnear and David Tennant in the role, I am still quite comfortable in saying this is the best iteration of Hamlet I have yet witnessed. Scott's version of the legendary character is both startlingly vulnerable and dangerously unpredictable.
However, this version of Hamlet isn't just the Andrew Scott show. No, the whole thing is a master-class in how to bring Shakespeare to a modern stage and make it feel relevant. Robert Icke's direction is inspired. The design, the staging, the lack of cuts that could have made it a shorter piece, the AV choices: everything works.
Particular design highlights included the use of news broadcasts, and introducing the ghost via CCTV, and the music direction - lots of Bob Dylan and some original Laura Marling - is properly spine-tingling.
The rest of the class stand up to Scott's brilliance, as well, and Juliet Stevenson's Gertrude takes Hamlet's mother in an unusually powerful direction. Her knowing death at the end was one of the striking-yet-subtle twists that made this production so incredible.
This proved to be a brave new Hamlet without a sacrifice of the original text. It made me excited about the theatre, and determined to try and rethink how to introduce Shakespeare to younger audiences (during working hours I'm an English teacher).
If you can see it you must. It is a master-class in everything Shakespeare can be on a modern stage.
5/5: The flawless, classic, and contemporary Dane
Transferred to the Harold Pinter Theatre
Until 2nd September
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