Andrew Scott's Hamlet (Almeida)

Thanks crowblack, that WAS interesting.



Luckily I'm seeing it again, so perhaps that will be clearer.

Ps why the problem with the watches? You don't need one when you are dead and we know how long a body takes to rot because the grave digger tells us. Time out of joint..

My take on it was that by the end it became a video editor's Hamlet which fits with the camera work and video technology - Marcellus seemed like the hired hand for that! So the watch, as well as highlighting the rivalry between Laertes and Hamlet where both have lost, feels like a deliberate continuity gaffe as Hamlet enters the court's wedding party Valhalla. Which itself is like a rewind to the beginning. This also makes sense of the problematic Hamlet/Claudius scene, it seems to me. Of course this could just be me soliloquizing and if anyone has a better theory, I'd love to know it! trafficlighttheatregoer.blogspot.co.uk/2017/03/review-hamlet.html?m=1

Poor Billington in particular seemed flummoxed by the Hamlet/Claudius scene (Clapp, as his Sunday sibling giving it five stars today, by the way). They are both in the same space physically and not in the same space physically (same with mentally), a deliberate ambiguity so that different possibilities exist. Some critics cope badly with that sort of thing, I took at as being akin to F Scott Fitzgerald's dictum of being able to hold two opposing ideas at the same time and still being able to function (be or not be, as it were).

Well this was long wasn't it. Fantastic though. Sat in Stalls E25 / E26 which are restricted view officially but the restriction is almost non-existant. Incredible value. Also the chairs were very comfy.

One good ticket for 6th April now available on the website

I just had to return a ticket for tomorrow's matinee if you're looking for one

It was a real privelege to attend this Hamlet. So well staged for this theatre, with the audience a part of the production. The text spoken in such a way that it sounds completely understandable and never archaic or impossibly dense, but also not updated or modernised, although odd words and lines have been refreshed for comprehensibility and coherence. Everything seems so well considered that it doesn't matter that you can't take proper notice of everything - for example, the music mostly passed me by. The gestures and movement contribute a significant layer to the experience, but you won't feel confused if you don't follow that aspect. No movement director credited, so I assume that Robert Icke does this without any assistance? The direction and design are incredibly mature, miles away from the old tradition of setting a play in a specific place and time and bashing a round peg into a square hole, but instead creating a bespoke world to clearly present the play. This was the first time I've seen a Robert Icke classic play so I wasn't distracted by building a mental theory of how he works and could instead just throw myself cold into this production and get from it as much as I could. It is amazing!

Still no notice of a transfer?!

It is as good as Oresteia (which I loved). Even better perhaps. You will probably find these two productions slightly similar, when it comes to stage design for example... But Scott's performance really is a tour de force. 

I really liked the last 1/3
Excellent

And Ophelias demise is one of the best ever portrayed I have seen

Almost like a different director was involved

However there are 3 hours prior to this which are average at best

And overall it is underpowered

Flashes of brilliance

But too long

And Angus wright was a f***ing disgrace

Monotone robot

Totally miscast and ruined it for me