Hamlet - Young Vic

Ticket availability was good for the dates I looked at and queue was reasonably quick.

Uh oh. Just bought a £10 ticket. Not my favourite Shakespeare but thought...Cush Jumbo. Why not.

At the first preview, it was 2 hours 10 min to the break. Kwame Kwei-Armah introduced the evening and explained this was to be their first full run-though.


Of course it needs tightening - I'd like to see it again later in the run - but more than half the house was on its feet at the end and that's not a bad place to be.

There may have been a row across the middle of the auditorium where the creative team sat and they may have been first on their feet and some of the audience may have taken their cue from that, I couldn't possibly comment.


It's a fair point on the toilets; with only a 15-minute interval after 2 plus hours, it's just as well toilets formally called 'the Gents' were available for women.

Lost some time already, out by 10.15 this evening.

First half is too long, there is a notable increase in coughing, moving, fidgeting and noise. Really could do with a split down the middle and maybe a 20 min interval.

Other than that, thoroughly enjoyed it. Cast are superb, on the way in we agreed would happily watch Cush Jumbo read the phonebook and in a funny moment she reads from Heat magazine which is even less engaging than the phonebook... so all was good.

Wasn't this set to stream? I'm not finding anything about how to book.

Watched it tonight and rather liked it. It takes a little while to find its footing, but when it does it gets quite sharp and focused. The second act in particular is very tight, because of both acting/direction and several cuts (eg: the whole Fortinbras sub-plot is gone; no second gravedigger).

Cush Jumbo is a fine Hamlet, at times very funny but constantly on edge. She has a very androgynous look, which can be quite uncanny since at times you have the impression of watching a teenage boy playing the Dane. I think this is something they are consciously going for, especially since Ophelia too is quite teenage looking and they removed the textual clues you can use to figure out Hamlet's age.

There are some very strong supporting performances, especially from Joseph Marcell (Polonius) and Leo Wringer (Leading Player/Gravedigger). The weak link for me was Adrian Dunbar, he gets better in the final couple of scenes in which he plays the calculating politician, but there is very little inner turmoil and he's quite bland in general. This is a pity, especially since he also doubles as the ghost. The interval was poorly placed and it seems to be there only so that Cush Jumbo doesn't have to drag Polonius' body off-stage, they could have put it five minutes later without interrupting the flow of the scene. But on the whole it's pretty pretty good

She's great - we saw her at the Manchester Royal Exchange in The Almighty Sometimes and in the touring Equus and think she's one to watch! I'm not going to be able to see this in person but looking forward to the livestream. 

I saw this last night with a friend and we both really enjoyed it. 
Cush Jumbo is a terrific Hamlet - she absolutely made the part her own, delivering Shakespeare like it was written yesterday - and the rest of the cast were really good, too, with the exception of Gertrude, who for me lacked any agenda (I couldn't read her at all, and found her utterly empty as a character) and Laertes, who mumbled his way through most of his lines in the second half. The dynamic of the court was really interesting to me - the king (in my mind, so clearly modelled after Trump - did anyone else think this?) not as a figure of respect, but almost disguised contempt, with his laughable businessman-like, eager-to-appeal demeanour. (I agree he was not very good as the ghost, but I enjoyed his sleaziness in the main role.)

The only thing I intensely disliked was the set design: it looked oddly like a village school production of "Hamlet", with its painted cardboard-like stage and the odd revolving pillars - neither of which, to me, helped create the feel of an actual castle, fake glamour of it or not - and pink-loaded pastels, but I have not been able to deduce, or even come up with an idea of what might have been behind that choice. (Anyone has?)

peggs , no, don't worry, it's not bloody at all, and some potentially more difficult scenes are not actually shown, just referenced.