Reviewed by James Karas
Robert Icke directed an idiosyncratic staging of Hamlet
for the Almeida Theatre which has now transferred to the Harold Pinter Theatre
in London’s West End. The production shows originality, imagination and
outstanding directing by Icke and a superb cast. It is a Hamlet for the record
books.
The modern dress production makes
liberal use of video projections and sets the play in modern day Denmark. It opens
with videos projected on a number of screens around the theatre showing a state
funeral as it would be covered by the media. There is a motorcade, pictures of
mourners and all the hoopla surrounding an important burial. The play proper
begins in a security room where the guards are watching a number of close
circuit camera screens where the Ghost of Hamlet appears.
Andrew Scott with Juliet Stevenson and Angus Wright in Robert Icke’s Hamlet. Photo:
Manuel Harlan
Much of the action of the play
takes place in a simple room with a couch and a chair with changes made for
different places in the palace. When we first see Gertrude and Claudius they
are dressed formally for a fine reception. The reception is behind a glass wall
and the dialogue takes place on front of it.
We soon notice that Claudius
(Angus Wright) and Gertrude (Juliet Stevenson) are very much in love. In the reception
room they dance, embrace and kiss quite passionately and the relationship
continues like that almost to the end when Gertrude finally realizes Claudius’s
treachery.
Icke interprets almost every
character in the play his own way. Hamlet is an outsider dressed in black
slacks and T-shirt and is barefoot. He and the rest of the characters speak
matter-of-factly in a very naturalistic way. Claudius addressing Gertrude,
Hamlet, Polonius and his children and everyone else speak in the same relaxed
manner. That will change of course when the emotional thermometer explodes but
it will take a while to get there.
The down-to-earth Hamlet (Andrew
Scott) and Ophelia (Jessica Brown Findlay) are playful lovers. He hides in her
father’s house and steals kisses. In his soliloquies he shows genuine wonder
about what is happening and he is addressing us as well as himself.
He rises to the emotional demands
of the play but he is never histrionic. His soliloquies are indeed conversations
with himself but not emotionally overcharged. In all of this I think Icke finds
a fine balance and a highly commendable approach. This is an original and
finely acted Hamlet that Andrew Scott delivers under the guidance of Icke.
Ophelia is a mature young woman who
hears her father’s and brother’s admonitions without listening to them. She
looks on Hamlet as if they were equal and her fall is the more painful and
dramatic for that.
Angus Wright has one of those mellifluous, deep voices that
is just a pleasure to listen to. His Claudius is a very cool usurper and
seducer. He is supposed to be found praying by Hamlet and is not murdered by
him for fear of sending his soul to heaven. In this production he is ruminating
in a chair and Hamlet is in front of him with a gun but does not shoot. The
scene is confusing because they are looking directly at each other and Hamlet
is pointing a gun at him.
Peter Wright plays Polonius as an
elder statesman and loving father without trying to get laughs by emphasizing
some of his buffoonish traits. Juliet Stevenson is a highly attractive Gertrude
who is sexually attracted to Claudius and resists him only momentarily after
the closet scene with Hamlet. Her realization during the fencing is superb
theatre.
In addition to all the
directorial touches and brilliance that Icke displays he finds his own exit for
the play which is yet another marvelous touch but I will not spoil it for you.
A Hamlet for the history
books.
_________
Hamlet by William
Shakespeare continues until September 2,
2017 at the Harold Pinter Theatre, Panton Street, London.
No comments:
Post a Comment