HAMLET at the GFT

This production has been receiving glowing glittering tributes for very good reason.

The problem with some players of the title role is that they approach it as if they are playing King Lear , to properly play the character of Hamlet you require to imagine a youthful mind coming to terms with the dirty mechanics of power and the added pressures on the psyche which go with the weight of idealistic expectation of being thrust in struggles not of your making for the first time , rather than an old man revisiting the past from the edge of a cliff as a result of many decades of unresolved neglected responsibilities.

The success of this production is the soliloquies by Rory Kinnear are uncluttered , sparsely delivered in a simplified manner. Not with the histrionics showcasing the range of emotional melodrama gratuitously exhibiting proof the actor attended six years of drama academy just in case the audience did not realise it , and throwing in some lavish arm waving for good measure just so no one appears to be short changed from what Olivier may have done at the pictures a while back.This gives Shakespeares actual piercing stark meaningful words a rare and deserved centre stage and a deserved sharp focused spotlight action louder than any distracting gesture.

As Kinnear allows the words to do the talking , so the minimalist stark set also allows the concepts behind the words to step to the very fore , where they enter the mind of the audience without visual distraction , becoming the real drama , rather than dramatics , to play in the head long after the play ends.

The winner is Shakespeare as this version gives his art centre stage , making the audience a listener first , viewer second.

This review is typical of the welcome the broadsheets have given Kinnear performance.
And here Billington gives a concise view of the enduring appeal of Hamlet as a universal meditation.