Hamlet (WYP, 19/04/11)

Now Hamlet has never been one of my favourite of Shakespeare's plays. I find it overlong and full of pretentiousness - far too many soliloquies - and the story isn't as exciting as some of the other tragedies. However, the performance I saw last week has altered my opinion of the play, for it was nothing short of excellent. I suppose that is par for the course, though, since it was performed by Northern Broadsides, who have enchanted me now 6 times over the years, with Macbeth, The Tempest (my two favourite Shakespeares), Romeo and Juliet, Othello and The Canterbury Tales. 

The companies use of humour and music where the play has none lifts scenes from being deadly dull, and adds sparkle to dry lumps of dialogue. It also helps that the cast was fantastic. No star names here (the only person I recognised was the wonderfully-monikered Fine Time Fontayne, from previous Northern Broadsides shows) - you can keep your David Tennants, John Sims and any other 'stunt casting' of the lead role, relative unknown Nicholas Shaw gave a barnstorming performance of the moody Danish prince. He came with no TV/film 'baggage' or expectation and he played Hamlet with relish, aided by the inventive stage direction, which included Hamlet occasionally putting his thoughts down on the black set, in chalk, writing out 'to be or not to be'. He bounded around the stage, making his Hamlet less morose and more likable as a lead character for 2.5 hrs. 

The rest of the cast were top notch (although Laertes was a little over-dramatic for my tastes), with Natalie Dew's Ophelia suitably mad. The only thing I thought they didn't get quite right was that there didn't seem to be any sense of a relationship between Hamlet and Ophelia. They barely interacted and the performers didn't have any spark. Still, this play is not a romance. The action and music and humour all added up to a thrilling show, and the use of twins to play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern was inspired. I can't believe it, but I actually enjoyed Hamlet!