Hamlet is 2hour-15 minute of drama from late William Shakespeare (1564-1616). There is a cast of 10 (2F:8M), two acts (70min, 55min), and a ten-minute interval. It is fair to say that this is a fully-sold-out capacity run, hugely popular with the audience, which tonight includes a senior school group studying the play as part of their syllabus.

In tonight's version: The King of Denmark (Jason Wing) is murdered by his brother Claudius (Martin Malone) who pours poison in his ear while he sleeps. Claudius becomes king and marries the late king's wife Gertrude (Caroline Burns Cooke). The late king's ghost appears to his son Hamlet (Max Day), who stages a play in which the murder is re-enacted. Sensing he is found out, Claudius sends Hamlet away. Hamlet comes back and stabs a man to death through a curtain. This is (was) Polonius (Bill Arundel), father of Ophelia (who loves Hamlet) (Angelina Reilly-Szostak) and Laertes (Sean Williams), a skilled duellist. Ophelia drowns herself. Claudius encourages Laertes to duel Hamlet. Claudius tries to poison Hamlet with a drink, but his wife and Hamlet's mother, Gertrude, drinks it instead and dies. Hamlet pierces Laertes and Claudius, who both die. Hamlet dies from a poisoned dagger. Other characters include Fortinbras (Benjamin Bate) leading an army; two old schoolfriends of Hamlet - Guildenstern (Ben Richardson) and Rosencrantz (Dave Tremaine) - whose murder Hamlet arranges as spies of Claudius, a gravedigger (Jason Wing), actors within Hamlet's play, Yorrick's skull, and Hamlet's friend Horatio (Matthew Lawson): pretty much the only one left standing at the end and who takes it on himself to tell the world what happened. (There are expanded details of Hamlet at the Royal Shakespeare Company's website www.rsc.org.uk.)

This version, at 125 minutes, is around two-thirds of the full Hamlet. It has been shortened by Max Day who also plays Hamlet.

There are strong performances in particular from Martin Malone as Hamlet's evil uncle Claudius; Caroline Burns Cooke as Gertrude; Benjamin Bate as Fortinbras; Sean Williams as Laertes; Bill Arundel as Polonius - all of whom seem to inhabit their parts rather than simply speaking the lines. Caroline Burns Cooke's Gertrude is a strong characterisation, sexy as a minx, catching the eroticism of the script and reversals of Gertrude's understanding of what is happening expertly. Sean Williams brings the part of Laertes alive, and delivers a camp and funny 'Gertrude' in the play within the play. Ben Richardson and Dave Tremaine deliver respectively Guildenstern and Rosencrantz with a light touch as comedy fools. Benjamin Bate's Fortinbras carries authority. And there are several inspired performances from other members of the cast. Martin Malone centres the production as Claudius - he may be evil, but in Martin Malone's version, he's interesting. Hamlet, by contrast, comes across as whining and dull - the awful bore to avoid getting stuck in the kitchen with at parties. Perhaps Shakespeare intended this, to give some audience sympathy to the in-many-ways-central figures (in terms of the story's structure) of Claudius and Gertrude. Regardless, Martin Malone and Caroline Burns Cooke rather steal the play.

It is difficult to analyse Max Day's central performance as Hamlet. Max Day is obviously a brilliant actor, with a remarkable range of skills. It can be problematic for a writer - essentially his role behind the scenes here - to act in his own production. It would be interesting to see how another actor - perhaps Benjamin Bate, a ready-made Danish prince in appearance: tall and blond-haired, suggesting a classic presentation of Hamlet himself (in for example the Laurence Olivier film, re-released digitally remastered 2007) - would handle the central part, with Max Day's editing and rewriting of the script to get the balance right (seeing it externally) between Hamlet and the other characters. As it is, there is a great deal of Hamlet in the shortened version. In fact at times it seems Hamlet is never off the stage, making countless false exits only to reappear. While it is true that many familiar phrases in the English language come from Hamlet's remaining speeches, there is still quite a lot to plough through to experience them in their original context. There are some extremely long speeches, which can pall - perhaps they could have been sliced in the edit, others excised, the play cut to perhaps 2 hours including interval, which could produce a more taut production. Once the principle of hacking the Bard is accepted, his original proportioning is upset, and one perhaps needs to lose the sacred to get to the essence.

Nicola Haydn's direction is robust, while catching the nuances of the script. It's full-on, with lots of overt eroticism, a lot of shouting, head slapping, foot stamping, and bold gestures - bringing to life Shakespeare the crowd-pleasing showman. The direction evokes the sexual, incestuous themes - slightly between Ophelia and her brother Laertes, more strongly between Hamlet and his mother Gertrude, with Max Day's Hamlet stroking Gertrude's thigh, and making one speech from between her legs. The direction uses all the spaces of the theatre effectively, with a big cast expertly used, and imaginative lighting from Kayleigh Vanwell. On a leaner, shorter script, preferably with the female parts beefed up a bit (it's very male-heavy - a shortcoming of Shakespeare for today's more balanced society (and audiences) - and no harm in adding some writing; Brighton has perhaps the highest density of poets in Europe, plenty of them able to stitch into Shakespeare's verse), Nicola Haydn's obvious sensitivity for the subtleties of text could work wonders.

Cast Credits: (alpha order): Bill Arundel - Polonius. Benjamin Bate - Fortinbras. Caroline Burns Cooke - Gertrude. Max Day - Hamlet. Matthew Lawson - Horatio. Martin Malone - Claudius. Angelina Reilly-Szostak - Ophelia. Ben Richardson - Guildenstern. Dave Tremaine - Rosencrantz. Sean Williams - Laertes. Jason Wing - Ghost / Player-King / Gravedigger / Osric.

Company Credits: Writer - William Shakespeare (1564-1616). Abridged by - Max Day. Director - Nicola Haydn. Lighting Designer - Kayleigh Vanwell. Technical Operator - Nicola Haydn. Company - Halcyon Productions.

END

(c) Fringe Report 2007

reviewed John Park Friday 11 May 2007 / Marlborough Theatre

Fringe Report (c) Fringe Report 2002-2008