December 8, 2010, by Peter Kirwan
Too Many Danes
How many Hamlets can we sit through?
In many ways, we’re still in the shadow of the RSC and Donmar "celebrity" productions, more recently joined by the National’s major stab. It’s one of the big institutional shows, and it’s had a good run round the main theatres over the last year and a bit.
But then there are the myriad smaller versions I’ve caught: the RSC Young Person’s version, Tom Cornford’s reconstruction, the Zimbabwean Kupenga Kwa Hamlet, the National’s Prince of Denmark.
You’d think this might mean Hamlet was being exhausted for the time being, but oh no. First up is Northern Broadsides on tour; then the Factory Hamlet is returning to the Rose Kingston. The Young Vic is mounting its version with Michael Sheen, and the RSC YP version is still doing the rounds. And finally, Shakespeare’s Globe are doing a touring version.
A serious question arises. However good Hamlet is, does it really warrant this level of public saturation? I love the play, but I do find productions of it (with notable exceptions, such as Two Gents) rather too similar to one another to justify the continuous repetition. It’s partly to do with the cultural baggage that Hamlet drags along with it: directors are happy to put slightly different glosses and tones on it, but the essential production remains the same in a way that, say, the similarly huge number of Macbeths avoids through breathtaking variety.
Here’s a plea to the directors of all the forthcoming shows (and I know the Factory one will at least manage this): PLEASE temper your reverence to the text with an awareness that we are spoiled for Hamlets. Play with it!
No one is being forced to watch any of these productions. The repetition is only an issue for those poor mad fools like us who set ourselves the task of taking them all in. Most theatregoers will not trek round seeing them all, so more Hamlets increases the probability of the occasional theatregoer seeing at least one version.
On the other hand, this bumper crop of Danes does seem to be the result of companies going for the safe option of staging a big, well-known play with a proven market. If it helps Northern Broadsides to survive Art Council funding cuts, I for one will not be complaining.
Don’t forget John Sim.
“Poor mad fools” Agreed, those of us who (try to) see them all number only in the dozens or 100s, whereas 10s of 1000s will see Kinnear alone and be content.
And not forgeting that between end 2005 and 2009 there were no Hamlets in London (RSC, Globe, Open Air, West End, NT), and that felt like a loooong time. Let three buses come along at once.
The big Hamlet’s sell out effortlessly and many can’t get a ticket. That this play is so popular after 410 years is to be celebrated. With bait like Hamlet, some of us will eventuly find our way to productions of the Two Noble Kinsmen, but the other way around?
But being one of the poor mad fools, I agree. Shake it up.
Looking forward to Michael Sheen. Loved the Young Vic’s Lear, (Gould)
Guest – thanks, I knew I’d forgotten one! I’m going to be a pedant – the RSC’s Hamlet was in London in December 2008, but your point is taken.
Obviously, I think it’s a great thing that more people are getting a chance to see a Hamlet; but if you pursue that line of thinking, why isn’t every theatre company performing Hamlet all year round in order to make sure that no-one misses out? The question is one of reasonable balance: what makes Hamlet so important that productions need to be staged so often in order to make sure that this particular play gets a wide audience? From an artistic and cultural point of view, I would strongly support this if each Hamlet was giving us excitingly different and immediate takes on the play, if Hamlet was pushing the boundaries of culture and making it an urgent and provocative play. But of all the tragedies, I feel it’s the one that has become the most stagnant in production (_re_production, if you will); and thus I wonder if it is quite so important that so many people get to see it, at the expense of other plays which have more to say to our time and place.
Duncan – I agree, I think it’s the commercial imperative. You’ll notice I haven’t complained about the glut of Macbeths this year, which I imagine had a similar motivation, but those Macbeths managed to be both commercially successful AND artistically diverse. This is my plea for next year: that if we are going to have this many Hamlets, that directors offer something more than heritage.
Another one to add: Company Theatre Mumbai are bringing Hamlet the Crown Prince to the UK, playing at Warwick Arts Centre in mid-March. “Performed in English and Gibberish with no surtitles.” I have to say, this one sounds fantastic:
“Shakespeare’s best known play is brought vividly to life as a bunch of clowns attempt to put on their own production. As they try to understand it they make a mess of the work, sometimes misinterpreting the text, sometimes making a mess of the order of things as if the pages of the script got mixed up, sometimes confusing their own lives with their fictional characters. But through it all they are simply looking for the essence of Hamlet and trying to find a context for our own times.”
Globe Hamlet tour starting in a few months …
Hamlet – The Clown Prince is on at the Hackney Empire from 23 to 26 March. Tickets now on sale:
http://www.hackneyempire.co.uk/2176/shows/hamlet-clown-prince.html