Haider (dir. Vishal Bhardwaj) @ Warwick Arts Centre Cinema
April 25, 2015
The third of Vishal Bhardwaj’s trilogy of Indian Shakespeare adaptations, following Maqbool and the excellent Omkara, is his most ambitious yet, and possibly the most aggressively political Shakespeare film I have ever seen. The film, set at the height of troubles in Kashmir in 1995, has been the subject of a huge amount of controversy, …
Hamlet (Royal Exchange) @ The Broadway, Nottingham
March 28, 2015
Watching the Royal Exchange production of Hamlet on the big screen, in a specially recorded film version (still performed in front of an audience, but with a certain amount of editing work to make the most of key images), brought home to me the significance of much of the production’s work. While I enjoyed the …
Hamlet @ The Royal Exchange, Manchester
September 21, 2014
Despite the apparent novelty, Hamlet is perhaps the Shakespearean tragic hero most often played by a woman. As Tony Howard’s excellent book sets out, women have performed the role for more than two centuries, and indeed the finest of all Hamlet films features the superlative Asta Nielsen in the role. Nonetheless, Maxine Peake’s return to …
In the Footsteps of Hamlet @ Kronborg Slot, Helsingor, Denmark
September 2, 2014
Heaven forfend that I should go on holiday without having some light Shakespeare connection. However, even a normal person visiting Denmark would be the poorer for skipping Kronborg Slot in Helsingor – the Elsinore of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. It’s a stunning, beautifully situated castle, its cannons facing Sweden across the narrowest part of the straits dividing …
Hamlet (Yohangza Theatre) @ The Peacock Theatre, London
July 13, 2014
A raised platform thrust upwards from a bed of fine gravel, while towering tapestries on three sides of the stage depicted ancient Korean men and women in formal postures and brightly coloured clothes. Onto this stage stepped a man in black, reading a Penguin edition of Hamlet, who began speaking words whose cadences, even if …
Hamlet (RSC) @ The Royal Shakespeare Theatre
May 4, 2013
Creating smallness on the stage of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre is no easy feat, but David Farr’s new production of Hamlet shrunk Stratford’s flagship theatre down to an almost nostalgic depiction of a community hall. School benches and gym bars flanked the thrust stage; fencing foils lined the walls, and a small proscenium stage marked the upstage focus. …
Hamlet (Ketterer’s Men) @ The Shakespeare Institute, Stratford–upon–Avon
October 16, 2011
I’ve recently been reading Marvin Carlson’s The Haunted Stage (2001), which deals with a phenomenon in watching and making theatre that Carlson calls "ghosting". This is, effectively, the outer frame which shapes what an audience experiences in the process of attending a theatrical event, the collective resonances carried by actors, buildings, texts, scenery, everything that …
Hamlet (Vital Signs) @ The White Bear Theatre Pub
May 14, 2011
I was surprised to see such a sparse audience for this, Vital Signs Theatre’s new production of Hamlet at the White Bear. While Hamlets are two-a-penny at the moment, it’s rare to get a chance to see a straight version of the first quarto (Q1). While the programme’s claims that it’s the first time the …
Hamlet The Clown Prince (The Company Theatre) @ Warwick Arts Centre Theatre
March 17, 2011
Writing about web page http://warwickartscentre.co.uk/events/theatre/hamlet-the-clown-prince This was my third Hamlet in a year with a running time under two hours, which is a trend I’m hugely appreciative of. This time it was a rare UK performance for Mumbai’s Company Theatre, with its brilliant and hugely entertaining take on the play through the medium of clowning. …
Too Many Danes
December 8, 2010
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 …
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