Hamlet (2015)

This well-performed, visually-rich production was the subject of my latest National Theatre Live experience.  The big news is, of course, Benedict Cumberbatch in the title role, and it’s no shocker to report that he does a bang-up job as the put-upon prince of Denmark.  Beyond that, the production isn’t without its missteps, but overall, it offers a fine telling of one of Shakespeare’s most famous plays.

If you need a Hamlet synopsis, here it is.  The titular Danish prince has been struggling since the recent, unexpected death of his father, and the fact that his mother has already remarried (Hamlet’s uncle, who has now assumed the throne) doesn’t help matters.  As if he didn’t have it rough enough, Hamlet’s world is rocked when the ghost of his father appears to him and reveals that he was in fact murdered by Hamlet’s selfsame uncle.  Hamlet is charged with avenging his father’s death, a task that tests him to the limit.

Obviously, Cumberbatch is tremendously good.  He makes even the most famous speeches feel fresh and unstudied, and the weight of Hamlet’s mission runs electrically through every inch of his performance.  This might sound weird, but I especially want to highlight the scenes before the ghost appears, before the story really gets cooking, as it were.  In these initial scenes, Cumberbatch portrays Hamlet’s depression and grief so beautifully – some productions don’t pay much attention to this aspect, but here, he’s so effective as a young man who is genuinely too distressed to hold it together, and I really appreciate that.  The production also features Ciarán Hinds (Capt. Wentworth or Mance Rayder – take your fandom pick) as a rather slimy Claudius, and I enjoyed seeing Leo Bill (Darwin from The Fall) pop up as Horatio.

I find some of the staging to be quite impactful.  Claudius and Gertrude’s wedding feast is perfect, with everyone (save Hamlet) dressed in white but with shadows encroaching from all around them.  There’s a device in the second half of the play that evokes feelings of ravaged Iraqi palaces after Hussein was removed from power, or post-Revolutionary St. Petersberg.  It’s really striking to me and creates such a palpable sense that the dynasty is crumbling under the characters’ feet – awesome.

I don’t have many complaints about the production, but my main gripe is fairly major.  I don’t like how some of the “mad” sequences are staged; there’s an over-reliance on props and Cumberbatch acting “goofy” (ie, marching around in a drum major’s uniform.)  It’s too over-the-top for me.  I have a hard time buying that anyone at the palace would believe that Hamlet has actually had a mental breakdown when his “mad” behavior is so obvious and stagey.  This is quite unacceptable, because if the production had Hamlet making a stronger, subtler effort to play mad, Cumberbatch would’ve done it masterfully.  As staged, however, he’s not nearly as effective in these scenes as he might have been.

Warnings

Violence, thematic elements, and sexual references (including a pun on the C-word – that Shakespeare, I tell ya.)