HAMLET (Guildford School of Acting)****

 

By Cal

Link: https://gsauk.org/events/15201AJRGPHRLRVGVLSMBRKVQSJMVJBSH/book 

Available until: One more performance on Wednesday 17^th March at 7.30pm.

Hamlet is a brave choice for a drama school production. It’s a challenging play, there are so many twists and turns and it’s the type of play where you discover more every time you read it.

But what a great experience for these students, especially after suffering such disruption to their time at university. The performances are of a high standard, but maybe the most exciting thing is that they played characters in ways I hadn’t seen before and really challenged my feelings and thoughts about the play.

They also had a female Rosencrantz and having seen multiple productions with a male Rosencrantz and female Guildenstern, this was practically a gender-swap moment for me and one I’ve been waiting for since forever. (Or since I first got into Hamlet, anyway.)

Director Jemima James has some very interesting views on Hamlet. One thing that stood out to me is that the play is usually focused more on the struggles of Hamlet and Ophelia, but in this production, we saw far more of the psychological effects on Claudius and Gertrude. Claudius is on edge, while Gertrude is so quiet and docile, it’s easy to believe that marrying her husband’s brother wasn’t her idea.

A lot has been said about the lack of strong female characters in Shakespeare (there are actually quite a lot, but there are still fewer strong female characters than strong male characters) and a lot of productions try to address this by making the females that are there as strong as possible and also turning some male characters into women (Rosencrantz and Horatio are both played by women in this production).

But something I think about feminism (and I have asked women what they think about this) is that it shouldn’t just be about all women living up to the ‘strong women’ stereotype. It should be about women being free to be themselves, and a naturally quiet, gentle women is just as relevant as any other woman. Gertrude and Ophelia are both quiet, fragile characters and I think that’s completely all right. As I said, it makes Gertrude more vulnerable to Claudius, which actually really helps with some of the issues with her character, and Ophelia more vulnerable to Hamlet’s madness. Both these interpretations work and I don’t think any less of them than usual. I actually like Gertrude more.

The play has been cut to around two and a half hours and for the most part, the cuts work really well. The only part of the play which was obviously missing was… the ending. This production ends with Hamlet’s death. There is no conversation between Horatio and Fortinbras and no announcement from the English Ambassador of the famous line that inspired a whole play by Tom Stoppard.

There’s nothing in the final part of the play which really needs to happen and you could argue that cutting the end is no different from cutting any other part, but I do think playwrights think especially hard about the ending to the play and the final image and I can’t help feeling the playwright’s chosen ending is really too important to be cut. I felt the same way about Richard II with Fiona Shaw, which cut out a couple of pages at the end. But at the same time, it was a really interesting point to end Hamlet… and you never know. Maybe Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Aren’t Dead.

I really liked Elliott Squire’s set and Johanna Town’s lighting when I watched this, but after seeing Image of a Young Woman performed on exactly the same set, I have mixed feelings. The set suits both plays and it adds to the element of creepiness, as well as allowing the characters to social distance convincingly, but it would have been easier not to compare the two plays if they didn’t look so alike. (And how many plays would appear to good advantage next to Hamlet?)

It would probably be inaccurate to describe this student cast as ‘promising’ because as far as I can see, they’re already delivering. William Homer is a very good Hamlet and I like the way his madness appears to be rooted in mental health issues. He visibly struggles to keep it together at times and there are some real emotional moments from him. It will be interesting to see him as Hamlet again in ten years’ time. Judging from this performance, there will be opportunities.

Claudius is another character who really seems to be on the edge. Ellis Green’s performance starts off with a heartiness which Claudius obviously isn’t feeling and he soon becomes aggressive and frightening, but also really stressed. It’s a far cry from the cold, calm, dangerous Claudius we usually see, but it works. I really like this interpretation. Sophie Bahari is a gentle and fragile Gertrude (though she really goes for it in her poisoning scene) and Helena Fox is ethereal as Ophelia even when she’s still sane. Emily Cundick is a very touching and loving Horatio, Neha Suresh is completely convincing as a bossy female Rosencrantz – the closest thing in this production to a typical strong female character – and she works well with Harry Fitzgerald’s friendly Guildenstern.

Curtis Collier, Sophie George and Alfie Mazzei read the Players’ text really beautifully, making us want to hear more rather than making us want them to get on with it so we can get back to Hamlet. Carlo Villa is an aggressive and demanding Polonius, and Matthew McGivern’s Laertes seems movingly fond of him. Ryan Wiggins completes the cast (a lot of roles were doubled by the Players or cut) as the mysterious Ghost.

A very good student production of one of the very best and most challenging plays.