Hamlet is a popular play at the moment. Not sure if it's the dark times, or just a general penchant for ghosts, but there are a lot of Danish princes stalking London stages soliloquising over whether or not to be. But for the
Hamlet closest to Shakespeare's original grieving son,
Shakespeare's Globe must be an obvious choice.
It's not just that the stage itself has been so carefully replicated from drawing and descriptions from the time of Shakespeare's own players, it's also that this production has been pared down to its basic 'epic poem' format and is delivered with gravitas, yet not too much ham.
There's no cast of thousands or complicated grandiose sets to be expected here, this is the touring production come home to spend the summer season in London. The cast is small and the whole thing lasts only two and a half hours, and the theatre is open air, so this is a refreshingly simple
Hamlet that focusses on the real meat of this epic work.
If you're not familiar with this, one of Shakespeare's greatest tragedies, then this is the moment to become acquainted –
in case you're spurned by the rest of London who will surely have seen at least one production. To give the play its full title you should call it
'The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark', and you should know that it follows Hamlet as he returns home after the death of his father to find his mother married to his uncle and himself usurped from the old king's throne. But this is only the start of his problems, for at night Hamlet is haunted by his father, who urges him, aggressively, to avenge his 'foul and most unnatural' murder.
It sounds heavy, and it is, in parts, but this play is also philosophical –
Hamlet is a bit of a navel gazer as you might have guessed from some of his famous quotes – passionately romantic to the point of obsession, and yet still funny. In this production
Joshua McGuire is doing the honours, being or not being, in the title role.
