Hamlet (22nd August 2015, 1.30pm)

Perhaps the greatest test of one of the world’s most famous actors, playing one of the world’s most famous characters, is whether he can convince you he is not Benedict Cumberbatch, but Hamlet. At no point did I see him as Benedict; he was only ever the great Dane...

It’s the fourth time I’ve seen the play, but the first time I’ve properly understood it. I don’t mean plot, which is easy to pick up, but Hamlet’s journey through it. I completely got his emotional state and felt like I was with him all the way. A lot to do with great acting, but also the way they structured the performance meant it was told very much through Hamlet’s eyes.

The play, as written (and usually performed), begins with guards on the battlements seeing the ghost of Hamlet’s father. Then it cuts to a big banquet scene in which we first meet Hamlet; at the end of this the guards tell Hamlet about the ghost and he goes to see it. But in this performance, the curtains open to reveal Hamlet in his room. It starts with him being told about the ghost, then the banquet, then Hamlet goes and sees the ghost. This means that the first time the audience sees the ghost is as Hamlet sees it. We see it all through his eyes.

Likewise, the ‘To be or not to be’ soliloquy has been moved to a much earlier place. When Hamlet decides to act mad, marching around like a toy soldier (complete with giant toy castle) he also has a belt around his neck and contemplates suicide with it. This is where ‘To be or not to be’ is spoken, and it therefore becomes Hamlet’s contemplation of suicide. He could end it all now and save himself from what is to come.

The soliloquies were brought to life superbly. As Hamlet starts a soliloquy, video projections turn the set into an old ruin, and all the other actors go into super slow motion as a spotlight picks out Hamlet, meaning that the soliloquies are very much his thoughts speeding through his head in a split second as life around him carries on as normal. Done in the wrong way, this could have been laughable, but here it had an almost filmic quality, allowing us into Hamlet’s inner-most thoughts. And the delivery of the soliloquies was crystal clear and added so much depth to events.

The set was impressive. As the curtains rose, Hamlet was at the front of the stage, with a wall directly behind him. At the end of his introductory scene, the wall lifted to reveal the biggest, widest set I have ever seen by a long way. Beside me, my mother mouthed ‘Bloody hell!’. It was a grand stately entrance hall with a full staircase, balconies and huge doors maybe 10 times human height. At the end of the first half, Claudius reveals to the audience his plan for Hamlet to be killed.

At the climax of this speech, through every door and window a whirlwind of black debris fires, swirling around Claudius as he walked away, and covering the entire stage. Dramatic stuff! When the curtains lift for the second half, the whole set is thick with dirt and earth, including a pile of dirt towering up in between the two main doors. At first this was used to show Hamlet’s journey through war zones, but it then came to symbolise the downfall of the stately household, as the actors all climbed and crawled around the dirt.

Despite all the focus being on Benedict Cumberbatch, and 40% of the lines belonging to him, it really felt like an ensemble performance, as the rest of the cast were so strong. Each had their own moments and the way they interacted gave such an insight into their characters.

The moment when Claudius prays and expresses his regrets about killing Hamlet’s father and marrying his wife was subtly underplayed, making this ‘evil’ character three-dimensional. The moment when the Hamlet’s mother, Gertrude, chooses to walk away from Claudius and an uncertain look lingers between them clearly showed how much she understands what is going on. Gertrude has a powerful understanding of Ophelia too; this is not in the text, it was implied entirely by silent action.

This led to one of the most powerful moments in the performance. Ophelia, now mad, is playing slow chords on the piano. She closes the piano lid, but the piano continues to play hauntingly. Ophelia looks at Gertrude, alone on the other side of the stage, then stumbles up a pile of rubble and slowly exits to her death. We watch this with Gertrude as the music soars. It was a spine tingling moment.

The actor playing the ghost of Hamlet’s father sometimes doubles as Claudius, sometimes as the player king. In this performance, the ghost doubled as the grave digger. This was an excellent decision. The ghost was hauntingly raw and powerful, but the grave digger was sweet and simple and hilarious because of this. The grave scene is a pivotal one for Hamlet; he holds of skull of poor Yorick and finally accepts whatever his fate may be. The doubling of grave digger and ghost really highlights this moment and adds power to Hamlet’s realisation.

The most powerful connection for me was between one of Hamlet’s soliloquies and a small moment at the end with Claudius. Hamlet is furious with himself – the actors he employs produce such huge emotion and anger that they could surely take revenge on their enemy, and yet their emotions are not real, but acted. Yet Hamlet’s emotions and desire for revenge are real and immense, but he has not followed through. He asks himself why. Is he is a coward? ... Then, at the end, when Hamlet is fatally stabbed, then Laertes, and then Gertrude drinks poison, Claudius tries to flee up a flight of stairs, before his is dragged down and killed. It is Claudius who is the coward, not Hamlet.

It was an unforgettable experience. Not least because I was sitting in row A (the perfect place for me!). I felt a palpable, excited silence behind me throughout much of the performance. Of course, Benedict Cumberbatch was always going to get a full standing ovation at the end. But it absolutely felt like his performance, and the performance as a whole, fully deserved it.

I think what made my day, though, happened before the play, as we were arriving at the Barbican. A girl walked past us, shock on her face, and with a mix of astonishment and joy, breathlessly said to her waiting friend: ‘Matilda, I’ve got us tickets!’ Her excitement was wonderful.