'Hamlet' review — Hiran Abeysekera is a deeply endearing Danish prince, full of new ideas

Read our review of Shakespeare's Hamlet, directed by Robert Hastie, now in performances at the National Theatre to 22 November.

Summary

• Olivier Award winner Hiran Abeysekera plays the title role in Shakespeare's Hamlet
• This is the first production of the great tragedy at the National Theatre in 15 years
• Robert Hastie directs a modern-dress version of the play
• Geoffrey Streatfeild and Francesca Mills are superb as Polonius and Ophelia respectively

It has been 15 years since Hamlet was last seen on a National Theatre stage. And in Robert Hastie’s production, part of new artistic director Indhu Rubasingham’s inaugural season, a lot is thrown at the play in a bid to make its return a big, memorable statement. Starring Olivier Award winner Hiran Abeysekera (Life of Pi) and dressed to the nines, it certainly doesn’t shy away from spectacle.

Abeysekera is marvellous as the Danish prince – impish, breathless and full of new ideas. Visually, too, everything is done well. The set, beautifully designed by Ben Stones, strikes a careful balance between claustrophobia – every corridor suggesting eavesdroppers close at hand – and the sweeping scale demanded of Elsinore. It's an active, pacy production that doesn’t pause for breath. And all of it makes for a perfectly pleasant night out at the theatre. But with so many ideas thrown at it with no explanation, it remains unclear what Hastie is actually trying to say.

There are attempts to lean into the play’s theatricality: the evening is introduced with a title curtain, while the play-within-a-play features a sound desk and tech team, staged in an actual theatre with its own artistic flair. When the soliloquies come, the stage is jolted into another, heightened state. Elsinore is not dissimilar to a Saltburn-style mansion. Guns take the place of daggers. The cast wear modern dress. Yet the contemporary setting does not go far enough to ground the play.

It is left to the cast, then, to find this Hamlet’s meaning. And, goodness, do they give it a good shot. Abeysekera’s Hamlet is at first sullen and grief-stricken, but is reborn into a revenge-induced frenzy upon seeing his father’s ghost. He’s a deeply endearing Hamlet – “To be or not to be” falls out of him like a lightning bolt of insight. Elsewhere, he leans down as he talks, reaching out as if to grasp understanding just beyond him.

There is lashings of humour too, particularly from Geoffrey Streatfeild’s Polonius, who is so desperate to impress the King that he eagerly uses his own daughter to advance their schemes. Utterly convinced by Hamlet’s madness, he treats the prince as if he were an alien body, glancing to the audience in disbelief every time he says a word.

Ophelia’s turn to madness is made shattering by Francesca Mills: her eyes brim with tears at Hamlet’s initial rejection, marking the beginning of the tragedies that follow. She tips from being a quick-witted, lively presence into a fragile shadow of herself.

There’s almost enough acting talent to keep the production afloat. But when the final fencing duel arrives, it seems devoid of any real tension. The deaths happen, one by one, but we feel nothing. Even with all the stylistic flourish, my bet is this won’t be a Hamlet for the National’s history books.

Hamlet is at the National Theatre to 22 November. Book Hamlet tickets on LondonTheatre.co.uk

Photo credit: Hamlet (Photos by Sam Taylor)