Hamlet

I'm going to have to write a few catch up entries because I've been a bit slack blogging lately. I'll explain why shortly.

Hamlet

I'll start with Hamlet. A week ago I went with my Mum to see Hamlet at Sheffield Crucible Theatre.

I love the Crucible, it's a small, cosy theatre almost in the round. It is in fact shaped like a crucible and the alchemy on stage there always seems to entertain whether its Shakespeare or snooker.

The cast of this production is impressive:

Hamlet: John Simm

Claudius: John Nettles

Gertrude: Barbara Flynn

Just to name a few of the cast.

Hamlet is not one of my favourite Shakespeare plays. My favourite is King Lear I think it has everything you could ever want from a play. In fact I think I prefer MacBeth to Hamlet. Saying that Hamlet was the second Shakespeare play I ever saw and it was the Mark Rylance Hamlet of 1989 It affected me so much as a 15 year old that I thought no Hamlet would ever live up to it. I was probably right but, older and wiser I realise that there is room for a different interpretation of Hamlet.

With John Simm playing Hamlet it was inevitable that the critics would compare it to David Tenant's Hamlet. (David Tenant's Dr to John Simm's Master in Dr Who.) I wasn't able to get tickets to see David Tenant as Hamlet (though I tried and my phone bill was testament to this!)

I did see the televised version though at Christmas and within 10 minutes I wanted to slap Tenant's Hamlet and tell him to just grow up! This is my usual response to any Hamlet who isn't Mark Rylance.

But This current production of Hamlet made me think differently about the play and the character. It was an incredibly accessible version of Hamlet and Shakespeare. Some purists don't like that sort of thing but Shakespeare if performed right is incredibly accessible. I actually understood some aspects of Hamlet as a play and character I haven't before. The fact that Hamlet does doubt the ghost, and so his mind. Not in some grand way but in a very ordinary way.

John Simm's Hamlet was a bit blokey, and matey. He didn't swagger but unlike some Hamlet's he didn't slouch and sulk either. He was just a bloke. Yes a mixed up, grieving, stupid bloke but he was just a man. I liked that a lot.

The rest of the cast were all excellent particularly Polonyous, his fate was genuinely shocking and a bit sad even though he was a busy old fool. John Nettles was good too, and I did soon forget that I was watching the bloke from Bergerac!

So if you can get to see it in Sheffield I recommend you do!