Is Cumberbatch’s Hamlet worthy of the hype?
If you’ve read my review of The Book of Mormon you’ll know that I was disappointed to miss out on tickets to see Hamlet starring Benedict Cumberbatch when they went on sale last year. It turns out that it is the fastest selling show in British history, so that’s at least a comfort of sorts.
Still, I struggled to let it go and continued half-heartedly looking around to see if there were any tickets available. A couple of weeks ago, I found myself stumbling upon ATG Tickets’ website. They were apparently selling the real thing at a reasonable price and I was stunned. The site seemed legitimate; it was listed on The Barbican’s own site as an official partner. How did they have tickets? And good tickets, too. I took a risk, simply bought two for the performance on 6th August without any of that tedious queuing and crossed my fingers that they would arrive and be legitimate. When the postman delivered them a few days later I felt like I was in possession of the crown jewels.
On the 6th, we travelled to London and took our seats in the very centre of the stalls. I’ve never had such great seats for such a high profile show. Until the curtain went up I was half expecting someone to come and escort us out; I still couldn’t believe our tickets were real. But we sat and looked through our programme, commented on the comfort of the seats, stood up and sat down to let people pass and still, nobody demanded we leave.
Then the lights dimmed and the curtain began to rise…
I was startled by the opening of the play. It was very difficult to determine what era we were witnessing as the stage was very plain with just Cumberbatch, a few boxes of belongings and a record player. The latter at least told us we were not in Shakespeare’s own era. I wondered for a moment if it would be a modern adaptation but, when the full stage was revealed, it transpired we were witnessing a Denmark of, I’d guess, the 1910s. The military uniforms, weapons and costumes assisted the underlying theme of unrest and gave a nod towards 2014’s centenary status. This was a clever decision as it placed this Hamlet in the past, making essential elements such as the use of swords believable, yet kept the events accessibly recent. The record player, Ophelia’s camera, telephones and other props provided a familiarity, allowing the audience to connect further to the events on stage.
I haven’t been to The Barbican theatre before and it really is quite something to behold. The stage is enormous and was put to excellent use by the set designers. The inspired team created a convincing palace with sumptuous décor, mounted weapons and paintings, side rooms, an upstairs and corridors leading off. It was as though we, the audience, were invited into a functioning family home (if an incestuous palace and setting for desperate madness, betrayal and tragedy is your idea of ‘functioning’).
Hamlet is famed as Shakespeare’s longest play and I was curious to see which parts would inevitably be cut. What I wasn’t expecting, and what was quite exciting, was the way Turner shuffled the script to place Cumberbatch, alone, on stage right as the curtain lifted. We should have been kept in suspense until the second scene but I suspect Turner knew the audience would be restless to see the main man. Not only were we gifted an intimate one-man introduction, Turner opened the play with Act III’s famous ‘to be, or not to be’ soliloquy, establishing the play as something familiar presented in a fresh way and leaving us eager for more. This served to make Cumberbatch’s Hamlet immediately more morose than others; contemplating suicide right at the off, and it certainly got our attention.
Now let’s discuss the part I know you’re really wondering about…Benedict Cumberbatch’s Hamlet. Having waited over a year to see Cumberbatch recite Shakespeare’s lengthy soliloquies; I was not disappointed. The initial jolt of adrenaline I felt at seeing him, alone, as the curtain rose was replaced almost immediately with a warm and comforting confirmation: Cumberbatch can act. His iconic voice wrapped around Hamlet’s syllables with ease, breathing life into old text and connecting with the audience. His movements around the stage and interactions with other characters were natural and convincing. With the help of a great script and excellent direction, he also brought humour to a dark story. I will always smile when I remember the scene of Cumberbatch’s Hamlet, dressed in full, historic military attire, carrying a drum and comically marching while ‘mad’ on top of a table. You’ve never seen Benedict Cumberbatch quite like this before.
As with every live performance, there are elements to like and those to critique. My husband and I both agreed that the volume of speech was sometimes a little low and we were straining our ears to catch some lines of Shakespearian dialogue. I found this particularly true of Gertrude (Anastasia Hille) but I’m sure that audience members with poor hearing may have struggled throughout. I wonder if it was due to the vastness of the stage or perhaps our position in the stalls, but I hope that it is something that can be improved.
My other criticism or perhaps just humble confusion was regarding the set in the second half. The curtains descended on a first half that left the household in a state of chaos. Hamlet had killed Polonius, and Claudius let us in on his plan to have Hamlet murdered. After stretching our legs in the lobby we returned to our seats and the curtain lifted to a transformed set. Rubble, mud and debris piled high through doorways of the once immaculate palace. It was as though we’d returned to a bombed building and this confused me. Throughout the first half the set and props had been very literal; the house was a house. The actors of the second half moved around the stage, over rocks and mud as though it wasn’t there.
This apparently war-torn set worked well for the army camp and (very funny) grave digging scene but was at odds with the majority of the script. My assumption is that the dramatic and chaotic set was a metaphor for Ophelia’s descent into true madness and the disorder in Denmark’s royal house. It was undeniably a very impressive set but questioning its purpose was a little distracting.
Having touched on Ophelia’s descent to madness, it seems a good moment to mention that her final scene was one of my favourite moments of the play. The juxtaposition of Ophelia descending the stairs childishly and comically dragging her luggage trunk down the steps and her slow, purposeful ascent towards bright light and her death was striking. Siân Brooke played her state of mind convincingly and the use of music was extraordinarily moving. This scene will stay with me for a long time.
When I think about it, I’m still stunned that I managed to get hold of tickets for Hamlet. I feel extremely fortunate to have witnessed such a current and celebrated actor play alongside other talented professionals in what was truly a superb production. If you’ve got tickets then you are in for a treat. If not, get to your nearest cinema as soon as you can and book for the National Theatre Live screening.
At the closing scene of devastation, the whole audience immediately rose to their feet, clapping and whistling as hard as they could. This only serves to support my recommendation: do not miss this exceptional show.
If you like the sound of Hamlet and don’t want to miss out, visit ntlive.nationaltheatre.org.uk/productions/ntlout10-hamlet to book a National Theatre Live performance.
Images: ntlive.nationaltheatre.org.uk (13/8/15)
My viewing experience of this was a little different; not being a writing freelancer, I don’t have the time – nor to be honest the inclination – to surf websites hoping that an unlikely ticket purchasing opportunity will arise. Instead, I viewed the play live from the comfort of my local cinema (actually not so local; its popularity caught us out so we had to venture further than normal, which meant we were rushing to get there in time and in the commotion my sister accidentally got locked in the car! Whilst I might not take the time to attempt to acquire decent tickets, I did take the time to inform my parents of this and so thankfully she was retrieved!)
I thought it was a very good production – not as good as Curious Incident naturally but then again what is? It perhaps helped that I’d studied the play at A Level – though the less said about that exam the better! – and so had a stronger knowledge of the plot that previous Shakespeare productions I have seen. I really liked the portrayal of Polonius (his ‘brevity is the soul of wit’ line is one of my favourites in the play, perhaps even more so than the renowned ‘To be or not to be?’ which must be one of the most famous extracts of literature ever.
I’m glad you mentioned the humorous moments. I thought these helped to balance the tone a bit amidst all the mass death. I only had vague recollections of the grave scene but the comedic presentation of that helped to juxtapose the somewhat grim second half.
On which note, my sister thought the second half was much weaker than the first. I think this was mainly due to the plot of the text rather than this specific production – and perhaps partly because she was still in a bad mood after her temporary imprisonment in a Honda. In her words, she’d never realised the ending to Hamlet ‘was so unsatisfactory’ until the performance presented it so vividly – but then that’s Shakespeare tragedy for you really isn’t it?
I didn’t notice any problems with the actors’ volume or diction. This might indicate an improvement in their speech over the past couple of months or perhaps is simply the consequence of the different way in which I experienced the play; of course being beamed out in god knows how many cinemas worldwide probably inspired the actors to put in their very best level of performance. Or simply made them wish they too were locked in a car.
As for Benedict Cumberbatch, I thought he gave a masterful performance as Hamlet, the main character of a play which is well worth a watch.