Theatre Review: RSC Hamlet at Theatre Royal

The Royal Shakespeare Company returns to the Theatre Royal with a national tour of Hamlet. My all-time favourite play that I must have seen a dozen times over the years.  Showing my age, my first experience of Hamlet was high school trip to the cinema to see the 1990 Franco Zeffirelli film with Mel Gibson. I’ve seen better and worse since but it got me hooked and I’m always keen to see a new production.

If you aren’t familiar with the story, it’s quite simple. Prince Hamlet’s father dies and his mother all to quickly marries his uncle. Hamlet feels aggrieved and betrayed which is enough to set in motion a series of tragic events. Or were they perhaps always going to happen in this fragile family and its royal court? Something definitely rotten in the state of Denmark!

This production is placed in 1912 and instead of the Dutch castle of Elsinore we are on the steamship Elsinore. The set is on the ships deck in front of a huuuge screen which serves up constantly changing views of waves and weather. The seas getting steadily rougher and more unpredictable as the play progresses, a perfect metaphor for a family and kingdom heading towards bad weather and catastrophe.

The play opens with a simple burial at sea for King Hamlet, military honours and mourners stand together but tragedy and grief soon turn into merriment as Hamlets mother, Queen Gertrude, weds her brother-in-law the now King Claudias. Hamlet comments to his companion Horatio “… the funeral baked meats did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables.”

At its heart Hamlet is a revenge play. Prince Hamlet witnesses the ghost of his father only to be told his death was actually murder and at the hands of his brother Claudias. As well as the anger towards his mother and uncle, Hamlet now feels honour bound to flush out the evil doer and avenge Hamlet seniors’ death.

Along the way he becomes obsessed and self-obsessed.  He creates more and more figurative waves in the court causing confusion and concern.  Though his bile is aimed at his Gertrude and Claudias he inevitably draws others into his spiralling orbit with seemingly little concern for their wellbeing.  The family of the kings chief counsellor Polonius bear the brunt just because of their proximity to him as do his two best friends from school Rosencrantz and Guildenstern who are torn between loyalty to Hamlet and duty to their king.

The performances of this cast were flawless.  Choreography and an innovative set and lighting scheme worked perfectly to create a mood of impending calamity and a constant tension even for audience members who knew what was coming – a storm!

I particularly liked Queen Gertrude (Poppy Miller) and Polonius (Richard Cant) who I felt more sympathy for than in other productions. A lively Horatio (Colin Ryan) and Laertes (Benjamin Westerby) kept energy levels up. While the tragic Ophelia (Georgia-Mae Myers) is always a character I love to watch and this performance didn’t disappoint, I wish we’d hear more from her in this abridged version.

Different productions deal with Rosencrants and Guildenstern very differently.  Here they are two Americans school friends and Guildenstern was a woman which worked surprisingly well and reflected access to education in 1912.

And to Prince Hamlet himself? Ralph Davis delivers a powerful performance and I found myself with little or no sympathy for him this time. A selfish young man with no purpose? Did he truly feel so deeply about his mothers marriage or was he jealous of his uncles place in her heart? I found myself asking these questions more during this production.  And the big question: was he truly mad or a master manipulator?  Either way the final scene is a classic Shakespearean bloodbath and some may say that most got their 'just desserts'.

RSC Hamlet plays at Nottingham's Theatre Royal until Saturday 21 March 2026.

Theatre Royal & Royal Concert Hall