The Play: Hamlet
The Company: Bell Shakespeare Company
The Theatre: The Fairfax Studio at the Arts Centre until 14 May.
Stars: 4.5
A woman playing Hamlet. Who knew?
As a Shakespeare junkie, this had to be done. I put the call out to see if anybody wanted to come with me and Alice came to the rescue. Alice loves Hamlet. I love Shakespeare. And I've always been in awe of the Bell Shakespeare Company, who've done some excellent renditions of the Bard. Their Henry V and Romeo and Juliet a few years ago were superlative.
Well, this is up there with those performances. Most excellent. Actually, as Hamlets go, and this is about the fifteenth time I've seen Hamlet, this is up there with the best.
Alice and I were also lucky enough to score front row seats, which also added to the experience. (I will say, we picked up the tickets the week before and were just lucky. Some people had been waiting two years to see this.)
This is a stripped back production. Anna Tregloan's stark stage presents us with a large, metallic frame which has a multitude of uses - closet, graveyard, throne room. It's great. In the background, old super-8 movies adorned the screen, providing a nostalgic feels. The 1960's styling is also wonderful. I spotted some glasses I'm sure we had in the cupboard when I was a kid. As with all Bell Shakespeare productions, the costumes and shoes are absolutely on point. And the white shag-pile carpet, which was snowed on throughout the plays two hours and fifty minute run was also used to great effect.
But this is an actor's play, and the cast is excellent.
Peter Evans' direction is sensitive and assured. Great to see.
Harriet Gordon-Anderson is amazing. Quite simply awesome. In this production, Hamlet is a man, played by a woman. The gender bending gets a bit to get used to. They haven't changed the script to have Hamlet be a woman, but Gordon-Anderson's performance provides a subtlety and a gravitas which rarely come together when a man plays Hamlet (with the exception of Andrew Scott - who I am dying to see on stage one day). What I got from her performance was a seething anger, which I've rarely seen - and a completely believable love for her family, which can also be missed. The interactions with both Gertrude (Lucy Bell) and Ophelia (Rose Riley) take on a fresh perspective. As they said in the Q&A session after, the last thing we need to see at the moment is a man shouting at a woman. Ophelia had a bit more oomph to her is going up against Hamlet in the "Get thee to a nunnery" scene.
The other thing which Gordon-Anderson brings to her Hamlet is a true sense of a loving family. It's a subtle, surreal thing which was most wonderful to see.
Other stand outs of this performance was Robert Menzies as Polonius. He was outstanding. Instead of being treated as a buffoon, his nuanced relationships with Laertes (Jack Crumlin) and Ophelia had a tenderness rarely seen in this family unit.
There is a hell of a lot to love about this production. Yes, it's been two years in the making, the show opening in Sydney at the start of March in 2020. The cast has changed and morphed (Lisa McCune was the original Gertrude - interesting - I loved Lucy Bell's take on her) The staging has been stripped back and the team have been working over the pandemic to keep this fresh.
This is wonderful theatre. It's only on for another two weeks. Try to get to this. Thank me later.
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