Straight from page to stage comes this authentic production with a young, dark, handsome Hamlet, vigorously interpreted by Ed Stoppard. A fine, sometimes curtained black box, with a centered trap, lets lighting or fog -- but mostly Shakespeare's poetry -- set the action. Traditional costumes set time and the wearers' social status. (Gertrude's fanciful red gown surely helps Anita Dobson act the scarlet woman.) Almost all the long speeches and soliloquies are played directly to the audience from downstage center, and they work! They are thoughts given breath or intimacies shared.
Some inspired doubling occurs: Patrick Drury as the dignified Ghost and Player King; Richard Hansell as Player Queen and effeminate Osric; Michael Cronin as loquacious Polonius and then talkative Gravedigger (both, in effect, disposing of Ophelia). David Robb interprets Claudius as out to either charm or conquer everyone, as he has Gertrude. Alice Patten, though a bland Ophelia, doesn't ham up her mad scene and calmly accepts the rough treatment at her grave.
Ben Warwick stresses Laertes' youth, contrasting well with stalwart Horatio (Sam Hazeldine). Diction is a strong point of the cast as a whole, and pacing is as perfect as the play's politics -- happily, not omitted. What's not to like?
