Review: Hamlet, Royal Shakespeare Theatre - Luke Thallon is a stormy prince
09/03/2025
I've seen a lot of Hamlet's, and watching director Rupert Goold and Luke Thallon's take on 'the Dane', it struck me that we haven't really had a mad Hamlet for a long time.
The prince might say that he is putting on an antic disposition and, as Polonius observes, make 'pregnant' comments, but there is something painfully cracked in his behaviour. There is an edge and danger that points to loss of mental control...but more of that in a moment.
It is a stormy production set on a large ship called the Elsinore in the early 1900s. The text has been tweaked with references to water replacing those about the ground and earth. The stage tilts as danger swells.
The action is compressed into an evening and night, which heightens the tension and makes sense of Hamlet's tussle with his faculties - a lot happens very quickly.
Sensible edits, such as the players only performing the mime rather than repeating the play with words, make this a pacey production. There is no distraction of relations with Norway; the focus is very much on the royal court and Hamlet's deteriorating behaviour.
Luke Thallon's is a Hamlet that made my heart ache for the pain he seemed to be going through. He starts in a melancholy grief and descends from there to a point where he develops twitches and ticks as if the mental anguish is too much for his body to bear.
I've seen productions where the same actor plays the ghost and Claudius. Here, the ghost (Anton Lesser) pops up as other characters, causing Hamlet to recoil. Does it suggest his mind playing tricks on him, a form of paranoid delusion?
The soliloquies aren't delivered in a smooth flow as they often are, but falteringly, like the ideas and words are forming for the first time and he's still figuring them out. It adds to the overall sense of fragility.
In the final fateful moments, a feeling of release and relief comes over him.
Jared Harris' Claudius was the weakest link, for me. His lines often delivered rambled and mumbling, which is in stark contrast to the clarity of the rest of the cast.
His character choices redeemed him a little. When Claudius finally catches up with Hamlet after Polonius' murder, he plunges his nephew's head into a bucket of water. Is it just to cool down his wild countenance? Or a sign of frustration spilling over and his murderous intent?
Purists may balk at the text tweaks to accommodate the setting and contraction of the time frame, but I thought it enhanced the focus of the story and gave an opportunity to shed extraneous details and subplots that can get in the way.
It was moving and gripping and is certainly up there among my favourite Hamlets. I'm giving it ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.
Hamlet, Royal Shakespeare Theatre
Written by William Shakespeare
Director: Rupert Goold
Cast includes: Luke Thallon, Jared Harris, Anton Lesser and Elliot Levey. (Nancy Carroll plays Getrude, but for this particular performance, it was understudy Miranda Colchester.)
Running time: 2 hours and 50 minutes, including an interval.
Booking until 29 March; for more information and to buy tickets, visit the Royal Shakespeare Company website.
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