East meets West in this co-funded production; Japanese director, set, costume and lighting designers and several famous faces from TV promised a high quality night of drama...and they all delivered in full.

The soaring, vast blackness of the stage pierced only by floor to flies barbed wire with enormous swaying bare light bulbs might not sound attractive, and the posters certainly can’t capture the sheer drama of this set - you just have to experience it for yourself.

Enormous concealed doors allow the players to make dramatic entrances and exits while the lighting designer (Tamotsu Harada) creates magical effects of his own.

Peter Egan looks massive as the Ghost gliding over the stage in an enormous Samurai Warrior concoction, which beautifully accentuates the fragility of Michael Maloney as Hamlet when he appears slight, slender and pale faced in head to toe black velvet.

Method in his Madness

Peter Egan and Frances Tomelty as Claudius and Gertrude

Initially Maloney delivers his lines in extremely hushed velvet tones to match his coat.

Later he spews out dialogue at a rattling pace astonishing me that anyone can speak so quickly.

Despite his recent painful injury he is soldiering on with the use of a walking stick. I regret his injury but wonder if the cane is not actually an enhancing prop.

He wields it like a sword, throws it in frustration as he races to the front of the stage to pour out his thoughts for revenge and leans on it making him age before our eyes.

There are varying performances from the supporting cast.

Peter Egan gives a towering performance as the evil and murderous Claudius with Frances Tomelty as his Queen...but I felt this Gertrude was a cold fish - neither a lusty queen nor a loving mother.

Laura Rees is a sweet singing tormented Ophelia. Dominated by her father and told to "get thee to a nunnery" by Hamlet she is driven to madness and suicide.

Theatrical Vision

Peter Egan's as the ghost

This is a truly stunningly visual treatment of Hamlet.

Leather clad Fortinbras plays a very short but vital role and the whole stage is transformed by wonderfully dramatic lighting for his brief but crucial speech.

The oriental influenced costumes are stunning, if at times a little annoying and difficult for the actors to move in as they constantly have to kick the excess fabric of the trains before they can turn!

Everything drapes perfectly and costumes are rigidly colour co-ordinated...regal reds, steely metallic or ghostly greys and deep deathly black.

Only the purity of Ophelia can be shown in white, however Hamlet does show glimpses of a white shirt under his crushed berry coloured coat towards the end.

So it all ends in murder most foul as the stage is littered with the corpses off the main players.

The poisoned cup is empty and the body of Hamlet, clutching his medallion, is dramatically borne away. The cast return for a rather brief curtain call but all too soon are gone. I would have given more applause.

Perhaps this review is dominated by the visual appearance of the production rather than the text, but that is Ninagawa’s fault as it’s his creative team who present such visually stunning productions.

If you want to study the text, read the book. But if you want a feast for the ear and eye... book a seat!



Hamlet
Plymouth Theatre Royal
Thurs 30th Sept - Sat 9th Oct 2004
Times: 7.30pm; Plus 1.30pm on Weds 6th & 2pm Sats
Tickets: £4 - £19
Box Office: 01752 267222