THE PLAY IS THE THING

Only in this case, it was not. We went to see the London's Nation Theaters production of Shakespeare's Hamlet tonight, in one of the Fathom event shows , like the Met Operas that we go to. And in this case, with no offense to The Bard - the play was not the thing the actor was.

Benidect Cumberbatch is a new Hamlet, more goth than gothic , more a 21st century advertismenet for anti psychotics than the booding Dane of old. This is not your fathers Hamlet, but the words are the same wonderful 400 poetry . Just pulled into a dark and shadowy Elsinor , full of the same intrigues and dangers that any production of Hamlet is, just with more David Bowie,

There is no set time here - it is all over the 20th Century, which fits the manic production perfectly. Cumberbatch is the lost college boy Prince, all mopey listening to his records in his room, all " YOU ARE NOT MY REAL DAD "then one skipped dosage later in full wacko costume - feeding you a desperate " to be , or not to be ". Plagued by the ever rotting ghost of his murdered King father, Hamlet sets off like they all have to do in his usuper uncle and what ? save / condemn his mother..Hamlet is funny and crass, and dangerous and sad . A much more... energetic  Prince of Denmark than I had seen before.

The first thing I said to Neil when the lights game up a good three and a half hours after going down was" its a 400 year old play that you know the story and you were still on the edge of your seat. And its true. If this one is repeated , and they often are - GO SEE IT.

It would be a very good first Shakespeare experience for a younger person , with a little bit of study. Dont drop them off the deep end into unchartered Iambic Pentameter . But this production goes at the speed of sound , no time at all to get bored or want to check your iPhone.Im not going to say it is for everyone - it is a dark brooding ( ..... ) production, with light used very minimally at times to convey the emotion - you have to know the players because , well sometimes they are hard to see. But just a wonderful high energy retelling of what many call Shakespeare's best.