NOVEMBER 13, 2015
Photo: Johan Persso
It is the sensation of the London theatre season.
When it was announced that Benedict Cumberbatch, who seems to be in every movie released these days, would take to the stage of the Barbican Theatre in “Hamlet” helmed by avant-garde director Lyndsey Turner, London was abuzz. Tickets for the 12-week run went on sale in August 2014 (!) and the entire run was sold out within minutes. Scalpers were getting up to 10 times the face value of the ticket price for available seats (mirroring the current situation on Broadway for Lin-Manuel Miranda’s “Hamilton”).
Luckily for those of us in the States, the production was broadcast live and transmitted to movie theaters around the world on October 15. The telecast, produced by National Theatre Live, a great program that brings the best of London theatre to those of us who would otherwise have no access to these productions, broke all records for an NT Live presentation, and as a result, “Hamlet” will be having encore screenings all over America through December. More on that later. Let’s get to “Hamlet.”
The play opens with Hamlet (Cumberbatch) alone in a room listing to Nat King Cole’s “Nature Boy” on a small record player. Enter Horatio (a fine Leo Bill), Hamlet’s best friend, wearing a backpack and a neck tattoo. Hokay, you might think, it’s going to be one of those kind of “Hamlet”s.
Cut to the banquet scene and the first reveal of Es Devlin’s striking design for Elsinore, a once magnificent but now decaying castle that seems to go on for a city block. (It’s wonderfully reminiscent of the haunted house in Guillermo Del Toro’s current “Crimson Peak.”) While all of the other guests are dressed in some shade of white, Hamlet is in black and delivers his speech while standing on the banquet table for some reason, one of the many odd touches flourished by Turner in her direction.
Among Turner’s other strange conceits is dressing Hamlet up in a toy soldier outfit as he is feigning madness (I’m sure that every castle has an adult-sized toy soldier costume somewhere in their trunks) and crawling around in a miniature toy castle, as well as layers of debris strewn over the castle floor in Act 2, forcing several actors to have to walk on those sharp rocks while barefoot. (My heart goes out to them.)
But it’s Cumberbatch who carries the day, creating a Hamlet who is forceful while at the same time being conflicted and self-absorbed, an effective choice in his hands. Ciarán Hinds makes a strong impression as Hamlet’s blustery stepfather Claudius, and Kobna Holdbrook-Smith makes for an energetic Laertes. Surprisingly, Irish actor Jim Norton, one of the best stage actors around, recedes a bit into the background as Polonius, which is unfortunate. Anastasia Hille as Hamlet’s mother Gertrude has a couple of great one-on-one scenes with Cumberbatch, but Siân Brooke as Ophelia fails to make much of an impression early when she’s sane, so when her mad scene comes along, we have little invested in the character to care.
If you’re a fan of Cumberbatch’s film work (and who isn’t?), take a moment to catch “Hamlet” if it is still playing in your area. As wonderful as this actor is in movies, he seems to be a creature of the stage, and it’s a rare opportunity to see him flex his acting muscles even farther.
Just a word about National Theatre Live. This terrific program brings the best of the London stage to a movie theater near you, and you might be surprised how many cinemas are participating in NT Live. (For the full list, go to http://ntlive.nationaltheatre.org.uk/venues).
In recent years, NT Live has brought to US cinemas James Corden’s Tony-winning performance in “One Man, Two Guvnors” and the Tony-winning play “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.” And I have luckily been able to catch such NT Live presentations as Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller in Danny Boyle’s “Frankenstein,” Helen Mirren’s Tony-winning performance as Queen Elizabeth in “The Audience,” James Franco and Tony nominee Chris O’Dowd’s work in “Of Mice and Men” and Tony nominees Bill Nighy and Carry Mulligan — both brilliant in David Hare’s “Skylight.”
Check out NT Live. You may have world-class theatre waiting for you just down the street.
