Low Down

With a band of crazy characters resembling gypsies from a far off planet in one of those 1970’s sci-fi shows - ‘Hamlet as you have never seen him before’, is what the tagline reads for this extravagant reimagining of the Hamlet story.

Review

'Escaping Hamlet' is an inventive and plucky production in the Baz Luhrman 'Romeo and Juliet' vein. From sparkly glam rock jumpsuits to flambouyant cross dressers, the costumes stand out immediately as rather incongruous to the venue and the Hamlet story. 

However, one soon forgets about Hamlet as we enter the Hall (probably more suited to classical music concerts) and see a bizarrely dressed character sitting cross legged on a long extension of the stage that is used to variable effect throughout. For the first half of the play we are bombarded by colours and fragmented scenes that occur simultaneously with action all around the stage which distracts from the dialogue. 

If the first half is an assualt on the eyes that doesn’t gel as a narrative and feels oddly distant, the second half improves a lot as the audience realise what on earth the writer has done. With a clever twisting of the Hamlet persona (or perhaps a subversion if you’re a Shakespeare purist), the action takes off and all the characters come together on the stage as a hard working ensemble. There are some witty lines, delivered particularly well by Robert Reynolds as Claudius; and some imaginative stage-craft - I particularly liked Ophelia hanging herself with a balloon - and a good contemporary soundtrack. 

This production takes about 50 minutes to settle down, but when it does it is a warm hearted show with a funny take on the Hamlet story. What it is definitely doing is ‘escaping’ Hamlet.

Reviewed by Frey Le Maistre 21/08/2007

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