Geez, people, give Hamlet a break...

After reading a few people's reviews of Hamlet, I almost feel kinda bad for the guy. I am a huge fan of Shakespeare (English nerd, guilty), and so I really looked forward to seeing a performance of Hamlet at the National Theatre. I wasn't disappointed as it seems a lot of you were. Going into this, because of the theatre tour we went on earlier in the day, I knew it was going to be a modern adaptation of the play, and I have to admit, I was a little wary of it after seeing the modern Ethan Hawke film version of Hamlet (which I really didn't like). By the time the play was over, though, I realized that I hardly even noticed any discrepancy between the dialogue and the settings/costumes.

I feel like it is probably quite a challenge to successfully adapt something so well known as Hamlet into something contemporary while maintaining the same language. This performance seemed to meet the challenge. When I read Saam's mention of the AK-47s and the fact that those are Taliban guns that do not belong in Denmark, I was really shocked. That seems like such an odd thing to take issue with. If you hold a modern adaptation of a play to any of the historical standards that it is not aiming to meet, you are setting yourself up for disappointment. In my opinion, the modern take on Shakespeare's play worked really well. I thought it was clever that Claudius addressed his "subjects" from his office via camera and television rather than from his throne, making him seem all the more like a smarmy, corrupt politician. I also thought the actors' demeanors, particularly Hamlet's, in all its sarcasm and disdain, really helped bring the old language into the present day. I will however, agree with Saam (and I would imagine lots of others who disliked the play for this reason) about the weird play-with-a-play. That was a little too out there for my taste, and even too much so for me to understand. I appreciate the attempt to make it so outrageous because it has to be distinct and separate from the already un-Shakespearean nature of the regular play, but I think they could have done something else with it. The weird techno music and ridiculous costumes and face painting, followed immediately by a much more traditional tragedy was jarring and confusing.

Overall, however, I enjoyed the play a lot despite it being a little tooooo long. It reminded me, just as Merry Wives of Windsor did, how much I enjoy Shakespeare and appreciate all the interesting things that can be done with such iconic work.

Leigh Mitnick