Hamlet starring Luke Thallon – review round-up

Hamlet—a Titanic tragedy

Rupert Goold is one of the most celebrated directors currently working in theatre, having staged a score of acclaimed productions, from 2009’s Enron, to 2014’s King Charles III, to 2017’s Ink, to 2023’s Dear England. Here, he makes the bold move of shifting Shakespeare’s play on to a doomed ship in the final hours before its sinking.

Some like it. Sarah Hemming (Financial Times, ★★★★) thinks this “eerie, nightmarish and claustrophobic” interpretation offers “the chance to see the play afresh, delivered with new urgency as a tense psychological thriller”, while Mark Lawson (Guardian, ★★★★) writes that “for its vivid atmosphere and intelligence” it is a “must-see”.

Other reviewers, though, are not on board, objecting to Goold’s textual tweaks – the verse “has been tinkered with to such an extent that it loses its flow”, complains Holly O’Mahoney (The Stage, ★★) – and to the mess that the maritime move makes of the plot’s mechanics.

It is “bewildering”, writes Dominic Maxwell (Times, ★★★). “Most of the action is forced into a single night in April 1912”, but “the notion renders senseless Laertes’ departure and almost immediate return, the inexplicable arrival of the players, and Ophelia’s apparently instantaneous descent into madness, among many other things.”.

Hamlet – thalassic Thallon

Luke Thallon made his debut in Mike Bartlett’s Albion at the Almeida in 2017, and has subsequently starred in several successful shows, including The Inheritance, Present Laughter, Leopoldstadt, Patriots and Cold War. He has never performed in a professional Shakespeare, though. Now, he has been thrown in at the deep end. For some critics, he is an excellent Hamlet. For others, his Dane disappoints.

“Tall, angular” and “undernourished”, Thallon is “a thrillingly wired, self-mocking Hamlet, consumed to the bone by a near unbearably exquisite self-doubt”, writes Claire Allfree (Telegraph, ★★★). It is “an exhilaratingly commanding performance”.

Thallon’s “riveting Hamlet” is “raw, desperate and desolate” and “you can’t take your eyes off him”, agrees Hemming, while Lawson praises Thallon’s fresh take on some of world drama’s most famous lines, lauding him for making them “sound newly thought out and forced out, rather than learnt by schoolchildren for hundreds of years”.

Other critics do not like Thallon’s approach, though, with O’Mahoney objecting to his “long pauses and mono-tonal outpourings” and Michael Davies (WhatsOnStage, ★★★) accusing him of “trampling all over” the text. Thallon “subverts metre, tosses away famous lines, inserts ellipses, finds unexpected new emphases”, says Maxwell. “You could make a case for any of the line readings individually, but collectively their downbeat tone underpowers” the role.

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Hamlet – Shakespeare on a sinking ship

How exactly do you stage a Shakespeare play on a ship? That was the job of super-designer Es Devlin, who has previously created sets for everything from The Lehman Trilogy, to a Beyoncé concert to the Super Bowl half-time show to the opening ceremony of the 2016 Olympics. The critics may be divided over the oceanic ideas behind the production, but they are united in their appreciation of its execution.

“Devlin’s ingenious set presents us with a tilting wooden deck at the prow of the vessel, which pitches and tosses alarmingly realistically with the waves, while Akhila Krishnan’s atmospheric video design suggests the shifting moods of the ocean ahead,” describes Hemming. “The action is punctuated by sharp orders from nautical whistles and sudden ominous groans and thuds from the belly of the vessel.”

What about the passengers on this ocean liner? Luke Thallon is supported by an experienced cast, including Jared Harris as Claudius, Nancy Carroll as Gertrude, Elliot Levey as Polonius and Anton Lesser as both Hamlet’s father and the Player King.

It is Carroll and Levey who are praised most. Carroll displays “poetic intelligence” as Gertrude according to Lawson, while Levey “stands out” as a sympathetic, amusing Polonius according to Maxwell. “Casually delighting in the language, he’s a miraculously easy presence” and “the most interesting character on deck”, he concludes.

Hamlet – the verdict

Rupert Goold’s big idea of staging Hamlet on a stricken ship divides the critics. Some find it a thrillingly fresh take on the tragedy. Others think the play’s logic and language have been lost at sea. The reviewers are similarly split over Luke Thallon’s Hamlet, with some loving, and some loathing his angsty, unconventional approach to the character. The only thing on which everyone agrees is that Es Devlin’s pelagic production is impressive.

Four-star reviews from the Financial Times and the Guardian contrast with a two-star write-up in The Stage, with the rest of the press awarding three, suggesting that some spectators will get along with Hamlet swimmingly, but others might need a life jacket.