Hamlet

It's not so uncommon to see 'tour de force' performances on screen because cinema and TV affords the actor the physical space and respite to tear the arse out of a performance. It's a one off and retakes allow them to experiment and finesse the part and to build in nuances.

But of course the stage has many 'tour de force's' to reference, Olivier springs to mind in the Shakespearian silo, but they are fewer in number and elitist in observation.

Nevertheless, in the digital cinema world, to that august canon must be added Maxine Peake's Hamlet.

Let's ignore the gender issue here. It's a red herring. The fact is that Peake is, by anyone's measure, slight.

And yet the sheer energy she exudes performance after performance is ant like in its ability to punch above its physical weight.

Her skill is to mesmerisingly tic and twitch her way through a descent into moral madness. It's very compelling indeed.

And yet her slightness brings with it a vulnerability that really draws you in. Captured on the big screen it only serves to emphasise the greatness of this performance at the Royal Exchange Theatre during last year's Manchester International Festival.

If you get a chance to see one of these 'live' theatre screening jump at the opportunity. You will thank me.

I wanted to like this production and was intrigued by the roles of Hamlet and Polonius being played by females, although in the former case I could not really tell whether s/he was supposed to be a lesbian or a male in the staged play. Polonius was absolutely changed into the mother of Ophelia, with the father disappeared in the way that the mother is nonexistent in the original play. (I assume that she must have died during childbirth or something along those lines, since no one ever utters a word about her).

Some of the acting struck me as quite good (esp. Claudius), but I felt that Hamlet was portrayed as someone more drunk and out of control than plagued by existential and moral concerns. The performance included way too much screeching and screaming for me to watch comfortably. There are other ways to express sorrow and dismay and even anger but those were avoided, leaving only a sort of monolithic emotivistic outburst conveyed through voice volume and histrionic facial contortions.

I first studied Hamlet about twenty years ago when at college and ever since then I have made a point of seeing as many different versions as possible. This version deserves some serious praise. This is a modern take on the play with the original language and is a stripped down and incredibly actor-led performance. Maxine Peake is simply sublime. Hamlet which is usually acknowledged as the toughest challenge an actor will ever undertake is a huge, three hour plus, demanding role with language that is both familiar and unfamiliar to us today. The supporting cast were also of high quality particularly the King & Queen and the comedic Polonia (Changed to a female lead). Maxine descends into madness with the character and spits and scorns her words, uses intriguing gestures and quite frankly, is one of the best actors working in today's media. Genuinely impressive and whilst stripped down, really goes to the very heart of the play. Great version. How anyone remembers 3 hours of text to perform live and with such passion is stunningly impressive.

While the idea of a female Hamlet is nothing new, German film actress Asta Nielsen can be seen soliloquizing the role in a ground breaking 1921 silent film version, this production is setup to fail from the very beginning due to the choices made by the lead actress.

There are so many elements within this production that deserve praise; the minimal set design, gender swapping some of the supporting roles (Polonius becomes Polonia, etc.)and the overall storytelling is masterful here. It's too bad that all of it means nothing when your main actress screams at the audience the whole time.

As a character who is dark, brooding and melancholy by nature; any actor tasked with fleshing out a performance must find the balance between his need for revenge and a potentially having a psychological breakdown after finding out your Uncle killed your Father and married your Mother! Therefore creating a relationship and connecting with your audience is crucial as to whether or not we care about Hamlet's situation! In the case of Maxine Peake, the actress playing Hamlet, I quickly found myself wanting her to SHUT THE HELL UP. This is because it seems she was pushing too hard and wasn't able to find any subtle nuances in her vocal performance. I'm not sure if she was trying to fill the space or if the actor chose to portray Hamlet as someone who is not grounded in reality, but ultimately her choices disconnected me from her character and in fact turned me against Hamlet because her dialogue was not believable and felt REALLY forced.

If you cannot modulate your vocal performance in front of a live audience it is very easy to turn them against you. This is what happened here and its a shame because so many other aspects of this production succeed.

You're only as strong as your weakest link - in this case I desperately wanted Hamlet to connect and just talk to me.....not scream and shout for 3 hours!

'Hamlet' is to me a great play and one of William Shakespeare's best and most iconic (in terms of characterisation and the amount of memorable quotes there are). Adaptations have varied in quality but actually from personal experience there has yet to be a filmed 'Hamlet' that has disgraced the play and most have ranged to decent to great. Saw this production for its talented cast that includes Maxine Peake, John Shrapnel and Gillian Bevan.

And also for its idea to cast females in male roles, the most notable being Hamlet and Polonious. Was interested in that experiment but did worry as to whether it would be too much of a gimmick or not be tasteful. Then reminded myself that other Shakespeare productions have cast females in male roles and did so very successfully. A notable example being a female Malvolio in the National Theatre Live production of 'Twelfth Night' and it turned out to be one of the most interesting interpretations of the role courtesy of Tamsin Grieg. Also the Ian McKellen 'King Lear' from two years ago had a female Kent performed by the great Sinead Cusack. Onto talking about this production of 'Hamlet' it is interesting, different and decent, yet not great.

The acting is mostly one of the better assets. My vote for the standout performance goes to Shrapnel as Claudius, suitably noble and serpentine. This is another production to double Claudius with the Ghost and he has the spookiness down pat. Also loved Bevan who even with the gender reversal nails all of Polonious' characteristics in a way that is not overdone and did appreciate her sincere matronly take on the role too. Barbara Marten is a conflicted Gertrude. Most of the supporting cast fit their roles very well.

Visually, this 'Hamlet' generally looks appealing enough. It is modern dress, which will raise alarm bells for traditionalists but for those that have no issue with change won't mind so much. The sets are minimalist but don't look too grim, which is amazing considering the play's tone. The photography is not overblown or too claustrophobic. Shakespeare's dialogue never stops shining in its wide range of emotions and poetry. Even with cuts to the Fortinbras subplot, the drama still has enough cohesion despite the plot feeling somewhat jumpy at that point. The staging is mostly tasteful and enough of it makes sense and has intensity and emotion.

It is not a perfect 'Hamlet' though. Like others, my feelings on Peake were mixed. She definitely has a commanding presence, but the performance could agreed have done with a lot more nuance and toning down as she does try too hard when things get more manic in the drama. Also found Katie West too passive as Orphelia. The music also for my liking didn't fit with what was going on in the drama or with the mood, it was not at all appealing to listen to, it was intrusive and it was like someone was experimenting with Expressionism with not much understanding of the form.

Costumes were too much of a mishmash stylistically, some of the clothes not particularly appealing to look at. Especially those vests. While liking the staging on the whole, there are some very odd touches scattered here and there, such as the actors not holding what are specific objects in the text and story but instead knitwear and such for no discernible reason.

All in all, a lot to like but didn't wow me. More an interesting experiment than a great production. 6/10