User:Xover/sandbox/Hamlet (2004)

Hamlet is a 2004 modern-dress production of William Shakespeare's Hamlet. It was produced by Trevor Nunn at the Old Vic and starred Ben Whishaw in the title role, Samantha Whittaker as Ophelia, Tom Mannion as Claudius, Rory Kinnear as Laertes, Nicholas Jones as Polonius, and Imogen Stubbs as Gertrude.

The production received generally positive reviews.

One performance was filmed by the Victoria and Albert Museum for the National Video Archive of Performance, and was one of the recordings screened for Shakespeare's 450th anniversary.

Cast and crew

 * Cast
 * Ben Whishaw as Prince Hamlet
 * Tom Mannion as King Claudius and the ghost
 * Imogen Stubbs as Gertrude
 * Nicholas Jones as Polonius
 * Rory Kinnear as Laertes
 * Samantha Whittaker as Ophelia
 * Jotham Annan as Horatio
 * Kevin Wathen as Rosencrantz
 * Edward Hughes Guildenstern
 * Tom Mison as Fortinbras


 * Crew
 * Trevor Nunn (director)
 * John Gunter (production design)
 * Paul Pyant (lighting)
 * Fergus O'Hare (sound)
 * Steven Edis (music)
 * Kate Flatt (movement)
 * Mark Bouman (costume design)
 * Malcolm Ranson (fight director)

Production
Trevor Nunn, who had twice previously staged adaptations of Hamlet, had for a decade wanted to produce a version with younger actors, but "…every time he has been poised to realise it, other commitments or rival productions have got in the way." However, in 2003 Nunn had just stepped down as Artistic director of the Royal National Theatre when a project to record A Streetcar Named Desire with Glenn Close for TV suddenly collapsed, leaving him free to work on a new production of Hamlet.

Nunn chose to stage the play in modern dress, set in the modern day, and with a "text [that] has been severely shortened". He also moved the "To be, or not to be" soliloquy "to a more dramatically logical point" and introduced new scenes, without dialogue, that are not in the original play.

He cast Ben Whishaw as a Prince Hamlet, played like "a sensitive impish wisp" and Imogen Stubbs as a Gertrude that "loved to shop". Tom Mannion played King Claudius and was doubled with the ghost of Hamlet's father. The "To be, or not to be" soliloquy was moved from the second quarto (Q2) and First Folio (F1) location in act 3, scene 1 to the first quarto (Q1) location in scene 7, line 115.

When Whishaw auditioned for the role he thought he might play one of the smaller parts. "I always played character roles at drama school. I never thought I'd be cast in leading parts. When I auditioned for Trevor Nunn's Old Vic production of Hamlet, I though I was going up for a Guard, or at best Rosencrantz or Guildenstern. To play Hamlet himself was an absolute joy from start to finish."

Reception
The production received generally positive reviews.

Michael Billington in The Guardian sums his overall impression up as: "I suspect [Hamlet] will remain [unfinished business for Trevor Nunn] even after this youth-orientated, modern-dress production which has bags of energy but lacks the polyphonic richness of his Macbeth and Othello. … it is a curate's egg of an evening that leaves you feeling … that you have not seen the whole of Hamlet but a piece of him." He calls out performances by Ben Whishaw (Hamlet), Rory Kinnear (Laertes), and Imogen Stubbs (Gertrude); but qualifies the casting of Whishaw as "[having] its pluses and minuses". Similarly equivocal is the assessment of Nunn's choice to stage the play in modern dress: "It clarifies character, as in the case of Samantha Whittaker's Ophelia, who becomes a gauche, gymslip schoolgirl with a fatal crush on the not-particularly interested Hamlet. It also allows the Ghost, which Tom Mannion effectively doubles with Claudius, simply to be one man talking to another, rather than a piece of clanking ironmongery. But having opted for modern dress, I wish Nunn made much fuller use of it."

The Economist's reviewer found it "vital and accessible, qualities that are sometimes obscured by the casting of more august and forbidding theatrical talents, who have been rewarded with the part of Hamlet after years of treading the boards." Whishaw's performance "has freshness and energy. … very much a modern student prince, self-assured but without arrogance." In their view, the central theme of the production is youth.

Rhoda Koenig, writing for The Independent, is mostly negative, echoing The Economist's view that the production accents youth, but finds that "immaturity is the byword, not only in the neophytes but in the more seasoned players." She calls out Stubbs' performance, characterising it as a "cuddly-bunny act"; Whishaw's line delivery as "frequently unintelligible" and "his demeanour is that of sullen adolescent rather than proud prince.";  Mannion's Claudius is "far too obviously phony and slick, [and] lacks colour, as well as threat"; and Jones' Polonius as "far too benign." In the staging and stage design she finds "John Gunter's Elsinore … a forbidding one of high, dark walls, on which, oddly for such an up-to-date version, we see enormous shadows of the players in the intimate scenes—a 'picturesque' effect that was old-fashioned before the movies could talk."

Legacy and accolades
In the 2005 Laurence Olivier Awards, Hamlet won the Best Revival award while Ben Whishaw was nominated for Best Actor, and John Gunter and Mark Bouman were nominated for Best Costume Design.

Notes and references
All references to Hamlet, unless otherwise specified, are taken from the Arden Shakespeare Q2. Under their referencing system, 3.1.55 means act 3, scene 1, line 55. References to the First Quarto and First Folio are marked Hamlet Q1 and Hamlet F1, respectively, and are taken from the Arden Shakespeare Hamlet: the texts of 1603 and 1623. Their referencing system for Q1 has no act breaks, so 7.115 means scene 7, line 115.