Hamlet was the second all-female Shakespeare production to take place at Hope Mill Theatre. The first production was of Romeo and Juliet. Back in the days of William Shakespeare, in the original performance conditions, men played men and men played women. Skipping forward to the 21st Century, with productions brought to you by GirlGang Manchester and Unseemly Women, women play women and women play men.
GirlGang Manchester and Unseemly Women form an ideal partnership: the former is a collective of female artists, activists and academics who create accessible, fun and meaningful events; the latter aims to ensure more opportunities are available for female actors and creatives in Manchester. They create inspiring and relevant theatre.
For those who are not familiar with the story of Hamlet, he was the Prince of Denmark who had just returned home from university to be told utterly devastating news. His father had died and Hamlet's mother, Gertrude, had swiftly married Claudius, Hamlet's father's brother. Claudius is now King of Denmark. However, the death was not as innocent as first thought, it turned out Hamlet's father was murdered. So began a rapid and dramatic chain of events which affected every person in the story.
The thrust stage layout added to the already intimate setting of the Hope Mill Theatre space. It made the sword fights, soliloquys and asides all the more effective. You felt you were talked to and not at. The audience caught a glimpse of certain facial reactions of characters from the appropriate angle. Occasionally, a cold draft of wind accidentally blew in to the theatre space, but actually it made the production atmospheric and ghostly.
Directed by Kayleigh Hawkins, this artistic interpretation of Hamlet exposed the themes of female fragility and weakness. We were watching a play set in the past with traditional Shakespearian costumes, while being mindful of a modern world which desires to empower and celebrate the strength and resilience of women.
The switching of gender highlighted many things in the play that otherwise may have gone unnoticed. I noticed Shakespeare's favouritism for using male pronouns in speeches which refer to the wider world. The line, "Tis unmanly grief", not only shames men for expressing emotion but there is the underlying suggestion that unmanly grief is by definition womanly grief. There were other outstanding moments: Polonius did not want to hug Laertes, Claudius and Laertes drank red wine instead of beer or ale. Finally, although we were meant to be watching women playing men in battle, in the context of the production we saw female actors acting out a battle scene, as suppose to male actors.
Eve Shotton was ardent in the title role. Her portrayal of Hamlet, whether intentional or not, appeared to be inspired by Polonius' comment about Hamlet's madness having method in it. There was this feeling of Hamlet faking the madness but slowly losing control over his thoughts and rationality. Consequently, what was madness, what was playing and what was reality eventually all rolled, disconcertingly, into one inner experience. I think the longer Shotton was absorbed in the world of the play, the more natural and convincing her acting of Hamlet became. Without revealing which character death this was about, Shotton's heart rending and emotionally raw performance in that particular scene was touching.
I'm not entirely sure whether the cast had uniformally decided on whether they were going to speak and act Shakespeare's text in a more traditional manner or in a modern way. It was inconsistent. I think performances, on the whole, were more modern in style - one performance of a poem was impressively rap-like at one point. As a result, some of the cast appeared overly-gestural, which looked out of place. Of course, the scenes with the visiting players don't count as that was intentionally melodramatic and exaggerated. The scene with the two Gravemakers was hilarious, they spoke and behaved like rural farmers. Completing the cast was: Maria Major, Shelia Jones, Maryam Ali, Emily Heyworth, Zoey Barnes, Sophie Giddens, Tori Burgess, Misha Duncan-Barry, Brianna Douglas, Amy Gavin, and Hannah Ellis Ryan.
A simple set design by Jeni Holt Wright made up of chairs, benches, tables, and the odd Royal Household prop here and there, allowed for an easy switch from one location to the next. The cast changed the set smoothly. Right at the start, as the set was assembled, there was a physical theatre sequence, which unexpectedly never developed later on in the play. Tom Sutcliffe's lighting made full use of the LED lights in the theatre, the multiple flashes of white light emulated the haunting presence of Hamlet's dead father. Complimenting this was Eliyana Evan's eerie sound design, which gave the voice of the ghost a preternatural reverb.
Summary: Set in the late middle ages, Hamlet was a traditional and classical looking Shakespearian production examined through a modern lens - an exploration on the representation of women. Very good.
Reviewer - Sam Lowe
on - 3/5/19
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