Royal Welsh College Of Music And Drama, Cardiff
Tues 5-Tues 12 Feb
The story of the angst-ridden Prince of Denmark, his murderous uncle and his father’s ghost may be one of Shakespeare’s best-known plays, but this new production of Hamlet aims to give the bard a modern twist.
Director Jamie Garven has taken the bold step of using an all-female cast for the production. “All-female casts are very trendy at the moment,” he explains. “It’s liberating and allows female actors to get their hands on Shakespeare’s most famous characters. The women in Shakespeare usually play quite passive roles.” This production will focus more on the character’s personality, not their gender.
With a cast stripped down to just nine, the director hopes to give audiences a different kind of Shakespearian experience. “The actors will move in and out of character – we see them as both actors and their characters,” he has said, hinting at something rarely seen on stage. “It allows us to see the mechanics of theatre, how the company are doing things. There is no pretending – we are being presented Hamlet in its bare form.”
Despite the unconventional staging, Jamie is still pursuing the essence of the play, something he sees as behaving like a horror film, where the characters are at the mercy of religious and emotional forces operating beyond their control. Tickets: £10/£8. Info: 029 2039 1391 / www.rwcmd.ac.uk (GARY MULOCK)