Swansea director Sean Mathias has had a lengthy theatrical career, travelling the world with productions like Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart’s Waiting For Godot, whilst also directing the film version of Martin Sherman’s Bent, starring Clive Owen. Now, with a reimagining of his 2021 production of Hamlet, again starring McKellen, Mathias translates his theatrical take on Shakespeare to the screen, which will be coming to Swansea this month with a special Q&A from the director himself.
The Theatre Royal Windsor, where the play was initially staged, was transformed into Elsinore for the cameras – from basement dressing rooms and theatre box auditoriums to battlements, or rather the theatre roof, for a fresh look at the Danish prince. McKellen, now in his 80s, assays the role with subtlety and class and, despite the family maths simply not adding up – his mother is younger than him in this production! – somehow makes it work. Impish and entertaining as ever, spry despite his advancing years and full of twinkle, the film often feels like a summation of McKellen’s career.
Hamlet also becomes a meditation on theatricality as well as the usual action/inaction/revenge/existential angst tropes. McKellen is subtle amidst the enjoyable histrionics of Steven Berkoff’s Polonius and Jonathan Hyde’s oily Claudius. The supporting cast also includes Jenny Seagrove as Hamlet’s mum Gertrude, and two Welsh actors: Alis Wyn Davies, as Ophelia, and Llinos Daniel adding music and clowning.
Mathias will be present at the screening, and poised for a Q&A afterwards with playwright Rebecca Lenkiewicz. It’s bound to be an intriguing evening: an examination of one of the English language’s greatest-ever plays, hopefully with some behind-the-scenes nuggets about one of Britain’s finest actors. To go or not to go? No question, really.
Hamlet is screened at Taliesin Cinema, Swansea on Tue 13 Aug.
Tickets: £7.75/£5. Info: here
words KEIRON SELF
