This had a lot going for it, but all told I really didn't think it was particularly great. The main problem for me was the figure of Hamlet himself...I didn't at all like the way that he was characterised, very much in the sulky adultescent vein of interpretation which (a) seems quite popular these days and (b) (lapsing briefly into unbecoming dogmatism) is just plain wrong; Brendan Cowell had presence but didn't really work for me; he was at his best in the contemplative soliloquies/monologues ("What a piece of work is a man", etc) and at his worst when lapsing into dire overacting intended to convey the character's anguish.
A lot of this stems from the fact that I'm pretty familiar with the play (and not a little possessive of the thing) and have some strong ideas about it - ideas which run counter to many of those underlying this staging...that said, another of my problems with the production is that it doesn't really seem to have a clear idea of the play itself, nothing cohesive to unify the choices made in respect of the various characters, sets, etc, beyond a generalised sort of contemporisation which isn't near enough on its own. There wasn't a clear vision, and the truth of the play was nowhere to be seen.
Still, I did generally like the way that the characters were interpreted: Claudius was effectively played as quite a physically domineering figure, and Gertrude likewise as the attractive older woman that she so clearly must be; Barry Otto as Polonius brought out the ridiculousness of the character without descending too far into farce; Horatio, Laertes and Ophelia all held their respective lines (that last a bit insipid for my taste, but that's obviously a reading that's open to her character); Rosencrantz and Guildenstern seemed to owe something to their Stoppardian counterparts in their gormlessness (their ineffectuality is played up and played for laughs), though with nothing of the anguished existential innocence of those others; all told, I thought that the acting was okay but a bit undistinguished. I did like the sets, though, and the music (courtesy of Sarah Blasko) which lent proceedings a bit of gravitas (thereby tipping my hand as to which reading of Hamlet I lean towards...).
(w/ (deep breath) Cassie, Kai, Wei, Julian F, Jaani, Sunny, Ben K and Bec P + guests of Wei's (Andreas) and Sunny's (Wilfred, Nirm and Louise [?]) - row a, three from the front)
