HAMLET – Stratford Festival In HD (Shelagh O’Brien). 193 minutes. Screens Saturday (April 23) and other days at select theatres. See listing. Rating: NNNN
If you missed Stratford’s production of Hamlet last year, you’re in luck. It’s being broadcast in high-def in select cinemas this week.
Antoni Cimolino’s original production translates well to the screen. It’s clear and simply designed (the mostly black sets are by Teresa Przybylski), putting the focus on character and plot.
Director Shelagh O’Brien gets up close to Jonathan Goad’s Danish prince during his soliloquies and he brings an unpretentious quality to the part. While he doesn’t mine all the subtle feeling in those famous speeches, he really comes alive in his scenes with others, both with his friends Horatio (Tim Campbell), Rosencrantz (Sanjay Talwar) and Guildenstern (Steve Ross) and with his mother (Seana McKenna) and stepfather (Geraint Wyn Davies).
The standout performance is Tom Rooney’s his crafty Polonius is grounded and never merely a figure of fun. It’s a shame his daughter Ophelia (Adrienne Gould) is directed as if she’s experiencing an exorcism in the mad scene.