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Review: Play: 1989 RSC Spring/Summer Season at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre and the Swan, Stratford-upon-Avon

For this rather unconventional but stimulating Hamlet, the set was all askew, with almost no parallels, in an 'oblique' parody of neo-classical, so-called 'post-modern' architecture of the Ricardo Boffill type. The 'something rotten' of the Danish kingdom was thus straightforwardly conveyed, as was the genuinely tortured, cedipian psyche of Mark Rylance's Hamlet. The set was very efficiently used. The semi-circular motions of the panels succeeded in constructing various rooms in the palace, formal (e.g. the post-wedding scene) or intimate (to be or not to be, the 'nunnery scene' and the family disputes), as well as two outdoor locations, used for the ghost-scenes and those with Fortinbras-all in all, six different locations. The use of curtains and doors could add three to this number, for the room where the mouse-trap is played, and the king and queen's bedrooms. Pneumatic jacks lifted parts of the flooring to create battlements for the two ghost-scenes. Costumes were of the traditional nineteenth-century court style, perhaps reminiscent of operetta, or the Senso style of dress, parodic in intention. The only exceptions were the watchmen, in Tatar-like uniforms with chapkas, and Fortinbras, Norsemen, in costumes one might call 'hippie mercenary' in style, and speaking in an almost incomprehensible drone or drawl. To these exceptions, one ought to add Hamlet himself, who spent most of the plays in old striped pyjamas, yawning rather than delivering the to be or not to be speech, before jumping astride poor sensitive and sensible Ophelia (Rebecca Saire) in the nunnery scene, which looked almost like a rape attempt. The dramatic efficiency of the play's argument was distorted by the use of the first quarto text which considerably ruins the coherence of this particular part of the tragedy and makes Hamlet's behaviour more difficult to account for. This production was yet another psychological version of the teenage Hamlet's (Edipus complex. Mr Rylance's acting was thoroughly excessive, some might say intense, which was obvioulsy intended, and mostly efficient, but almost devoid of the nuances in tone which the text implies. The pyjamas, the railed hospital beds carried to and fro from 'room' to 'room', enhanced the impression that Elsinore was a lunatic asylum (some spectators, though not the present reviewer, were reminded of Auschwitz uniforms) in which everything was designed to aggravate Hamlet's symptoms. Hamlet gets out of his pyjamas to step into a sort of 'pirate of Penzance' outfit after Ophelia's death. The majestic ghost, reminiscent of Olivier's film production choices, appeared to a background of synthetic music, wind, and red lights. When he appeared in Gertrude's bedroom he was in his dressing-gown. The mouse-trap was performed to the sound of a discordant amplified violin, with a light-show whose rhythm was slightly too slow and rather broken, though the idea was good and seemed to be appreciated by the audience. Nevertheless, the behaviour of the Queen and King was not very convincing. The murder of Polonius was called a 'sexual murder' by some spectators.