(Michael Billington’s article ran in the Guardian, 10/8.)
Hamlets come thick and fast. Hot on the heels of John Simm in Sheffield arrives Rory Kinnear (pictured) at the National. But the real difference lies in the respective productions. At the Olivier director Nicholas Hytner offers a detailed political, social and psychological context to the action. And Kinnear's fine Hamlet gains enormously from Elsinore itself having such a hugely living presence.
The essence of this tyrannical modern-dress Elsinore is that no one is ever fully alone. Claudius's opening address about his late brother is made as much for the benefit of the cameras as Fortinbras's final tribute to young Hamlet. Ad surveillance is everywhere the order of the day. Hamlet's moves
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