Preview: Hamlet

Shakespeare at the Tobacco Factory (stf) are back this month to start their always-acclaimed annual season: and they’re kicking off, in this 400th anniversary year of the playwright’s death, with his great tragedy Hamlet.

The company is now a respectable 16 years old, which means that some Shakespeare’s more favoured plays are ripe for revisiting. Stf’s previous Hamlet, in 2008, was a triumph – directed by Jonathan Miller no less, and featuring, among others, a coruscating performance from Jamie Ballard as the tortured Danish prince. Company director Andrew Hilton (who had a minor role in Miller’s production) has performed in three Hamlets, but will be directing it for the first time.

Will he be doing things differently? “I probably part with Jonathan on a number of points of interpretation, as well as having my own way of using the in-the-round space. However, I agree with him completely that Hamlet is a Renaissance piece and, like him, I shall not be updating it.

“But the real task is to look at this most famous of all plays with fresh eyes. I have done a new edit – I hope it will be a little shorter than in 2008 – and have paid more attention to Shakespeare’s sources (the Danish poet Saxo, and François de Belleforest), which has helped me with some re-evaluations – about Hamlet’s real, or feigned, madness and that old chestnut, his supposed procrastination over avenging his father’s death.”

Hamlet is undoubtedly one of theatre’s most fascinating and ambiguous characters. Sensitive, thoughtful young man struggling with his own new-found maturity – or self-absorbed aristocrat, vacillating over the revenge of his father’s death and, at times, cruel to his devoted Ophelia? “I am a little wary of defining [actor] Alan Mahon’s Hamlet before we even begin rehearsal, but certainly I see him as a young man – Alan is in his early twenties,” Andrew explains.

“I do have real problems with a man in his mid-30s (as suggested by a line in the graveyard scene about how long Yorick has been dead) who so idealises his father, and is so shocked to discover that his mother still feels sexual desire. The ambivalence is important but I would argue that, in the circumstances, his self-absorption is forgiveable, even inevitable.”

More than most (Shakespeare) plays perhaps, Hamlet invites various readings – philosophical, religious, psychoanalytic, feminist. Will any such reading underpin Andrew’s production? “I did consider casting a female Hamlet but drew back from it because of the difficulty of making sense of the Ophelia relationship. Otherwise it would have been very interesting indeed and very refreshing – think of ‘her’ scenes with the Ghost and with Gertrude. But most ‘concept’ readings of the plays diminish them, in my opinion, and so one must be informed by particular readings – a Freudian reading, for example – but not limited by them.”

And how is stf’s state of health at the moment? “We’re in good shape, excited to be touring both our shows around the UK after the Factory season. We’ll take Hamlet to an international festival in Romania, and All’s Well That Ends Well [the second half of stf’s 2016 Bristol season] to another in Germany. A great way to celebrate Shakespeare 400!

“Company members who first came to prominence with us continue to make their mark on the London stages – Lucy Black, Jamie Ballard, John Heffernan and Saskia Portway at the National Theatre, and many others. Last season’s wonderful Romeo, Paapa Essiedu, will be seen as Hamlet at Stratford shortly after our own production opens.”

There’s always a crop of familiar names in the cast list, among the fresh young talent. What keeps these actors coming back? “The ensemble nature of the season is particularly attractive, working on two plays in a short space of time, and in the Tobacco Factory Theatres’ wonderful environment – no role is negligible in that intimate space, and the single dressing-room is a great leveller. The quality of the chosen texts may have something to do with it as well!”

Hamlet is at Tobacco Factory Theatres from Thursday, February 11. For more info see www.stf-theatre.org.uk