Dani

I thought this was a magnificent production. Tennant's hamlet is disturbed and disturbing, full of energy and wildness in places and clamped down simmering rage in others. He uses the 'stage' beautifully, and his performance seems completely ego-less. Stewart as the King and the ghost of old hamlet was, frankly, a delight (no big surprise). The surprise for me was how wonderful Polonius was. By far the best Polonius I have ever seen. This must be the tenth or eleventh production I've seen of hamlet (on stage and on screen). Most have had thinsg I loved and things I hated. Loved Jacobi as Hamlet, but hated the production itself (laertes was awful). There was nothing in this that I hated, it was such a classy production. It's the first one that has come close to hitting me in the same way that my first exposure to Hamlet hit me way back when i was a nipper. The weaker elements (Laertes and Ophelia) were only weaker because they were set against such strong performances from the rest. Even they only slipped a little, from time to time, with most of their time on screen/stage strong enough to make me care. Their early scenes in particular got across a strong, affectionate brother-sister bond. Visually, this is a stunning piece of work. The setting of Elsinore is claustrophobic and compelling in itself. Very much a character within the play. The dialogue trips with rhythm, and is delivered so naturally, that even the more oblique language is made clear by the context and delivery. I think I could probably sit my 12 year old niece down in front of this and she'd understand exactly what was going on, even if she didn't.