11. YPS Hamlet - RSC at the Roundhouse

Ah... sadly I feel I might have to woefully short-change Hamlet a little here as I've fallen far too behind on these things and I've been putting writing this one off (I've already written my Caesar review and the ones for both Lears as I sit here at 2am trying to write this). Not even sure why I've putting it off, accept the odd feeling that I don't have much to say - which is no reflection on how much I enjoyed the production as I really loved it. I think partly it's that seeing this again, didn't really give me any new revelations about it. It's like I have very little to add, so here is what I wrote last time:

"Hamlet in contrast [to the YPS Comedy of Errors] feels less even, the kids were still fascinated for most of it, but even I felt my attention wavering sometimes and some of the comedy felt a little forced to me, particularly later in the play. And some of the really beautiful bits, were necessarily lost, even the kids commented on some of the missing bits.

That said on Saturday it was Hamlet I loved and Hamlet that excited me. I came out of it, wishing that I could see this cast do a full Hamlet. Particularly Debbie Korley, who absolutely blew me away and left me in tears - utterly incredible. All the performances, though, were excellent.

I loved the moments when they didn't shy away from the seriousness and tragedy, when they trusted the young audience members to understand what was happening and the kids near me, at least, were spellbound.

The style really worked for me too, the simple bleakness of most of it, which made the red of the handkerchiefs stand out so vividly, and particularly the use of sound and music throughout creates such an intense, dark, beautiful atmosphere. The instruments are well chosen for their eeriness and I loved the use of breathing."

All of which is still completely true. Debbie Korley still left me feeling blown away. Though I feel I should add that the rest of the cast are excellent too and Dharmesh's emotional Hamlet is great. I also still thought it was beautiful both visually and musically and it did strike me more this time that the majority of the instruments they used (blowing across the tops of bottle, glass harps etc) were things that kids could recreate easily themselves - as were the props -  I have a personal fondness for umbrellas in Shakespeare (really have no idea why) - and here they were umbrellas, guns, walking sticks, ships wheels... I loved that, how awesome is it to actually show kids - look what you can do, you don't need any big fancy props. That's why I will always love these YPS shows, because they both excite children and also encourage them to try themselves. What could be better than that?