REVIEW: Hamlet at Newcastle Theatre Royal

Hamlet

Newcastle Theatre Royal 

Until Saturday 4 April 2026 and touring

Arguably Shakespeare’s greatest play, Hamlet has been subject to endless reinterpretations and imaginative stagings. Rupert Goold’s trimmed-down production for the RSC is set over one night on a royal yacht in 1912, deliberately evoking the Titanic. This brings pros and cons for the plot but delivers richly in terms of atmosphere.

The story of a wronged prince hindered from exacting his vengeance against the uncle who murdered his father and married his mother, by his own personality, runs uncut to four hours. With dramaturg Rebecca Latham, Goold has trimmed this to a spare two and a half hours. The production also incorporates some restructuring of scenes and adaptation of dialogue to fit the maritime setting.

First, one should consider whether this movement of the action from its original Elsinore castle aids or hampers the play. In fact, it is not such a stretch. The castle itself is at the edge of a narrow stretch of land overlooking the sea and this pervades the atmosphere throughout. The influence of the sea obviously impacts even more on the action of this production, on its highly raked, pointed stage, with a ceiling that inclines down, rising and falling as befits the scene. For the first half, in particular, this works extremely well, supplemented by video screens that show the constantly moving waves. In this production, incidentally, the interval is placed immediately after the ‘To be or not to be’ speech.

We see Hamlet informed by his father’s ghost of his uncle Claudius’ treachery, and pressed by him to revenge his death. What follows leads one to wonder whether he has picked the right man for the job. Morally prudish, deeply sensitive and resolutely incapable of accepting human frailty in himself or in others, Hamlet is effectively paralysed. He chooses to feign madness as a way of gathering information and forming his plans for revenge whilst seeming less of a threat to his uncle. Ultimately, a troop of actors arrives, giving him the idea of unmasking his uncle through mounting a play that enacts his treachery.

After thus angering Claudius and mistakenly killing Polonius, the king’s adviser and the father of his long-suffering girlfriend, Ophelia, he is despatched to England with some supposed friends, who actually carry instructions for Hamlet to be murdered. He outwits his companions and returns to confront Claudius thereupon discovering Ophelia has killed herself, driven mad by her father’s death and Hamlet’s unkind treatment. Claudius has convinced Polonius’ aggrieved son, Laertes, to challenge Hamlet to a duel in which Laertes will use a sword with a poisoned blade. With this and a cup of poisoned wine, the scene is set for the carnage of the finale, where the bodies pile up like a busy day in an abbatoir.

This production is heavily centred on the eponymous hero, which can tend to lessen the impact of other characters, particularly Claudius. Nevertheless, Raymond Coulthard delivers a nuanced performance as an ambitious but compassionate statesman, who carries guilt for his actions. As his conflicted wife, Poppy Miller also convinces as a delicately womanly Gertrude, her warmth contrasted to Hamlet’s sexual repression. Georgia-Mae Meyers does an excellent job as Ophelia, one of the most thankless roles in Shakespeare. She brings strength and nobility alongside her vulnerability, and her descent into madness evokes considerable sympathy.

The supporting players also acquit themselves admirably, particularly Richard Cant’s fussy, well-meaning Polonius, bringing humour without undermining the character’s elements of gravitas. Also, Ian Hughes is a charismatic Player King, well-matched to CJ Johnson’s Player Queen who brings a pleasing voice and presence to the highly effective, Kabuki-style, play within a play.

Which brings us to Hamlet, in the form of Ralph Davis. The challenges of this role should not be underestimated and he is generally effective in conveying the Prince’s torment, as well as his arrogance, his inflexibility and his resultant cruelty to Ophelia and Gertrude. We also see occasional flashes of the man he was, mainly in his interaction with the players, when he seems to come to life for the first time. He is resolutely earthbound, however, rather than cerebral and at times, his halting delivery and some issues with diction, despite his apparently wearing a microphone, undermine his efforts to fully illuminate the text. Some of the cuts to the iconic speeches also seem unhelpful. Nevertheless, he engages throughout and his portrayal is always believable.

The production overall is impressively staged and innovative, whilst remaining true to the spirit of the text, although the anachronistic red LED clocks that pronounce the time periodically seem a jarring and unhelpful intrusion, especially since the Titanic references do not reach any culmination. Also, the always problematic final scene where some of the bodies here are unceremoniously plunged into a hole in the deck, and it is hard to make out just who has killed whom, was ultimately unsatisfying. Incidentally, there is no arrival of Fortinbras from England to provide a resolution of sorts. The performance ends with Hamlet’s passing and a brief, familiar word from Colin Ryan’s solidly-played Horatio.

Despite any quibbles, however, this staging remains well worth seeing and a worthy addition to the canon of past productions of this iconic play. 

Review: Jonathan Cash

Photos: Marc Brenner

Tickets:

Tickets are available from the Theatre Royal website: https://www.theatreroyal.co.uk/whats-on/rsc-hamlet/