Last week proved a challenging one for actors. In Austria, Daniel Hoevels slumped to the floor after slashing his throat on stage with a real knife, instead of a prop. And, as everyone knows by now, the Time Lord turned out to be vulnerable after all and will certainly not be juggling with Yorick’s skull until after Christmas and maybe not even then. I imagine that there are many producers who would love to find a new home for Gregory Doran’s production, but most of the cast are also in ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’, which opens next at the Novello. That includes Edward Bennett, who normally plays Laertes, but suddenly found himself forced to take on the Great Dane.
It’s tough for an actor to have to fit into a production created for someone else, especially in a role that always digs deep into the actor’s personality. Bennett was presciently tipped for the top last year by my colleague Tamara Gausi. If he doesn’t, contrary to all the hype, ‘come back a star’ here, he does have sufficient presence, wit and intelligence to stand up to Patrick Stewart’s Claudius. Right from the beginning, he exudes a crippling anger that leaves him barely able to drag his body across the stage.
While a barefoot Hamlet haunts the modern court in a scruffy T-shirt, Claudius’s impeccable suits reflect his guarded nature. He barely flinches during the play despite the dumb show drag queen flashing his tits in the King’s face. The deterioration in the relationship between Claudius and Penny Downie’s Gertrude is clear to see. The clarity of that trajectory is an indication of the care that has gone into the reading of the text. Sometimes Doran’s production feels too studied, as if all the words have been examined so often they have been drained of life. As splendidly as Robert Jones’s burnished set holds the mirror up to nature, it adds to the feeling that one is trapped in a stifling labyrinth unable to escape.
