Who hasn’t occasionally wished Hamlet was a bit shorter? As we take our seats for this interval-free, 65-minute version for young audiences, eight-year-old Hilda is amazed it can be three times as long. This is the first Shakespeare play we’ve seen together, though she knows A Midsummer Night’s Dream from CBeebies and recently read the book To Wee or Not to Wee, which has supplied some key details. “Hamlet’s a student,” she says. “His dad’s murdered, there’s going to be a war and there’s a ghost. Then some more stuff happens.”
Jude Christian’s adaptation, directed by Tinuke Craig, turns out to be the stuff that dreams are made on. It’s funny, shocking, suspenseful and moving, with convincing central relationships – not always the case with Hamlet. Frankie Bradshaw’s stylish design has a chessboard stage, a geometric grid of lights above and a green-and-gold colour scheme that weirdly matches the school uniforms in the stalls.
