Lloyd Evans Lloyd Evans

Shakespearean directors could learn from this: the National Theatre’s Hamlet for 8- to 12-year-olds reviewed

Plus: all moral uncertainty has been effaced from Aaron Sorkin’s To Kill a Mockingbird – which is odd for a play about ethics

Child’s play: the cast of Hamlet for younger audiences at the Dorfman Theatre. Credit: © Ellie Kurttz 
issue 09 April 2022

The NT has rejigged Hamlet for 8- to 12-year-old children. It’s a decent attempt to cover the highlights at a sprint lasting just 90 minutes. A few gripes. The medieval setting is unclear because the courtiers wear matching red and yellow suits, like Butlins entertainers. Why not military costumes? British kids are used to seeing the royals in uniforms. And a martial emphasis would tell us that Elsinore is a heavily armed dictatorship where family rivalries may spill over into civil war. More swords and bucklers are needed.

Before curtain-up, the cast fanned out across the stage to wave at the children and have a chat. This broke the ice and ensured that the little tinkers kept quiet during the show. The adaptor, Jude Christian, has cut the text heavily without rewriting too much of it. And few dramatists would have dared to omit so many core elements. There’s no Horatio, no Osric, no ‘speech to the players’ and no gravedigger (thank God).

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