Jude Law? Playing Hamlet? It could never work. Could it? Olivia Gagan investigates…

Having undergone my fair share of Bard-bashing at university, I had become somewhat jaded and given myself a break from the endless couplets and fight scenes. My re-introduction was the Donmar Warehouse’s production of Hamlet in the West End, and it’s reignited my interest in Shakespeare. This was a solid, bleak but beautiful Hamlet that lived up to the inevitable hype surrounding it, following the casting of Jude Law in this most coveted of stage roles.

The stark, snowy set and eerie production, with sound effects and bleached lighting, placed the cast within a bleak and imposing frame. Slashes of red fabric and furniture were the play’s only concession to colour. The cast matched this in their clothing, with everyone in plain monochrome garb. This limited palette was inventive rather than restrictive, though. Dressing the ‘actors’ in the play-within-the-play scene in brilliant white, who under the lighting gave a UV-bright glow, was a blunt but effective method of demonstrating the irony of the scene, Hamlet’s actors being the only ones telling ‘the truth’.

Heavy themes of truth and honesty abound, and it would appear that in this production, we’re not allowed to forget the tragedy that awaits us at the end. The death-march boom of the frequent (and loud) sound effects is a constant reminder of Hamlet’s doomed trajectory, and in some ways this was at the expense of some of the snarky, clever wordplay which can actually provide Hamlet with some comic relief. Law’s Hamlet is a gentle soul too intelligent for his own good, whose wisecracks and witticisms are more to ease his growing desperation than to provide an audience with laughs.

Not that Law’s interpretation is to be sniffed at. He didn’t have it easy coming after David Tennant, whose performance was only ever wildly raved about. I was impressed with Law though. The soliloquies sounded fresh and graceful and he used his body to shape the words as much as his voice, lending an impressive physicality to Hamlet’s mental grapplings. His performance was all about internal rather than external energy; cerebral Hamlet having a hard enough time dealing with his own emotions, let alone taking note of anyone else’s.

Whilst this made Hamlet and Ophelia relationship vaguely implausible (the dynamics between Law and Gugu Mbatha-Raw’s being negligible), it made for a particularly rich rendition of the text, with Law bringing out some of the dangers of self-absorption that the play attests to. The best of Shakespeare’s tragic heroes trip on their own traps: Othello’s jealousy, Romeo’s rashness. Law’s clear, nuanced command of Hamlet’s various inner monologues does a brilliant job of highlighting that. Shakespeare was writing a warning in the dangers of over-meditation.

This is a serious version of what is a serious play. Its best moments came when well-worn scenes were given fresh life: ‘to be or not be’ set in a snowy nightscape, and Hamlet’s famous confrontation with his mother made even more disturbing for making the audience watch voyeuristically behind a veil. The simple staging and clear, uncluttered use of the text made it an accessible Hamlet, and one that felt much shorter than its three and a half hours. What it lacked in colour it made up for in depth. This is a play for those who like their Shakespeare a little on the darker side. Highly recommended.