Review: HAMLET, Streaming, Recorded at Bristol Old Vic

John Haidar's production of Hamlet, from Bristol Old Vic and Altitude, has previously been live-streamed and now gets a cinema release. It is a briskly modern piece which fizzes with primal urges.

Shakespeare's most adapted play for the screen is filmed here in a series of close-ups of the actors, rather than a capture of the whole stage set - there seems to be a wall which parts open, and a staircase.

Home movies of Hamlet as a child are projected in the early scenes, set in a modern and industrial Elsinore, as the bereft son (Billy Howle) returns from university to hear his uncle Claudius (Finbar Lynch), the new king, proclaim him next in succession.

Quickly, if you know the play, you will realise that in reducing the play to two hours and twenty minutes some of the text is moved and truncated, yet little sense is lost.

Hamlet himself is far more fiery than his soporific relations, particularly the calm king who seems far too collected and concerned to be a power-hungry killer of his brother. The Ghost, hooded and faceless, starts the ball of revenge rolling; cleverly, when Claudius approaches Hamlet of "think of us as a father" he removes his nephew's facemask, making him vulnerable.

With some gender-blind casting for Horatio (Isabel Adomakoh Young) and Guildenstern (Catrin Stewart), this could have opened some possibilities already hinted at in the text, as some productions have already made the friendship between Hamlet and Horatio homoerotic, but it remains a standard show of companionship.

Gertrude, the queen (Niamh Cusack) and Ophelia (Mirren Mack) are portrayed as similar types, nervous, lacking in status, and somewhat naïve and loving. Their interplay in the young girl's madness scene is touching, although in this version no flowers are given, and Gertrude's report of Ophelia's "muddy death" has the ache of a mother figure behind it.

A moment that is particularly effective for a filmed version comes in the Player (Firdous Bamji)'s speech, as a shadow falls across Hamlet's face and frames his reaction to hearing the words on Hecuba. As Hamlet fails to enact his revenge on Claudius, instead taking his pent-up rage and grief out on Ophelia, he becomes ever more agitated, and living in fantasy.

The violence in the queen's closet scene between mother and son contrasts with many productions that have gone before which have been almost Oedipal in style. It is clear there is not just something "rotten" in Denmark, but in this very room. It feels a little heavy-handed at times, but gives this scene, and the later slaying of the fussy Polonius (Jason Barnett), a new fire.

At the end, as the wagers, the drinks, and the sword bouts between Hamlet and Laertes (Taheen Modak) are complete, there is a touching ending which balances the flickering video we saw at the start.

This is a new version which adds a new lens to a familiar text, and the 4k filming serves it well. Very accessible to those new to the play, and a thoughtful treatment for those who know the plot well, this Hamlet is a "palpable hit".

Bristol Old Vic's Hamlet opens in cinemas around the UK on 6 April

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