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The music and movement combine to evoke a suitably eerie sense of menace, although it\u2019s a shame that the production\u2019s smartly rendered monochrome aesthetic has become so commonplace \u2014 thanks in large part to to its deployment in successive high-profile Jamie Lloyd productions \u2014 that it scarcely registers. Black-clad actors, a little obscured by smoke; a dark stage illuminated by stark spotlights or neon rectangles: It\u2019s a gloaming-by-numbers, almost too crisp to be spooky. (The set design is by the collective AMP Scenography, in collaboration with Sadra Tehrani.)<\/p>\n
Samuel Blenkin plays the title role with an endearing blend of pouting, schoolboy recalcitrance and self-effacing ennui. And Paul Hilton brings a stringy physicality to Hamlet\u2019s uncle, Claudius, whose murder of Hamlet\u2019s father, and swift marriage to his mother, Gertrude, sets up the story. In this rendering Claudius is a guilt-ridden nervous wreck, puffing on a cigarette as he prays, and even more twitchy than the Black Prince himself. At one point, the two men engage in a spotlit dance, their bodies tangling and their heads butting, to symbolize their conflict.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n