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ABR Arts

Hamlet

Melbourne Shakespeare Company’s shadowy and romantic Hamlet
Melbourne Shakespeare Company
by •
ABR Arts • 09 September 2024
ABR Arts

Hamlet

Melbourne Shakespeare Company’s shadowy and romantic Hamlet
Melbourne Shakespeare Company
by •
ABR Arts • 09 September 2024
Jacob Collins-Levy as Hamlet (photograph by Ben Andrews, The Maybe Pile)
Jacob Collins-Levy as Hamlet (photograph by Ben Andrews, The Maybe Pile)

Watching the denouement of Melbourne Shakespeare Company’s Hamlet, I was reminded of David Edgar’s 1980 stage adaptation of Charles Dickens’s The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby. Ensconced within the travelling theatrical company of Mr Vincent Crummles, Nicholas and his hapless companion Smike are cast in a production of Romeo and Juliet, Smike as the apothecary and Nicholas (of course) as Romeo.

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Diane Stubbings

Diane Stubbings is a writer and critic based in Melbourne. Her plays have been shortlisted for a number of Australian and international awards, and staged in Sydney, Melbourne and New Zealand. She has written for Australian Book Review, The Australian, The Canberra Times, and the Sydney Review of Books. Her study of Irish Modernism was published by Palgrave. Diane has recently completed a PhD at VCA, University of Melbourne, investigating intersections between science and theatre.

Leave a comment
Diane Stubbings

Diane Stubbings is a writer and critic based in Melbourne. Her plays have been shortlisted for a number of Australian and international awards, and staged in Sydney, Melbourne and New Zealand. She has written for Australian Book Review, The Australian, The Canberra Times, and the Sydney Review of Books. Her study of Irish Modernism was published by Palgrave. Diane has recently completed a PhD at VCA, University of Melbourne, investigating intersections between science and theatre.

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Comment (1)

  • I saw this production today. It felt very disjointed and either atonal or tonally jarring. It's a relief to read a review that's willing to be bracingly honest about the machine-like delivery of large sections of verse, the many inexplicable production choices, and the utter lack of tragedy in the closing scene. I walked out feeling a sense of relief it was over.
    Posted by Muntz
    15 September 2024