|
Hamlet The Creation Theatre Company certainly have a knack when it comes
to choosing venues for their Shakespeare. True, genius is hardly required
to spot that the beautiful grounds of Magdalen College School make
an idyllic setting for summer productions. But to visit BMW's plant
on Horspath Road and recognise it as the perfect setting for the Bard's
most famous and cerebral tragedy requires truly extraordinary vision.
The result is spell-binding. Creation's Elsinore Castle is a nightmarish
oasis of light and hard metal in one corner of the vast garage space;
a place where the actors can storm over girders, climb up poles and
grapple in cages; where they can screech into view in purring new
cars, or loom menacingly in the middle distance; where Shakespeare's
famous lines can be focussed before echoing away under the girders
into the blackness. As usual with Creation productions, the staging
is thoroughly interactive: by omitting (although, perhaps, regrettably)
the ghost's first appearance on the battlements, the audience is drawn
into the drama from the very moment they arrive. Greeted by the cast
outside the theatre, one is led to the stage via a sumptious court
in which the marriage of Denmark's new King and Queen is being celebrated.
Audience members thus become actors, filling the court with the bustle
of bodies it needs, and gaining an uncomfortable feeling of complicity
with the dark deeds which lurk beneath the jollity. The set, too, functions in many ways as an extra member of the cast;
the clanks and flashes which emerge from the impenetrable darkness
portray the ghost of Hamlet's father far more terrifyingly than any
human actor could have. Indeed, it is fortunate that the surroundings
and audience can be called upon to play parts, for this Hamlet
is certainly performed with a skeleton cast. But while the unavoidable
absence of some of the smaller parts is sometimes disappointing, what
the cast lacks in quantity it more than makes up for in quality; even
if the staging were not spectacular, it would still be worth travelling
a long way to see acting of this calibre. The actors blaze their way
through the script with an engaging energy, and yet with thoughtful
care. At their centre, Damian Davis is captivating as Hamlet: a brooding
yet noble figure, he negotiates the many sides of the Prince's character
with consummate skill, uniting them all in a young, philosophical,
almost jocular figure, whose veneer occasionally cracks to allow touching
glimpses of the bewildered child from a broken home which is within. This Hamlet is another testament to director Zoe Seaton's skill. Shakespeare's text is delivered with a crystal clarity characteristic of her productions; not a word is neglected or misinterpreted. The electrifying pace and drama is also typical of her work: the never-flagging excitement builds inexorably towards a thrilling finale, and a choreographed fight of breath-taking skill and athleticism. This is a production worth making every effort to see. For those who haven't had the benefit of seeing one of Creation's fliers, directions to BMW's Plant Oxford are provided below. Matthew Rogers, 5 / 2 / 01
|