A condensed Hamlet. A reduced text, all played by one actor, David Keller. It sounds like it could be specially designed for GCSE-studying, Playstation-Generation, short attention span teenagers. Why see the whole of Hamlet when you can go see the edited highlights at Oxford Brookes' Drama Studio? Well, this isn't Shakespeare Lite. It's an intellectual pursuit, a challenge, an attempt to reduce the play as far as possible without losing the essence of the tragedy, and to direct the performance of one actor to convince the audience he can be all characters. Almost wholly this reduction works extremely well. In a darkened, intimate theatre, David Keller, wonderfully directed by Charlotte Conquest, delivers a credible Hamlet.

In reducing the text, writer Simon Rae has written some characters out, notably Horatio. But the production still needs to convince the audience the play is populated with many characters. This is superbly done with simple pieces of dress: a plain dress for Ophelia, a military tunic for Claudius, a pair of socks - yes, a pair of socks, worn as hand puppets - for Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Hamlet himself is a plain black smock and trousers. At times Keller wears the clothing, at times it is draped on a chair, on a mannequin, or even strewn on the floor. In a world where computer-generated trolls and superheroes so often populate our screens, it is refreshing to be convinced of a character just by these fleeting dramatic hints.

The play within the play is smart, utilising exquisitely made (but rather terrifying) puppets. This turns out to be a great solution to the problem of only having one actor. The ingenuity, and quality of the puppets sums up the high-quality production values and great imagination that have been invested in this play. The stage, too, is cut to the bone. The few props are utilitarian, hooks here and there to drape the clothing on, and a welded steel centre piece, full of drawers and lids containing the few props needed for the performance, as well as giving shape and dimension to the movement.

Only occasionally does it not succeed, most notably at the killing of Polonius; Polonius is a dinner jacket, and there is no indication that the dinner jacket is eavesdropping at the moment Hamlet stabs it. It is these occasions where the audience requires a knowledge of the play to follow the plot. Keller's dialogue occasionally moves so fast the different voices are not easily distinguished. And in the fight scene, who hits who with which sword is unclear. That's not to say the final scene is a disappointment. On the contrary, the apparently impossible task of choreographing a two-man swordfight played by only one man works very well: there is plenty of motion, swooshing of blades, and real tension.

The result is a great play. The game of staging Hamlet as a one-man play has been played, and played well. Stripped of the distractions of an extensive cast, Keller ably uses the skeletal text to deliver a performance as dramatic as any complete version.

Andy Cotgreave, 30.07.04