★★★★☆
“Is Hamlet dead?” came a little girl’s voice from somewhere along the aisle as the corpses piled up in the closing moments. Good luck to any teachers who had to explain the grim outcome to their class. Making sense of Hamlet is hard enough for adults. What impression could it possibly make on an audience of children?
Undeterred, the National has been taking that knottiest of plays into schools in Jude Christian’s radically slimmed-down version, directed by Tinuke Craig, which clocks in at a mere 65 minutes. It may be brash and gaudy and poptastical (that’s the second Earth, Wind & Fire song that I’ve heard in a children’s show in the past two weeks), but no more so than some of the adult productions that have turned up at the Globe in the past couple of years. The one difference, in fact, is that this one doesn’t have any of the longueurs that make your bottom ache at the Wooden O.
The lines are given some very modern tweaks here and there. When Laertes (Chanel Waddock) sets off on her travels she bids farewell with a chirpy “See ya later. Love ya”. Before they meet their grisly end — the axelike sound effects were almost too convincing — Rosencrantz and Guildenstern (Efé Agwele and Curtis Callier) bounce in and out of the action like extras from Multi-Coloured Swap Shop. That said, they weren’t dissimilar to the hyperactive, selfie-addicted ravers who turned up in the Young Vic’s recent Hamlet starring Cush Jumbo. Could it be that we adults have been force-fed a kids’ version of the Bard in production after production?
What would I have made of it all had I been one of the youngsters in the auditorium? Well, Kiren Kebaili-Dwyer — making his professional debut — gives us a Hamlet who combines action-hero ruggedness with an engaging air of vulnerability. And which of us wouldn’t enjoy joining in the chant of “murderer” as scheming Claudius (Vedi Roy) is drafted into the play within a play?
Frankie Bradshaw’s green and white chessboard set provides a striking backdrop to the courtly intrigue. A blue tarpaulin is all that is needed when Jessica Alade’s Ophelia takes her leave in the water, borrowing some of Hamlet’s lines in the process. The dead wear sinister veils when they cross the threshold to the afterlife. It’s good to report, too, that the ghost of Hamlet’s father is a convincingly scary apparition. The storyline may be confusing, but Shakespeare can still try to give Harry Potter a run for his money.
Daytime performances only. To April 6, nationaltheatre.org.uk
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