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Northern Ballet Theatre’s Hamlet at the Leeds Grand

Northern Ballet Theatre’s inventive and immersive take on Shakespeare’s Hamlet tragedy is set in Nazi-occupied Paris where Hamlet attempts to come to terms with his father’s death. In the dizzying intro scenes of ghostly visions of violence and cruelty occupy the young prince’s psyche.

There are martial aerobics acting out the horrific Nazi oppression and everywhere you look there are Nazi over-lookers ready to nip any resistance in the bud. Hamlet’s state of confusion and inner turmoil is represented in some stunning choreography while the Oedipal nature of his relationship with his mother is also convincingly portrayed.

When the obsessive Ophelia meets with cold antipathy from Hamlet the result is less one of suicide than of torture and murder.

Hamlet’s appearance at Claudius’ banquet in his father’s scarf and coat causes outrage and his murder of Polonius sets Laertes on a path of revenge. In the final conflict it becomes clear that Hamlet’s uncle, now father, is behind it all – alas too late.

Christopher Giles’ battlement set is simply awesome throughout and Tim Mitchell’s lighting adds an intensely atmospheric design to the key dramatic moments. It would be easy to take David Nixon’s magnificent direction for granted, were it not for the fact that every moment of the piece resonates so profoundly and poignantly, as if the sense of loss and subsequent insanity were all your own.

- Rich Jevons

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