Review Round-up: Kinnear Impresses as NT Hamlet

Commenting on the number of recent productions with star-cast Danish Princes, Hytner was quoted as saying “the world and his wife can do Hamlet first” – referring to David Tennant for the RSC, John Simm in Sheffield, Michael Sheen at the Young Vic and Jude Law in the Donmar production both in London and on Broadway – but although this performance may have kept theatregoers and critics waiting, they appear to have come away suitably impressed.

Hamlet, which opened last night at the NT Olivier (7 October, previews from 30 September), continues in rep until 9 January 2010.

Was this performance by one of the National’s rising stars worth the wait?

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Heather Neill on Whatsonstage.com (four stars) – “Kinnear himself says that Hamlet seems to be different every time he comes on – something he relishes – and he brings a mercurial quality, a mixture of ironic humour, anger, anguish and thoughtful intelligence … The setting is a modern police state: there isn’t a sword to be seen before the fatal fencing competition in Act V … And everywhere there are armed security guards and the trappings of surveillance … Hamlet’s ‘Now I am alone’ soliloquy is spoken in a noticeably rare moment of isolation … There is a nightmareish quality to the whole production … But there is a furious jokiness, too; Kinnear’s Hamlet may be neurotic, but his madness is mainly political … Gertrude, in Clare Higgins’ interpretation a none-too-bright woman who likes to please … Hytner’s production … is generally admirably clear … but this highly intelligent interpretation, with its emphasis on hypocrisy, theatricality and illusory truth, is one to celebrate.”

David Lister in the Independent (four stars) – “Kinnear, son of the late comic actor Roy, must be one of the least famous names to play the role, but Hytner earmarked him for it more than two years ago … His initial lines and first soliloquy do not suggest the towering performance that is to come … Patrick Malahide’s cold, unremorseful and unrepentant Claudius is utterly convincing as a man who would kill his brother, usurp the crown, and run a state with a mixture of paranoia, steely control, mistrust and snooping that would put Richard Nixon to shame … Against all this Rory Kinnear presents Hamlet as the ordinary man. There is little noble about him, little evident that is ‘likely to have proved most royal’ despite what we are told ... His descent into madness or assumed madness is rather a descent into depression … In a supporting cast which has many strengths and one or two weaknesses, special mention must be made of Clare Higgins’ revelatory Gertrude. Predictably, this marvellous actress redefines the role.”

Quentin Letts in the Daily Mail (four stars) – “Convention has Hamlet as indecisive. In Rory Kinnear‘s skilful hands he becomes sardonic, shrugging in the modern British manner, unconventionally plain to look at but, you sense, amiable company for a night on the beers … While delivering the soliloquy ‘to be or not to be’, he sucks needily on a cigarette. He is not so much a bag of nerves as a man who is beset by hassles … Clare Higgins does Gertrude as a puffy-faced lush, gargling back whisky, teetering on the edge. Glamorous and queenly, she ain’t. There is a strong hint that Ophelia, rather than drowning herself, is murdered on the instructions of King Claudius (done with lovely, lean slipperiness by Patrick Malahide) … There are patchy moments. Laertes (Alex Lanipekun) and Ophel ia do not establ ish any rapport, either between themselves as siblings or with their father Polonius. The opening ghost scene is not particularly eerie. Wardrobe overdoes the hoodies and training shoes. But these drawbacks are easily outweighed by good things.”

Michael Billington in the Guardian (four stars) – “Director Nicholas Hytner offers a detailed political, social and psychological context to the action. And Kinnear’s fine Hamlet gains enormously from Elsinore itself having such a hugely living presence … Ad surveillance is everywhere the order of the day. Hamlet’s moves are constantly monitored by security-guards with earpieces … Not even the soliloquies are immune to eavesdropping. ‘Now I am alone,’ says Hamlet, after the players’ exit, at which point a light ostentatiously goes on reminding him that he is permanently watched … What I admire about Kinnear is that he pays scrupulous attention to language: one notices his prolonged pause when, trying out a speech before the players, he comes across the phrase ‘blood of fathers’. But he also shows acute psychological development … Kinnear is a strong, clearly-defined Hamlet; but that definition also stems from Hytner’s production in which nothing is left to chance.”

Charles Spencer in the Daily Telegraph (four stars) – “The young Kinnear is nothing like as famous as his recent predecessors, but I would put him right up there with Tennant when it comes to capturing the humanity, humour, pain and multi-layered complexity of the role … What’s remarkable about his Hamlet, however, is Kinnear’s natural everyman quality … Frequently his voice is choked with grief … but there are also sharp shafts of wit … Kinnear is very much the student prince in his hoodie and rumpled trousers … and he even smokes a cigarette while delivering ‘To be or not to be’. But you can follow every shade of thought and flicker of emotion in the soliloquies, which are delivered with a beautiful mixture of intellect and feeling … Clare Higgins plays Gertrude as a sensual, raddled alcoholic, drinking to forget her own guilt … Patrick Malahide’s Claudius is a coldly calculating power politician … This remains a constantly compelling, fresh-minted production, with many insights and original twists, while Kinnear proves a Hamlet of great individuality and distinction.”