Both resort to increasingly more violent means to get what they want.Ĭritics have almost unanimously praised Icke for his reimagining of the play through the lens of the surveillance state, a thematic exploration he attributes to his work with set and costume designer Hildegard Bechtler. As Hamlet tries to weaponize the media’s attention on the royal family by setting Claudius up to admit his guilt on camera, Claudius in turn mobilizes the palace’s vast surveillance network against his stepson. Still grieving the death of his father, Hamlet sees his ghost in the palace and becomes convinced Claudius has murdered him. Icke styles Hamlet as a present-day royal summoned home from his undergraduate studies to celebrate his mother’s marriage to his uncle, the new King Claudius (Angus Wright). Photo credit: Stephanie Berger Photography/Park Avenue Armory … It’s not dusty or obscure, but really sort of sexy and exciting,” Lawther tells Surface.Īlex Lawther in Hamlet at the Park Avenue Armory, 2022.
“Rob is all about making us very sensitive to what is actually being said, how revealing that is and how contemporary it feels, but also surprising. Actor Alex Lawther, who stars as the Danish prince, commends the director’s acute ear for language in bringing it all together. In Icke’s production of Hamlet at the Park Avenue Armory, there is a striking harmony between the performances, the script, and the set design.
But the cast’s delivery and stage presence seemed to belong in a different version of the play, and even the strongest performances were overshadowed by gory amputations, knife fights, shootouts, and a night-vision rappelling scene that led two characters to fight to the death. On paper it was marketing gold: the title role went to Hollywood royalty Daniel Craig with the critically acclaimed Ruth Negga cast as Lady MacBeth. Director Sam Gold’s modern-dress rendition of Macbeth, for example, premiered on Broadway in April to very mixed reviews. But staging a production that abides by the original script, or at least its themes, is a tricky balancing act. Shakespeare has long inspired spinoffs like &Juliet, a jukebox musical hitting Broadway in October after successful runs in London and Toronto and explores what Juliet’s life might have been like if she didn’t die for Romeo. This year has seen a number of revivals on Broadway and off. Successfully reinterpreting classic theater is hardly a guarantee.
Directors Robert Icke and Jamie Lloyd have overcome the unforgiving reputations of these plays-and their titular characters-to completely re-energize them for a modern audience. The internet is thirsting over Cyrano de Bergerac. What’s old is new again: Crowds of almost a thousand are excited to sit through a three-and-a-half-hour Hamlet production. Nari Blair-Mangat (Valvert), James McAvoy (Cyrano de Bergerac), Brinsley Terence (Theatre Owner) & cast in Cyrano de Bergerac.
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