The Royal Shakespeare Company is a place that has been top of my list of where I wanted to see live theater for years. They are known for the high caliber of actors that they bring in, the incredible design elements that bring their shows to life, and the audiences that travel far and wide just to see their productions. Its not called the Royal Shakespeare Company for no reason, and we saw that clearly on Saturday night!
Going into Hamlet : Hail to The Thief, I had no idea what to expect! It was such a perfect surprise in every way. I was shocked by how much depth the element of music added to the production – and had so many emotions throughout the show that wouldn’t have been there without the music.
First of all, the opening immediately caught my attention (i love a good mood setting music). and the opening song was a huge attention hook. I could tell from the get that the design would be insane, and that the music would work perfectly all together.
Acting wise – I dont think anyone fell short. Specifically Hamlet and Ophelia – wow. They could not have been casted better, in my opinion. Theres something Ive noticed about the pattern of the tones of the male leads voices in a lot of these UK shows. They tend to have the same softness, almost nasality? It weirdly makes their voices so soothing to listen to, and if I was a casting director, part of my decision process probably would be “Could I listen to them speak for 2 hours straight?”. The two Ive noticed with this kind of tone were Romeo from Romeo and Juliet at the Globe, and Hamlet from Hamlet : Hail to The Thief at the RSC. Ophelia had the same beautiful tone and presence. She brought such a gorgeous and tragic life to the character, and her relationship with Hamlet was so clearly defined from the very beginning.
The music was something I would never think this show needed, but wow. It added this level of truth and explanation that sometimes words cant even express. As my favorite girl Kristen Chenoweth says, “We sing because we can’t speak anymore”. And its true! This was the perfect element to an already incredible piece. I’d never seen Hamlet performed live before this, and this was the greatest first production to see.
The music was deep – so loud at sometimes that you could feel it shaking your bones. It was reverent at times and tragic and also beautiful, all within the context of the text. The music before and during Ophelia’s breakdown, when she sings “He promised me to wed” was heartbreaking and gave so much thought to her character, and made me realize she was just a girl in love, who realized the evil truth along with Hamlet.
The music when the actors would come into the lit up square to show the text through movement was the most impressive part of the show for me. The way that they figured out how to convey they text of Shakespeare through small movements within such a confined space – and have it make complete sense for moving the story along – was wild to me. I sat in awe as the actors told their story.
The best part of the show, besides the incredible actors, music, and direction, was the sound guy next to us. He was genuinely having the time of his life and I was cracking up every time I looked ver and saw him. I’ve never seen someone rock out so hard.
The addition of music in general was a brilliant idea, but to think to add the music of RadioHead …. unreal. It just worked perfectly. This was an incredible show and one that is absolutely at the top of my list from this trip!
xo, jo
Theatre in London U of A 