On Tuesday 30th July, I went to see The Lord Chamberlain's Men perform Hamlet at Shrewsbury Castle. As the thermometer climbed into the high 20s, and the hazy sun dipped behind the castle walls, the air was filled with chatter as a crowd steadily flowed into the walled gardens of Shrewsbury Castle, guided by men in 16th Century dress. It felt like being plunged into an alternate universe, where modern camping chairs and picnic blankets found their place among 16th Century costumes and a 10th Century castle.
The cast performing their opening song. Image credit: The Lord Chamberlain's Men
The Lord Chamberlain’s Men are a all-male 7-actor company that specialises in bringing Shakespeare to life as it would have been at the time it was written: with costumes and sets of the period. In truly historical fashion, the male actors play the parts of both men and women, there are no mics, and the stage has minimal dressing, being more a frame for the imagination for scenery.
Maybe it was being outside; the cool evening air; the birds squalling; the wind in the trees; or the acting itself, but the performance had a sense of place that I haven't found from Hamlet in a theatre or on screen. When Hamlet cried “Oh all you host of heaven! Oh Earth!” (Act 1 Scene 5) it almost seemed as though he said it to the seagulls squawking overhead. When, in Act 2 Scene 2, he proclaimed the world felt to be little more than a “congregation of vapours'', “this most excellent canopy” that he pointed to became the trees that the audience sat beneath. And when Hamlet looked up to the Shrewsbury sky streaked with a golden summer sunset, it felt too perfect to be planned that he drew our attention to “this majestical roof, fretted with golden fire”.
Thomas Delacourt as Claudius. Image credit: The Lord Chamberlain's Men
Nothing makes Shakespeare more comprehensible than seeing it performed by The Lord Chamberlain's Men. In the absence of lighting and sets, the level of descriptive scene-setting in Shakespeare’s writing no-longer feels excessive, but an essential part of the way the audience visualises a scene. And being outside somehow makes it seem like the actors are not speaking learned lines 400 years old but instead are in some kind of extravagantly chaotic improvised version of the story. This is no boring highbrow re-enactment of Hamlet: The Lord Chamberlain's Men have created a play that highlights the modern storytelling sensibilities in Shakespeare's writing while keeping historical accuracy, making something more fun than I knew Shakespearean Tragedy was capable of. It makes me realise why Shakespeare's plays became popular to begin with.
Overall this production revelled in puns and pacing over emotional impact, making the impending doom of the characters feel less like tragedy and more like comic retribution. As the sun set, and lights shone up from the stage, projecting fractured, obtuse, ghostly shadows on the back of the set, it felt suitable that the play descended into the darkness and chaos of its second half. Yet while the actors delivered their lines with absolute perfection, it still felt as though the more introspective elements of the play were being brushed over in favour of getting laughs. While the final scene felt like the point at which everyone finally became serious, it came as a shock after 2 hours of the play just merrily ambling along.
Image credit: The Lord Chamberlain's Men
Perhaps a product of modern audiences not being used to all-male theatre troupes, but it felt like in this production the audience struggled to adjust to the historical style of gender fluidity utilised by The Lord Chamberlain's Men, and relating the female characters more to pantomime dames than tragic characters. The first appearance of both Queen Gertrude and Ophelia got more than a few giggles from the audience, even though the actors played the women earnestly. This seemed to add to the difficulty the audience had at seeing this production as a serious tragedy (rather than a tragi-comedy), and perhaps took some of the solemnity from the women's deaths.
Hal Geller as Hamlet. Image credit: The Lord Chamberlain's Men
Surprisingly for a company built from a quest for authenticity, The Lord Chamberlain’s Men have created a play that feels accessible and modern; not getting lost in the hyperintellectual aspects of Shakespeare that we are often taught at school, but instead showing Shakespeare as it could have been seen in the past: as a fun piece of escapism, tragic at times, frequently bawdy, and filled with more puns than any other company has dared to find in Shakespeare.
I can’t wait to watch them again.
Hamlet is touring across the UK, Europe and Scandinavia throughout August and September. You can find out more, find dates, and book tickets here.
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