Hamlet

    About

    A co-production with Shakespeare at the Tobacco Factory.

    Realpolitik, madness, sex and murder all play their part in a drama that is both a thriller and the profoundest meditation on our human condition.

    Hamlet productions – like London buses – tend to come in threes. We squeezed our own in between the controversial Turner/Cumberbatch production at the Barbican and the RSC’s spring production (in which Paapa Essiedu, our own highly praised Romeo in 2015, will play the title role). But the choices the play offers director and cast are legion. How old should Hamlet be – eighteen, twenty, or a man in his late 30s? Is he ever truly mad? Was his mother complicit in the murder of his father? Questions like these, and many, many more, ensure that no two productions of this enthralling play will ever be alike.

    Photo by Mark Douet

    Photo by Mark Douet

    ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

    Archived show. To book any of our productions please contact Kerrie Burke-Avery, Producer, on 0117 963 0963 or email kerrie@tobaccofactorytheatres.com

    RUNNING TIME 2hrs 30 (inc. interval)
    AGE RECOMMENDATION 12+
    ORIGINAL VENUE Factory Theatre

    Cast & Creative

    Creative team

    Director – Andrew Hilton
    Assistant Director – Peter Chicken (University of Bristol attachment)
    Set & Costume Designer – Max Johns
    Assistant Designer – Mae-Li Evans (University of Bristol attachment)
    Costume Supervisor – Jane Tooze
    Fight Director – John Sandeman
    Composer & Sound Designer – Elizabeth Purnell
    Lighting Designer – Matthew Graham

    Cast

    Ghost & 1st Player – Christopher Bianchi
    Polonius – Ian Barritt
    Horatio – Alan Coveney
    Claudius – Paul Currier
    Guildenstern – Craig Fuller
    Francisco, Reynaldo & Osric – Marc Geoffrey
    Sexton & Gentlewoman – Nicky Goldie
    Gertrude – Julia Hills
    Rosencrantz – Joel Macey
    Hamlet – Alan Mahon
    Ophelia – Isabella Marshall
    Laertes & Player – Callum McIntyre
    Marcellus & Priest – John Sandeman
    Barnardo, Player & Fortinbras – Laurence Varda
    Player & Gentlewoman – Eleanor Yates

    Photo by Mark Douet

    Photo by Mark Douet

    Reviews

    Mathew Graham’s rich lighting design creating gliding crossovers and adding pace

    The Stage

    This eminently watchable production was once again of the highest order

    Bristol Post

    It is an ‘anniversary’ production in Elizabethan costume which does not try to be clever in some clumsily relevant way and gives instead as clear an exegesis as one could hope. He has given us that rare beast these days, an actor’s production that leans on the text rather than novel interpretation. His Hamlet (Alan Mahon) is cast to match

    Stagetalk Magazine

    Rich, compelling and well worth a watch

    Inter:Mission Bristol

    It’s difficult to imagine this being done better

    Bristol 24/7