Context:
Political thriller or domestic drama?
In 1997, Matthew Warchus' RSC production of Hamlet focussed on the domestic relationships of the two families. Alex Jennings played a Hamlet troubled, vulnerable, bewildered and ill-equipped to meet the challenges of the situation. Warchus cut almost one third of the text. The production began with Hamlet carrying the ashes of his dead father; the focus on personal grief rather than the politics and war. The ghost, wearing a dinner-suit, appeared at Claudius and Gertrude's elegant wedding-party quietly begging for revenge.
In contrast Michael Boyd's 2004 production considers the political implications of ambition and the spiritual consequences of revenge. The ghost is a ghastly, half-naked figure dragging an oversized sword and presenting his son with the terrifying reality of
purgatory.
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