Adrian Noble 1992 Production

Kenneth Branagh played Hamlet for the fourth time in our 1992 production of Hamlet directed by Adrian Noble.

Production Photos

Act 1 Scene 2

Claudius ...We pray you throw to earth
This unprevailing woe, and think of us
As of a father.

Claudius thinks Hamlet is grieving excessively for his dead father - here, he's urging Hamlet to cease his melancholy.

Gertrude - Jane Lapotaire
Hamlet - Kenneth Branagh
Claudius - John Shrapnel

Photo by Reg Wilson © RSC Browse and license our images

Act 1 Scene 2

Gertrude Let not thy mother lose her prayers, Hamlet. I pray thee stay with us. Go not to Wittenberg.
Hamlet I shall in all my best obey you, madam.

Gertrude wants to keep her son Hamlet near her in Elsinore.

Gertrude - Jane Lapotaire
Hamlet - Kenneth Branagh

Photo by Reg Wilson © RSC Browse and license our images

Act 3 Scene 1

Hamlet I did love you once.
Ophelia Indeed, my lord, you made me believe so.
Hamlet You should not have believed me. For virtue cannot so inoculate our old stock but we shall relish of it. I loved you not.

Hamlet torments Ophelia whilst Claudius and Polonius observe the scene in hiding.

Ophelia - Joanne Pearce
Hamlet - Kenneth Branagh

Photo by Reg Wilson © RSC Browse and license our images

Act 3 Scene 2

Player King 'Tis deeply sworn. Sweet, leave me here awhile. My spirits grow dull, and fain I would beguile / The tedious day with sleep
Player Queen Sleep rock thy brain, And never come mischance between us twain!

The court watch the players enact The Mouse Trap. Hamlet leans over, hoping to see a reaction in Claudius to prove his guilt.

Ophelia - Joanne Pearce
Hamlet - Kenneth Branagh
Claudius - John Shrapnel
Gertrude - Jane Lapotaire
Player King - Jonathan Newth
Player Queen - Sian Radinger

Photo by Reg Wilson © RSC Browse and license our images

Act 1 Scene 1

Horatio In what particular thought to work I know not,
But in the gross and scope of my opinion,
It bodes some strange eruption to our state.

Horatio explains to the soldiers Barnado and Marcellus that it is possible that the ghost they have seen walking on the battlements of Elsinore might be trying to warn them of a danger to Denmark.

Barnado – Anthony Douse
Horatio – Rob Edwards
Marcellus – Tim Hudson

Photo by Reg Wilson © RSC Browse and license our images

Act 1 Scene 5

Hamlet Where wilt thy lead me? Speak; I’ll go no further.

Having shaken off his companions and followed the Ghost on the battlements of Elsinore, Hamlet refuses to go any further until he speaks.

Ghost – Clifford Rose
Hamlet – Kenneth Branagh

Photo by Reg Wilson © RSC Browse and license our images

Act 1 Scene 5

Horatio These are but wild and whirling words, my lord.
Hamlet I’m sorry they offend you, heartily:
Yes, faith, heartily.

Horatio finds Hamlet after his encounter with the ghost but Hamlet is evasive when questioned. He insists that Horatio and Marcellus both swear on his sword not to reveal what they have seen.

Horatio – Rob Edwards
Hamlet – Kenneth Branagh

Photo by Reg Wilson © RSC Browse and license our images

Act 3 Scene 1

Ophelia O Woe is me,
T’have seen what I have seen, see what I see!

A distressed Ophelia is left to reflect on Hamlet's violent outburst against her.

Ophelia – Joanne Pearce

Photo by Reg Wilson © RSC Browse and license our images

Act 3 Scene 4

Hamlet Nay, but to live
In the rank sweat of an enseaméd bed,
Stewed in corruption, honeying and making love
Over the nasty sty.

Hamlet rages at his mother for marrying her husband’s brother, Claudius.

Gertrude – Jane Lapotaire
Hamlet – Kenneth Branagh

Photo by Reg Wilson © RSC Browse and license our images

Act 4 Scene 2

Claudius Where’s Polonius?
Hamlet In heaven, send thither to see. If your messenger find him not there, seek him i’th’other place yourself.

After Hamlet hides the body of Polonius in the lobby, he is captured and restrained. Claudius asks him where the body is but Hamlet teases him with nonsensical replies.

Hamlet – Kenneth Branagh
Claudius – John Shrapnel

Photo by Reg Wilson © RSC Browse and license our images

David Lister, critic for The Independent, rounds up the critical opinion of Branagh's performance:
' ... the critics found it harder to make up their minds than the prince himself, covering the whole spectrum of emotions from 'The great Hamlet of our time' (Jack Tinker, Daily Mail), through a 'slower, more reflective and movingly filial prince' (Paul Taylor, The Independent) to 'Branagh leaves me lukewarm and underwhelmed... he has still to prove himself a major Shakespearian. Branagh finds passion or rage daunting.' (Nicholas De Jongh, London Evening Standard)...'

The Independent, 23 December 1992

Of the play's design, Dr Nick Walton of Shakespeare Birthplace Trust says:
'Adrian Noble decided to set the play in a disintegrating Edwardian world which gave it a thick layer of melancholy. Many people felt this production had the feel of a play by Chekhov or Ibsen because of its emphasis upon the breakup of a family.'

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