We round up the reviews for Justin Audibert’s production, starring Giles Terera.
The Guardian: **** “At three and a half hours, the pace occasionally wavers but it is robustly acted (Sam Swann is a fine Horatio, Beatie Edney a gravedigger of earthy humour) and Audibert shows a keen understanding of the Minerva’s capacity for atmosphere. He is not the first to use Claudius’s prayer scene as an interval cliffhanger but as the former artistic director of the Unicorn, a children’s theatre, you sense he does so knowing there will always be audiences new to this play. As first Hamlets go, it’s a beauty.”
Theatre & Tonic: ***** “Terera’s Hamlet, too, is able to switch between light and darkness so deftly that your hope for Hamlet never fully fades – you see these glimpses of who he used to be in every joke, lighthearted moment, and the quick repartee he can strike up with the other characters onstage. His performance is likeable, layered, and never puts Hamlet up on a level where the audience can’t meet him – he brings us into his world at every opportunity.”
All That Dazzles: **** “The intricate text of Hamlet is complex and sometimes difficult to follow for modern audiences. This production, even though somewhat lacking in poetry, made the play comprehensible to all and was not, as sometimes productions are, a bit of a slog to the finish line, and, furthermore, held a mirror up to our world today.”
Broadway World: **** “As institutions of state are challenged home and abroad and wobble under the strain, this is a serious Hamlet for serious times.”
WhatsOnStage: *** ” It’s a robust although fairly inert production that allows one to hear and follow the language and the story with ease, but without ever really being moved, and there is the rub. The emotional connection is absent, a fundamental problem in a story that is otherwise so full of cheats, liars and murderers.”
Theatre Vibe: “Giles Terera is moving and memorable as Hamlet. His soliloquies are spoken with gravitas and intellect and his eyes are most expressive. Next in the acting honours I would choose Sara Powell for her contained Gertrude. But the prize here goes to Justin Audibert directing in this audience on three sides space and never neglecting one wing of the audience. Again and again I wrote great direction keeping my attention for the full play. Bravo too to Chichester for not cutting the text and allowing us to feast on a full version of Hamlet.”
The Telegraph: **** “His intelligence, charisma and deft way with a sword are manifest in Shakespeare’s heftiest tragedy.”
The Stage: *** “Giles Terera brings a tormented energy to this tense, stylish take on Shakespeare’s classic tragedy.”
West End Best Friend: **** “Nevertheless, while admiring the techniques used to stage the play, we are generally swept along by delivery of the lines with some very strong and compelling performances, and can easily see why the 425-year-old play continues to entertain without updates or reinventions of the period. Giles Terera is quietly compelling as Hamlet, although he occasionally rushes some lines. We can see his horror at being visited by his father’s ghost, we can hear his descent towards madness and frenzied horror and we can take delight in his return to sanity to wreak revenge on the villainous King. Eve Ponsoby as Ophelia takes a similar despairing journey from youthful innocent to mad eyed suicidal lunatic.”
British Theatre Guide: “Sara Powell’s Queen Gertrude reminded me of Melania Trump standing to one side regally silent while the men talk, until she realises the harm and hurt she has given her son and the country. Eve Ponsonby rises magnificently to the terrific challenge of an Ophelia who is young, innocent but slightly nervous initially but heartbreakingly desperate in her (very energetic) madness. Was the blatant suggestion of a miscarriage really necessary?”
Theatre South East: **** “Overall, I really enjoyed the production, the intertwining of political intrigue and family dynamics truly cements Hamlet as one of the greatest plays of all time and another Chichester triumph.”
Hamlet continues to play until the 4th October.