All is not well. I doubt some foul play. Ian Rickson’s lunatic staging is the worst production of Hamlet I have seen. Unless you have some prior knowledge of Shakespeare’s text, it is quite impossible to follow; plus there are far too many bad performances.
The entrance to the auditorium is through the back of the theatre and down a long winding corridor, patrolled by orderlies. Once the audience is in, the security gates are closed. Elsinore is a lunatic asylum run by Claudius and Polonius. Among the inmates are Hamlet, Gertrude and Ophelia. Everybody sits on plastic chairs, ready for group therapy. Is Claudius King of Denmark or is he the head of the clinic pretending to be Claudius? Why are Horatio and Rosencrantz played by women? The murdered Polonius delivers the obsequies at Ophelia’s funeral. Ophelia then rises from her grave to play Osric. What is going on? There are plenty of other actors in the company who could have played these roles; the doubling makes no sense; but then, presumably, it’s not meant to.
Hamlet does not need to put on the antic disposition; he is already blasted with ecstasy. Shakespeare’s play is actually taking place in his mind. Michael Sheen is one of the finest actors of his generation and he has done excellent work on stage, film and television. His Hamlet has long been eagerly awaited. It’s an ideal role for him; he has the intelligence, vulnerability, wit, rage, energy and he delivers the “O what a rogue and peasant slave” soliloquy so well that you wish Rickson’s mad conception had been thought through more thoroughly so that it worked all the time.
Sheen also plays the Ghost of his father (which is reasonable) and Fortinbras (which is inexplicable). The scene that works a treat and gets a big laugh is when he is interviewed by Doctor Polonius who records and comments on the patient’s mental state on his dictaphone. The production’s best moments are Ophelia’s madness, which Vinette Robinson plays in a wheelchair, singing songs by PJ Harvey and accompanying herself on an autoharp; later instead of handing out flowers to everybody she gives them medicinal pills.