Playwright Howard Barker once memorably promised to liberate his audiences from what is obviously every theatre-goer's worst-case scenario, "the nightmare of being entertained". There's a similarly portentous sign at Riverside Studios, reminding those entering his reworking of Hamlet that "Tragedy is a sacred art. If you do not understand the sacred, do not enter the theatre". Thankfully, there isn't a test, so the audience is allowed in to the hallowed performance space.
Before considering Barker's thesis, which holds that it is Gertrude's unbridled sexuality rather than Hamlet's desire for revenge which constitute this drama's epicentre, it might be salutary to reflect that Shakespeare did a pretty good job with Elsinore himself, and thus any rewriting will appear as a pale imitation. Nevertheless, Barker and The Wrestling School, the company dedicated to performing his work, have set up camp firmly in the rotten state.
Whereas Kenneth Branagh and Kate Winslet might have frolicked in flashback as Hamlet and Ophelia in Branagh's film, that is nothing compared to what Gertrude (Victoria Wicks) and Claudius (Sean O'Callaghan) get up to here, least of all at Old Hamlet's funeral. Hamlet himself is a two-dimensional supporting character who is more concerned with his mother's libidinous exploits than his father's death. But this idea of sex, rather than politics, ruling the roost in Denmark begins to unravel when the increasingly deranged Gertrude gets involved with Hamlet's schoolchum Albert, a strangely makeshift Fortinbras figure, despite her protestations of undying affection for the sallow Claudius.
Barker's production boasts strong performances from the oddly renamed supporting characters (the woman in Hamlet's life is the rather pasta-sounding Ragusa instead of Ophelia). Wicks exudes a definite allure as Gertrude, even if she fails to make sense of her character's series of volte-faces. But for a play which aims to reprioritise the female in an overwhelmingly phallocentric text, it is strange that only Gertrude gets her kit off. But maybe that's just sacred. It's even quite entertaining at times.
Gertrude - The Cry, is showing at the Riverside Studios, W6 Until 2 November. Box office: 020 8237 1111.
Gertrude - The Cry
