To See Or Not To See - Hamlet By The RSC

Hamlet has never been for the faint hearted.

This production’s descent into carnage is made more chilling by blood red numbers on a clock which counts down to a stage strewn with dead bodies as vengeance and betrayal wreak havoc.

The director’s vision to set Hamlet on a sea-going ocean liner on April 14, 1912 - the day before the fateful sinking of the Titanic in the early hours of April 15 - is pure genius.

The ebb and flow of the rolling waves, sometimes calm and often ferocious, chime with the protagonist’s oscillating emotions, from normality to feigning insanity and hurtling into madness.

I shuddered as the clock raced towards midnight, and an irreversible sequence of catastrophic events.

The psychological complexity for which Hamlet is renowned, builds to a crescendo as the iconic plot of how Hamlet’s uncle Claudius murdered his own brother, married his mother Gertrude in undue haste and seized the throne, unfolds.

The ship concept and setting confine the characters more closely together than Shakespeare’s Danish royal court setting, and the claustrophobia is evident. The Ghost of Old Hamlet, whose presence dominates the production, chilled me to the bone despite being in a sweltering, packed theatre.

Following his father’s ghost though a soulless, eerie underworld suspended between life and death, Old Hamlet rages how Claudius poured poison in his ear while he was asleep, driving Hamlet to exact revenge with the immortal words, ‘remember me.’

This profound revelation to a son already mourning the loss of his father and deeply disturbed and betrayed by his mother’s actions, is the catalyst for Hamlet’s psychological struggles, internal conflict - and ultimate unravelling.

As midnight approached, I awaited with anticipation for the performers, coached by Hamlet, to stage ‘The Murder of Gonzago,’ a play-within-a-play which deliberately parallels his father’s murder. When the dastardly deed is acted out, Claudius's panicked reaction in fleeing the room confirms Hamlet’s worst fears.

I then waited with bated breath for the second act to descend into chaos.

Hamlet's disintegration includes cruelly dismissing his girlfriend and soon-to-be-betrothed, Ophelia (Georgia-Mae Myer), whom he previously cherished with all his heart. His obsession with vengeance triggers his antipathy and misogyny towards both Ophelia and his mother - his verbal cruelty shocking to witness.

Georgia-Mae Myers’s transition into insanity, triggered by Hamlet’s brutality and her father’s murder by Hamlet’s hand, is a triumph of theatre as her waves of madness synchronise with the raging and tilting sea.

Overwhelmed with her loss, her heart-rending melodies of grief before taking her own life by drowning, are supremely poignant and powerful, rendering this actress a true tour de force.

Benjamin Westerby as Ophelia’s protective and cherished brother Laertes, also delivers a top class performance, exuding a fearsome passion and inconsolable anguish as he plots Hamlet’s demise.

This is a strong cast, Richard Cat plays an affable Polonius and Colin Ryan is delightful as Hamlet’s best friend and confidant. For me, the standout is Ian Hughes who is superb as Old Hamlet’s ghost and the Player King.

The talented production team definitely know their ropes, delivering sensational technical visuals - Rupert Goold’s direction is outstanding, as is Es Devlin’s set design.

As the minutes tensely tick down to the fatal bloodbath, Hamlet’s maze of tortuous, complex themes, most agonisingly encapsulated in the famous soliloquy ‘to be, or not to be,’ chime with the nautical symbolism that life is far from plain sailing.

Hamlet delivers a memorable performance which drives us to look inside our soul and reflect on our individual relationship with life, death and the forces of good and evil.


I think audiences can expect something epic and cinematic. We’re doing it on a scale that will be very exciting to watch but also relatable. The play deals with a deeply human experience – Hamlet has to deal with the fallout of his father being murdered, and everything that spirals from that.Ralph Davis (Hamlet)



Hamlet plays Newcastle Theatre Royal until Saturday April 4, 2026. Tickets can be purchased at www.theatreroyal.co.uk or from the Theatre Royal Box Office on 0191 232 7010.
The production next plays at theatre royal York from April 14-18. For UK tour dates visit here.