Hamlet (Park Avenue Armory)

Review of Robert Icke’s Hamlet at the Park Avenue Armory

Fun fact: I actually ended up seeing this play completely by accident. My Friday night plans were cancelled a week before I was supposed to head to New York City, I had already tickets for three different Broadway shows, then I decided, “Hey, what if I saw an Off-Broadway show?”

Lo and behold Hamlet was still in previews at the Park Avenue Armory and the best part was that they uploaded their rush tickets onto TodayTix. So while the actual website for Park Avenue Armory was sold out for the cheapest two tiers of tickets, the TodayTix still had seats left for Zone B at a cheaper price ($49 with no fees) than the actual theater’s website.

So, naturally, I decided to book tickets for a 7 pm performance on a Friday night because why not. My seats were sent to me via email, and I was sitting specifically in Row H, Seat 44 .

Would I recommend this seat? Absolutely. For the price it was right near the audience right of the stage, so I was pretty close and felt like I got a good grip of an actor’s reactions from my viewpoint. The playbills were massive—they were bigger than the size of my head—and on the reverse side it had the other play that was happening at the Armory by Icke. Also shoutout to the Armory—this is the only theatre I’ve been to in NYC that literally still checks vaccinations. Kudos to them.

A modern retelling of Hamlet adapted for contemporary audiences.

If you are not into long plays, though, beware this production. It is said to be three and a half hours when you actually sit down it is indeed that length. There are two intermissions throughout, and the first one happens quite randomly. It is during the scene in which Hamlet puts on his little play for his uncle and he storms off, then someone backstage came on with a microphone and said that there was going to be a break then the actors just sauntered off-stage.

This version of Hamlet takes place in contemporary Denmark and utilizes technology pretty heavily, explaining why there are television monitors all over the stage wings and above.

They are not on all the time, though, just for news clips and pre-recorded footage they used (e.g. the ghost of elder Hamlet initially appears paranormal style on footage). I found the use of technology to be quite tasteful and humorous at times, but more on that later. Of course this follows the classic lines of Shakespeare’s version of Hamlet, but with more updated language to fit the contemporary aspect of it.

Some Shakespeare productions are not that great when it comes to updating the content, but I found I liked this adaptation quite a bit. At times it did feel like it dragged—especially in the climatic last fencing scene, which I found to be the weakest part of the show as a whole—but the cast did a splendid job of wheeling it back in. I liked Lawther’s take on the “To Be Or Not To Be” monologue, as he did it lingering at the front of the stage and rather quietly.

Casting

Alex Lawther truly stole the show for me, as well the actor who played his uncle. Lawther is twenty-seven in real life, but then he looks like a teenager, so his Hamlet is said to be studying in college and is more of a youngster than what other productions have done.

Considering almost all of the actors were British (except for the woman playing Gertrude), I liked the varying accents—one of the guards had a thick Scottish accent—I found them easy to understand as someone who consumes very little British entertainment.

Ophelia’s lines also had quite a bit of weight to them, and I found each of the actors to distinguish their roles pretty well. But Lawther really stole the show for me—I knew beforehand he was a brilliant actor, but I enjoyed his take on Hamlet very much.

I think next time, though, I would want to see a version of Hamlet that’s a little less white to see how it riffs on contemporary themes of injustice. I did love this cast and thought they did a brilliant job, but I personally would prefer something that would add even more to the conversation a la in the way that Company managed to flip its themes by making the titular character a woman.

Set / Blocking / Stage Design

This stage was fascinating outside of the technology. The upper part of the stage (when facing the audience) was swapped out when it came to furniture—there was the surveillance room, the living room, and, finally, towards the end the fencing scene. There was also this massive long hallway at the center of the stage, which was used as a hallway, a closet, and a divider for certain scenes like the party.

This added an interesting element when it came to character pacing, especially because there was quite a bit of eavesdropping going on. You could see Hamlet hiding behind a couch, listening in on a conversation, and then crawl out towards the door, or Gertrude lingered in a hallway door to hear what her new husband was talking about.

Contemporary songs were also incorporated into the narrative, but they did not detract from the experience as a whole. They filled the silence when it was needed and I found it set the mood for what was occurring on stage, The technology, however, both hindered and aided the show as a whole.

There were scenes where a character was equipped with a camera and the live footage would be shown on the screens, so when the play scene occurred the camera was fixed on the royal’s faces, catching the exact moment the uncle saw the poisoning.

There were also cuts to news footage about elder Hamlet’s death, the ongoing war in Norway, and, when Hamlet dies, his funeral. Which segways into my next point: the final fencing scene was very, very anticlimatic. It isn’t exciting, I missed when half of the people died, and Hamlet gives a speech as a ghost.

Then everyone dead slowly gets up, rises, and heads to the party during the afterlife. I expected so much more from this scene than Hamlet just saying “I am dead” and then falling to the ground. There was so much tension leading up to this moment, all the screaming, yelling, and calling Hamlet crazy, and then it just ends like that.

Overall Thoughts

Was it worth it? I don’t get to see Shakespeare often, but this British version that was brought over was done quite well. I am very glad I spontaneously decided to buy this ticket and see how it was because I quite enjoyed it.

There is dialogue about it and the other Greek play going on at the Armory, so perhaps I may go see the other play to see how exactly they’re connected in terms of family and tragedy across the differing centuries they were written in. But Hamlet was well-acted, well-produced, and a contemporary update that honestly is much needed. Go see it through rush tickets if you’re curious—you might find yourself surprised.