The wedding breakfast is in full swing. We have been offered red wine and wedding cake. Claudius is making a welcoming speech, but young Hamlet, wild-eyed and staring, is making a commotion. No wonder the poor boy is upset. After all, the wedding video of his parents' marriage is flickering on the screen, a reminder of his father's death and the usurping uncle who has taken his place on the throne and in Hamlet's mother's bed.
Dreamthinkspeak offer a highly original take on the well-worn play. First we are taken on a walk around the dark passageways of Elsinore, or rather BAC, which is standing in for the Danish royal court. In what seems to be the attic we come across the royal family's home videos of Hamlet as a cute little boy. There are even some of his toys lying about.
Through the twisting passageways we stumble, occasionally catching a glimpse of the ghost. In one room a man appears to be using a listening device, in another the Queen is putting on her makeup, in a third there are flowers drowned in a tin bath. Past, present and future are all mixed up: weddings and funerals dissolve into one another, words are layered upon words, meaning upon meaning.
In some ways this is quite a conventional reading of the play. It is the way that it is done that is radical. Speeches and events are moved around like pieces of furniture; film is wedded to the live action with exceptional brilliance. Ophelia dies again and again in her bath, an image that is starkly contemporary but that also plays on the famous Millais painting. An enquiring playfulness is evident here.
Those without some knowledge of the play could get slightly confused, but everyone else will find it illuminating. It gets to the rot at the heart of Denmark, and inside the minds of all the main characters. It is like seeing the play from several different angles, and with different mindsets, simultaneously. It is a nightmarish royal peepshow that smells of decay and death.
· Until July 7. Box office: 020-7223 2223.
