From the Director: about The Hamlet Project
What is a polyphonic Hamlet?
Three actors simultaneously play Hamlet. When Hamlet's part — his ascendance to the throne — is usurped by his uncle, his internal and external worlds fracture. Three actors give voice to his ruptured consciousness and embody the internal voices in his head that jostle with each other. Rather than address the audience, the various parts of Hamlet talk to each other. When three people voice Hamlet, it presents an image that is both ‘mad’ and true-to-life: the voices in one’s head are often cacophonous and messy.
How can this experimental approach change our understanding of Hamlet?
This approach blasts through traditional notions of representation and foregrounds the inherent theatricality of playing a role. We want to embrace the inherent complexity of human psychology, which is often not very coherent or singular. We are all made of up multiple parts – the critical part, the aspirational or anxious part, for example – and in The Hamlet Project, we are turning Hamlet’s psyche inside out and staging those contradictions literally. My hope is that in approaching the role of Hamlet collectively, like a polyvocal composition, we are able to hear the tonal shifts in thought and argument freshly, a serious challenge with a text that is as well known as Hamlet.
How is influenced by/ does it influence your role as a tutor at RADA?
At RADA I lead on the acting curriculum and teach the craft of acting. I spend my days working with actors, interrogating and probing what acting is, when it is convincing and when it is not. Questions of acting and ‘play’ are at the heart of Hamlet: there is a play within a play, there are players that perform and Hamlet decides to adopt an ‘antic disposition,’ i.e. to put on an act that he is mentally unstable to hide his true motive of revenge. The play’s theme resonates with my day job: what is sincere and what is an act? What really is a king and who is entitled to play that role? Are you simply born to it, or is it whoever gives the most convincing performance, wears the robe and crown with the most confidence and skill? Isn’t it a role like any other?"
Why should people come and see this production?
It’s a bold experimental take on a classical text at RADA. It’s an exciting opportunity to see new work in the making, still in exploration. It honours the original while also fearlessly intervening on it. It features wonderful emerging actors alongside experienced artists, and continues my long-standing collaboration with the actor singer song-writer Michael Fox (of Downtown Abbey and Michael and Michelle) who is composer and associate director. It marks an exciting new chapter at RADA where we hold both the tradition and forge into the new.
The Hamlet Project plays at RADA from 8-13 December 2025. Find out more.
