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Hamlet at the National Theatre
On Wednesday, Year 12 and 13 English and Drama students went to see Hamlet in the Lyttelton Theatre (National Theatre). We set off from the school at 07:30 and arrived on the Southbank and then enjoyed spending some time walking around the markets and buying some merch in the National Theatre shop. At around 13:30, it was time for us to take our seats and watch the play.
The first act began dramatically with a full blackout engulfing the theatre. Despite not knowing the story of Hamlet, we were emotionally invested from the start to the curtain call. We watched Hamlet’s character progression from a young naïve man to someone suffering from madness and depression. Hiran Abeysekera’s striking performance as Hamlet allowed the audience to both empathise with and disapprove of his character’s actions. After the show, Gwen and I took the time to research about the actors where we discovered Abeysekera’s most difficult past. We believed that this helped him to add a deeper depth to his character, creating many profound moments such as Hamlet’s infamous soliloquy (‘To be or not to be’).
The story was presented in a contemporary setting. This created occasional light moments of humour (such as when Ophelia pulls out her disposable camera) to contrast the dark, intense themes of the play.
The end of Act 1 left us all wanting more and discussing our favourite moments, characters and scenes in the interval. Act 2 provided a welcome yet tragic conclusion.
The second half of the play highlighted the unravelling of Hamlet as he realised the consequences of the killing Polonius. The use of set and lighting within Ophelia’s funeral scene was highly emotive and the use of shadows symbolised both characters' guilt and the metaphorical death of innocence.
Once we left the theatre, we were able to explore more areas of London’s Southbank including a large bookshop (the perfect place for a couple of English and Drama students).
Despite the traffic and communal feeling of exhaustion on the bus on the way back to school, we were still able to all sing out favourite songs and eagerly discuss our own upcoming Shakespearean production of Macbeth.
This trip not only supported the English students (as they study Hamlet in A2) and allowed the Drama students to observe set and acting techniques, it also enabled us to form a stronger bond as a group and grow our independence as we begin to enter the world of adulthood.
Gwen M-O and Poppy B-E, Year 12