Performance review: Hamlet by Greg Hersov

demonstrated a personal shock as he read out the description of Ophelia’s ‘white bosom’ (2.2.113). Appalled at the intimacy, Barber’s Polonius scanned the remaining pages of indecency with a grimace before beginning to read out loud again at ‘Doubt thou the stars are fire...’. It was an effective intrusion into Ophelia’s private life, which caused her, shrinking with embarrassment, to flee from the stage. Apart from a different Polonius, the rest of the production remained stubbornly (and with faults outlined above) static. I had hoped to be able to report some degree of development and increasing sophistication between the production’s very first and very final performances. No such luck.