The Rest is Silence at Riverside Studios

The Rest is Silence at Riverside Studios

15 June, 2012
by: Naima Khan

A clever concept poorly realised in dreamthinkspeak's reworking of Hamlet, The Rest is Silence.

Is it crude to say this version of Hamlet made me think of The King's Speech? Probably, but it's our affinity for the private dramas of elite households that I'm thinking of. Shakespeare's poetic take on scandal, madness, and murder make his plays stand the test of time and he perceptively taps into humanity's long-standing taste for melodrama and manipulation. Theatre company dreamthinkspeak have realised that he also exhausts our taste for voyeurism and gives us permission to be unashamedly judgemental. 

Illuminating this aspect of the text with their set design, they place the audience in the middle of the room while the drama unfolds in shop window-like sets around us allowing us to peak in on the lives of royals. As they talk behind glass panels, it reminds us that though we're at the centre of the action, they're only ever addressing each other, never us. But while it's born from a great idea, the mediocrity of this production is inescapable.

Four walls are turned into multiple rooms including bedrooms, bathrooms and a corporate-looking lounge in which Gertrude and Claudius address a nation via camera as they look ahead to the new era dawning after the death of King Hamlet. However, the company never achieve that sense of a state in turmoil with no true sense of morality to guide them. In fact, as the text takes a backseat and the design comes to the foreground I forget that a world exists beyond the walls of this royal household.

The regal setting is forgotten and instead the characters are placed in offices that remind me of  American Psycho with plush but also quite tacky bedrooms which I suppose says something about this family's tastes and is evocative of a time when Wall Street studs thought they were rock stars. It demonstrates wealth but not power. That said, one memorable article from a dark bedroom is a large black cross on a bedside table. It's imposing and appropriately ignored.

The acting under Tristan Sharp's direction also leaves much to be desired. Most of the cast give us caricatured performances as though a photographer somewhere out of sight is shouting “Give me mad! Give me playful!”. Rosencrantz and Gildernstern however, become a small joy taking on the role of parasitic Perez Hilton-type characters tasked with unexpected responsibility and loving every moment of it. In these roles, Michael Bryher and Stewart Hefferman  give us something to remember unlike most of the video footage designed to supplement what's on stage. These filmed images lack originality but I like the way they appear across walls and ceilings, manipulating the audience as they move. But as much as I'm unsettled by the blood pouring from King Hamlet's ear on screen, I feel little for any of the other characters on stage and an adolescent portrayal of depression from a Hamlet clothed all in black doesn't help. 

On text, performance and basic emotional response, this show doesn't cut the mustard and though the design is supposed to be the star of the production, it isn't used cleverly enough here. 


The Rest is Silence runs at Riverside Studios until 23rd June


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Naima Khan