Though this be madness, yet there is method in't

I always like it when a man is introduced in reference to his more famous partner (though sadly it usually happens the other way round.) In this case, George Henry Lewes (1817-1878) is actually better known for being the partner or 'companion' of Mary Ann Evans - herself better known as George Eliot. By the time Eliot was writing, some female authors were  being published under their own names but  she chose to escape the stereotypes surrounding women's writing and its supposed limitations by choosing a male-sounding name. She also wished to have her fiction judged separately from her writing as an editor and literary critic. The magnificent  Middlemarch  is an epic summer holiday read if you need one. Martin Amis, eminent novelist in his own right, describes it as being 'the'  novel of the 19th century ', and a group of international critics decided that it was the best novel of all time  back in 2015. Quite a claim indeed. Anyway, I digress. We're...

As we move into Act III (which is the longest part of this production running at 44 minutes), the stage is draped in enormous canvases, hanging down from the ceiling and spread across the floor. They suggest Hamlet's mania from their volume, and the preoccupations of his troubled mind in the calligramatic references to serpents, crowns and skulls. The concept of the tortured artist is constructed visually before it is enacted. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern's incompetence is suggested through their casual behaviour at the start of the scene, giving the idea that they don't really have their minds on the job, but are treating their time here as a holiday. Essiedu's Hamlet embarks on the 'To be or not to be' speech with a plaintive, questioning tone. You can explore the RSC's approach to this in more depth here . When Ophelia enters she is evidently still smarting from their previous exchange and attempts to return a large box of gifts and keepsakes fr...

One of the unexpected benefits of lockdown has been the proliferation of free-to-air theatrical performances. The RSC's 2016 production with Paapa Essiedu as Hamlet has been shown on BBC iPlayer as part of their Culture in Quarantine access, and now forms part of our study. Act One runs for 41 minutes. The glimpse of Wittenberg student life emphasises the kind of world that Hamlet has 'lost', in addition to the loss of his father, as he arrives home. It also reminds the audience of his youth, and the celebratory moment of having a diploma conferred contrasts effectively with the grief later in Act One; the snapshot effect is also a signifier of change: a moment lost forever. Beyond this, the production has been described as the ' most traditional of interpretations '. For the first 'ghost' scene (though no ghost appears), the low, blue-black lighting means the actors are almost imperceptible at times - certainly difficult to pick out in the stage gloo...