Bill Alexander's superbly crafted Hamlet for the Birmingham Repertory Theatre Company conjures up both the vast, infinite space through which its enduring and universal themes have travelled and the shadowy, suffocating demimonde of the Elsinore court, where intrigue, incest and corruption rule. This is indeed a state which is rotten to the core, as witnessed in Gerard Murphy's florid, lusty, unstable Claudius, the murderous usurper-monarch.
Into Ruari Murchison's huge, black box set, Tim Mitchell's stunningly dramatic lighting throws chinks of daylight, rosy dawns, gloomy twilights and eerily misty battlements, on which apparitions emerge and fade away. Courtiers eavesdrop behind floating drapes, conspirators enter and depart through hidden doorways and a terrified, cowed young girl - Ophelia - goes mad while nobody notices.
The low-key opening scenes are soon brought dizzyingly and entertainingly to life by Richard McCabe's intelligent, garrulous, disgruntled prince Hamlet. This Hamlet is simply so much cleverer than everyone around him - and therein lies the root of his dilemma. He has no-one to turn to. Even his beloved mother, Gertrude, in Anna Nicholas's torn, tormented portrayal, sides with the monster who has stolen her son's father and birthright.
And Rakie Ayola's shrill Ophelia makes one wonder how this cerebral being could ever have looked twice in her direction.
McCabe's is an intense, fluent performance, thoroughly of and for the present day. Yet it remains firmly within the traditions of this monumental piece of drama and drives an uneven but gloriously visual production to a satisfying conclusion.
Hamlet is at the Grand Opera House until Saturday; performances alternate with Twelfth Night. Bookings on Belfast 90241919
