Alas! Royal Shakespeare Company’s Hamlet tour to stop at Hackney Empire next year
Paapa Essiedu (right) as Hamlet, pictured with Yorick (left). Photograph: Royal Shakespeare Company
Something rotten is coming to the state of Hackney next March, as the Royal Shakespeare Company’s just-announced 2018 tour of their current production of Hamlet will finish with an almost month-long residency at the Empire.
The titular role will be played by Paapa Essiedu, who grew up in nearby Walthamstow and was named as “a blazing new star standing at the heart of an intelligent and engrossing production” by the Sunday Times.
VIDEO: Essiedu delivers his rendition of Hamlet’s ‘to be or not to be’ speech. Courtesy of the Royal Shakespeare Company
Essiedu is British with Ghanaian heritage, and befitting this, director Simon Godwin explained that, in this production, the Bard’s opus takes place in “Denmark re-conceived as a modern state influenced by the ritual, traditions and beauty of West Africa … full of the colour, emotional intensity and passion associated with that part of the world.”
When asked last year whether the production is a “dramatic departure” from the lineage of Hamlets past, Essiedu moved to quash those potential concerns. “It’s not a radical reinterpretation, we haven’t really edited the story or the script that much.
“It has been cut down and streamlined to make it more like a thriller – so it’s gonna go like the clappers!”
Nigerian Jamiroquai percussionist Sola Akingbola, also a funky solo artist in his own right, composed the soundtrack to the performance.
Tickets will begin to go on sale to Hackney Empire Friends and RSC patrons on Wednesday 17 May 2017, with general admission tickets becoming available the following week on Tuesday 23 May.
Hamlet will be running at the Hackney Empire from 6 to 31 March 2018 (no performances on Good Friday 30 March)