Hamlet is possibly the Shakespeare play that most sounds like one long work built on things taken from a dictionary of quotations. It also is the one all actors who aspire to become leaders of the profession need to tackle before they get too old and directors love to find ways of doing it that differ from what has gone before. Dickie Beau has come up with a way looking at the play in which interviews about the play with people like Richard Eyre and Ian Mckellen he had and recorded are woven into his examination of the impact the play has had on audiences and to use his skills as a lip synch drag artist to tell all that happens. The result is quite stunning and the piece which was seen first at the Almeida has toured internationally and arrives at Hampstead, having survived the interruption of Covid, garlanded with awards. One highlight of the run will on June 6 when a conversation will follow with a recent Hamlet who drew the crowds - Benedict Cumberbatch. Maybe the sound could be worked on because not everything Beau was lip synching to came over as clearly as it ought to have done on the press night, that or I am going slightly deaf. But no matter, the way he moved between centre stage, behind curtains, used the vast collection of props which litter the stage at the beginning, disposed of them, and coped with remembering the complexity of the text he had to learn was quite dazzling. For anyone who has seen Hamlet, and people who go the theatre do tend to collect them, especially when it is the Hamlet for their generation, it is not to be missed. Beau's interview with Richard Eyre in particular has come up with fascinating material. Hampstead may have lost its Arts Council funding but it is fighting back with a will and this evening is evidence of that - one for anyone who has seen Hamlet and for those who have not, well it could be a novel introduction to both the play and to Hamlets past, present and, like Ian Charleson, lost. Among who have played him was Ian McKellen went to see it and was confronted with someone lip synching bits of his performance which appears to have excited and amused him no end. This really is an evening like no other.

The cast - Dickie Beau; Voices - Ian McKellen, Richard Eyrem Sean Mathias, John Wood, Steohen Ashby, John Peter, Suzanne Bertish.

Director - Jan Van Den Bosch; Design Supervisor - Lorelei Cairns; Lighting Designer - Marty Langthorne; Audio Production - Helen Noir; Special Props - Frani Parali; Production Photograph - Sarah Lewis.