Hamlet in King’s Gardens

Cambridge Shakespeare Festival’s Hamlet: A review in pictures.

By Arya Sharma

The fellows’ garden of King’s College: an enclosed space hidden from the roads by its shrubbery, open only to the members of King’s College. Until Hamlet opens the gates. Here, under a navy sky, the curtains wait. On Thursday 25th July, the gloomy weather is a fitting scene.

Hamlet is one of my favourite Shakespeare plays. It’s frustrating, existential, and very emo; right up my alley. So, as I prepare to leave Cambridge and enter yet more uncertainty about my life path, I thought director Simon Bell’s adaptation would a fitting final event to attend.

Staged in this way with some seats and a picnic area, the play is deliberately unassuming. Just a few lights, some musical effects, and the players to play. They walk through the aisles, can be seen running or singing through the trees, and Hamlet (Louis Dickens) sometimes climbs a ladder and spies down on the other characters in his impression of madness.

Perhaps the most entertaining part of this performance, alongside the brilliant and engaging actors, were the uncontrollable effects of staging a play outdoors. The neighbouring college appeared to be holding a live music tribute on the greatest hits from the 70s and 80s. ABBA rang out as Ophelia delivered her flowers, Whitney Houston called out for somebody to love as Gertrude drank her poison. Incredibly distracting and somehow perfect.

And then the rain, light at first until it was pouring. Everybody crouched in their seats, holding their umbrellas as close to their heads as they could, so as not the block the audience members behind them. A little boy watching the play with his grandmother beside me simply pulled on his hood and stood up, wide grin on his face as he watched Laertes and Hamlet clash swords.

So, sure, you might get moths in your hair and rain in your eyes. And you might struggle to hear soliloquies amid ‘Dancing Queen’. But still, watching a play like Hamlet in Cambridge college gardens as the night gets darker, with all its natural imperfections, is a magical experience ✨

The Cambridge Shakespeare Festival is running until 24 August. Find more details here: https://cambridgeshakespeare.com/about/