On the 23rd February our Year 12 got the chance to watch Hamlet performed by an actual international acting group, which was of course an amazing opportunity.
It was a very enjoyable experience since they delivered the play in an authentic traditionally English manner. Since they used the original language, it was quite difficult to follow for a lot of students, however it felt much truer to the original play that way. The ingenious use of the stage as well as the props furthered said feeling and contributed to the atmosphere nicely.
Some of the actors sang at certain points in the play, which was quite a creative way of setting the atmosphere and drew us closer to the actors. Through the use of costumes and multiple roles, the group managed to keep the play and cast both unique and interesting, which was a breath of fresh air considering most modern plays are very minimal and omit a large part of the cast and costumes.
After the play was done, I asked the actors a few questions and found out that one of them came from Scotland and another one from Australia (but had lived in London for 10 years), something that I thought was super cool.
To conclude our experience, the play was a brilliant experience if you were able to understand everything, however this unfortunately was not the case for everyone. I’m very happy and thankful that Miss Assman managed to organize this event, since this is one of the must-see plays. (Emil Z., year 12)