Shakespeare 4 Kidz - S4K Hamlet - Encore magazine, Southend review, March 2008

The Shakespeare 4 Kidz writing and production team have brilliantly conquered what was surely its ultimate challenge in simplifying and presenting this musical adaptation of what is the Bard’s most complex and dramatic play, with all its anguish of a young prince in torment at his father’s death and its symbolism ranging over a whole world of emotions and beliefs.

I was fascinated by every minute of this production and to be honest at the end of the first half wondered whether it was going to work or leave the attentive large audience of eight-to-eleven-year-olds with the idea that Hamlet was a comedy. But I need not have worried for the sheer power of the famous set-piece speeches came over beautifully in the last forty-five minutes and PAUL PARRIS’ Hamlet ended up with his madness scenes, which he plays as a witless, physically funny idiot, doing as much to convince me of the Prince set on revenge as any of the many Hamlets from far more famous actors I have seen. This is a triumph of acting by any standard and his delivery of those fine speeches is impeccable.

The standard of acting is equally high throughout the big sixteen-strong cast but one must pick out JASON LEE SCOTT for a masterly commanding performance of sheer villainy as Claudius; FILIPA JERONIMO’s Gertrude – which reaches the acting heights in the latter stages of the play and creates a feeling of anguish felt by the youngest members of the audience to the oldest and most cynical like this reviewer; and TOMMI BAXTER-HILL who brings a wonderful dynamism to his Laertes.

Then there are the brilliantly conceived and choreographed performances of MOEL ANDREW HARRON and MARK STEWART as a superb Rosencrantz and Guildenstern and MARIANNE HARE’s sweet singing Ophelia.

This production is a major triumph for Shakespeare 4 Kidz and deserves to be seen by audiences of all ages. Aided by its simple setting, good lighting and atmospheric music with numbers like “What Have I Done”, it stays in the long term memory.

JOHN GILES

Encore Magazine – March 2008

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