Hotel Elsinore | Riverside Studios

Shakespeare's works have been revived countless times, and this time, Susanna Hamnett brings Hotel Elsinore, a play based on Hamlet, in which they not only re-rehearse Hamlet but also try to give the audience a glimpse into a family.

At 2am on a stormy night in Denmark, a mother (Susanna Hamnett) arrives at a hotel with her two children, Henry (Joshua MacGregor) and Olivia (Lily MacGregor). The family is here for the Shakespeare Festival. The husband, Henry, was famous for his one-man version of Hamlet, and in the original plan, he would perform the play at the festival. However, he passed away unexpectedly. The artistic director of the festival calls the mother and asks if they would like to perform the play in Henry's place, as he would have wished. At the mother's strong request, the family begins to rehearse their three-person version of Hamlet in a small hotel room.

The constant flashing lights (The Swallow Theatre and Daisy Grindrod) and the thunderstorm sound in the opening scene instantly transport the audience to this rainy night. And as the characters close the door to their room, we are all together in this hotel. In the dim light, there are two rudimentary beds (Alberta Saunders), a wooden chair, and a nightstand with a telephone on it. During their rehearsal of Hamlet, they change the position of the beds to form a door or some other blocking.

Hamnett is very successful in portraying a neurotic, emotional, even somewhat dramatic mother. Looking at her state, it's not hard to imagine that the two children might not have received enough love and affection growing up. MacGregor's Henry is very placid. He is the glue that holds the family together, but one can see that he thinks a lot of his father, and has a stubborn ambition to make something that surpasses his father's Hamlet. MacGregor's Olivia, on the other hand, is very quiet and appears to be the most opposed to the idea of playing Hamlet. However, her Ophelia's emotions are the most delicate and gripping. Interestingly, the three actors are also family in reality, which adds an extra touch of colour to the production.

Unfortunately, while the story holds the potential to show the complexity of this family, this production doesn't fulfil it. When they start rehearsing Hamlet, the qualities of the three characters are buried in it. For most parts, it is more like they are playing Hamlet itself with the notion of family applied to it. And when the story becomes three people in pyjamas playing this Hamlet without subversive changes, it can't help but feel a little flat and uninteresting, even losing its focus.

In fact, it's the family's story that's more intriguing than the story of Hamlet, and that's what they should have spent more time digging into. If the family can blend better with the characters in the play, then it will be more likely for the audience to feel the magic of theatre in a small hotel during this stormy night.

Hotel Elsinore runs at Riverside Studios until 3rd May 2025.

Tickets and More Information

★★★☆☆ (3*)

Gifted tickets in return for an honest review | Photography by Ben Wulf