HAMLET: FIRST CUT
Directed by Jonathan Holloway
Designed by Neil Irish
Music by Jon Nicholls

TOURED 1999 - 2000

Red Shift celebrated 18 years of touring the UK with this vital, groundbreaking production of Shakespeare's Hamlet. Based on the first quarto version, collected from the actors who originally performed it, Hamlet: first cut is as close as we can get to the popular play seen on the Jacobean stage.

In this fast-paced urban thriller the young prince is at the centre of a paranoid world: a Denmark in constant readiness for war, Military aircraft roar overhead, as the younger members of society cling desperately to the optimism of youth.

A set of jagged rusting steel and a bold original soundtrack created a striking post-industrial landscape. Powerful performances delivered some of the best words uttered in the history of theatre and costumes were provided by daring British designers - Red or Dead.

A theatrical experience that took Red Shift into the new millennium with a bang.