This production takes place on two joining dates (10th and 11th June 2025). We are reviewing both performances which feature the same ensemble but with alternating principal roles.
Director Rebecca Morris has been highly instrumental in both script development and directing both casts of Hamlet: The Rest is Silence. I can think of no better way of introducing the process and the piece than by using her own in depth notes.
Rebecca Morris
Hamlet: The Rest is Silence
A Nottingham Story, Told Together
In early 2024, a conversation began between the Royal Shakespeare Company Participation Team and regional theatre partners across England. Among them was Nottingham’s Theatre Royal & Royal Concert Hall part of the Shakespeare Nation network. The discussion centred on the RSC’s 2025–26 tour, Hamlet and how regional theatres might not only host the production, but also contribute creatively to its journey.
From that conversation, a new idea began to take shape in Nottingham: to create a community-led version of Hamlet, developed and performed by local people. A project that would not only respond to the RSC’s tour, but also stand on its own as a bold, collaborative act of storytelling.
From the beginning, this production has been shaped by a mixture of intention and circumstance. The original hope was to stage the play in the Theatre Royal—our 1865 Victorian theatre, a natural home for Shakespeare. But with the 2025 calendar already full, attention turned to the Royal Concert Hall. Known for its world-class acoustics and large-scale performances, it’s not a traditional Shakespeare venue—but it offered something else: space, scale, and the chance to do something different. Responding to this space, the production team made the decision to focus our production on sound and silence, and the impact it has on the text.
In summer 2024, we held a series of casting workshops (not auditions) which brought together a new company of performers from across Nottingham and beyond. From September, the ensemble began an intensive R&D phase—masterclasses, improvisation, text exploration, and storytelling. This was followed by a devising period through to Christmas, where the company began working directly with Shakespeare’s text, culminating in the casting of two rotating ensembles. Everyone appears in both casts, but principal roles are shared and alternated.
Over the Christmas break, our director took the material developed over four months and shaped it into a new script. The result is a version of Hamlet that is two hours shorter than the original, but retains its characters, language, and emotional power. Scenes have been added, lines borrowed from other plays, and the structure reimagined—all in pursuit of clarity and connection with audiences.
Our script was built around five guiding principles:
What must be kept to tell the story?
What is the purpose of each scene or speech?
Who should (or could) speak it?
What language do we love?
What can we make visual?
Rehearsals began in January 2025—and they’ve been both joyful and demanding. It hasn’t been without challenge. Cast absences and limited time in the space have tested our flexibility and resilience. Some weeks, only a handful of performers were able to rehearse because we physically didn’t have the space. But when the full company came back together, the energy was electric—and the work that had been quietly building came to life in extraordinary ways. At the heart of this production is a large ensemble—the beating pulse of the piece—and an incredible community technical and production team. Recruited through an open call in May 2024, they’ve spent the year training in technical design and stage management, and designing set, props and costumes, preparing to bring this vision to life. Their work has been essential, and their growth over the year has been one of the most powerful parts of the journey.
This production of Hamlet is more than a performance. It’s a shared act of creativity, care, and commitment. The outcome matters deeply—but the process, and the legacy it leaves behind, may matter even more. We’ve created an adaptation shaped by the people involved. It’s not just about the performance, it’s also been about the process – collaborative, rigorous and profoundly human. The production is really what Shakespeare Nation is all about, from this participating to those watching, looking at what is relevant and beautiful about these timeless stories and their accessibility.
The Tuesday evening performance is female biased with a fiesty impulsive Lady Hamlet (Aoife O’ Neill) and on the Wednesday afternoon we have a male led cast with Laurence James-Davis as a profound and thoughtful Prince Hamlet. The director is Rebecca Morris and the directing assistant is Tom Morley. The simple set on the large Nottingham Royal Concert Hall stage gives plenty of space for creative usage for cast footfall and visual ingenuity. The excellent lighting and sound team are Chris Grantham and Matt Beaumont. The technical director is Matt Day.
Both showings offer theatre that is both similar in Morris’ revised Hamlet text and quite different interpretations from their cast principals. Both are gripping and entertaining in their own styling and playing. I am delighted that I was invited to see both and attend the Wednesday question and answer session after the show.
What is incredible and most laudable is that approximately 60% of the cast has little to no experience of acting or acting in a Shakespeare play before and this Shakespeare Nation project has been a life changing event for many. Witnessing the smart movement and usage of the spoken word of each ensemble you would never know that the 60% were complete beginners. Not anymore. This cast has now contracted the dreaded live theatre bug and there ain’t no going back. Much of this will be down to learning from an experienced Shakespeare specialist director like Rebecca Morris. As one of my reviewing team (also a teacher) put it ” To some degree you can only work with what you’ve got … but I do think that directing is a lot like teaching… it’s your job to get them there or as close as… ” Mistakes may inevitably be made along the way or even mid performance but established theatre practitioners would say never do the foolhardy thing of suddenly altering a performance on stage because you think you know better than others. As Shakespeare ‘s Hamlet suggests as best acting practice. “To hold as ’twere the mirror up to nature.” Keep it natural and respect your fellow players. Once the play is established and approved change nowt.
Morris rightly deems this Hamlet:The Rest is Silence Shakespeare project to be a success for everyone involved to be proud of. They have had ten months to mine the text, work both on the understanding and performance skills as well training the tech team. They have all enjoyed it and this reviewer certainly enjoyed the finished result. Bravo all.
