Every generation feels the irresistible compulsion to attempt to stage this, the greatest play by the greatest playwright. Then, when we try, we’re haunted by the ghosts of past Hamlets: Olivier, Gielgud… Roxburgh. Every new production becomes a strange mirror of the play itself: a new Hamlet encounters the ghost of an old Hamlet and puts on a play in order to find out how to really become Hamlet. It takes the perfect combination of director and leading man to tackle this perennial conundrum – to face up to the ghosts and plunge into the thing itself with clear eyes.

Director Simon Stone is ruthless and visionary in his pursuit of the essential in a text; Toby Schmitz…. and Ewen Leslie… are a couple of the best actors of their generation: quick, droll and fiendishly sharp. Hamlet is the natural next step in the theatrical partnership of these actors and this director. They are joined by a cast of masters.

IT’S TIME.