Director Amy Leach’s latest offering at Leeds Playhouse’s pop up theatre, Shakespeare’s Hamlet, has left me conflicted.

On the one hand there were some great performances whilst on the other it felt like one step too far turning the Prince of Denmark into a Princess, his father Polonius into a tweed wearing Joyce Grenfell, and his bosom buddy Horatio into yet another gender bender character, this time a woman with dreadlocks. So, whose idea was this, Leach’s or Dramaturg Jacqui Honess-Martin who is so vocal in the programme? “There is no doubt that re-gendering roles changes Shakespeare’s plays. It explodes them up to new possibilities, new themes and, hopefully, new cultural theories.” Really?

Throughout I found myself listening to all the ‘she’ references and momentarily thinking, ‘ah that’s his mate’s dad, sorry, her dad, only dad’s a she’; it required too much thought of character and the final nail was that wonderfully iconic line: ‘goodnight sweet prince and flights of angels sing thee to thy rest’, only the ‘sweet prince’ had just been transformed into a ‘sweet friend’ which just didn’t cut it and, at that moment, it felt like ‘inclusion’ had gone mad and someone was trying to prove something, only I’m not sure what; that women deserve to play Shakespeare’s heavyweight male parts? That they bring a different dimension? Who knows!

There was a girl on girl moment at the beginning with some intense kissing and, in the darkness, I momentarily rolled my eyes as the word ‘gender’ once again seemingly took pride of place over the Bard’s play itself.

Nevertheless, personal feelings aside, there were some sterling performances.

Tessa Parr as Hamlet is a great actress, works so hard and is seamless in her delivery; it would be wrong to judge her unfairly just because she is a woman playing such an iconic male role. She was excellent even if Dann Parr as Laertes did tower over her in the final sword fight. And I DO like Joe Alessi in his various roles, this time he was the murderous Claudius, whilst Susan Twist brought some beautifully paced humour to the part of Polonius.

I am sure that Amy Leach knew this was always going to be a contentious production and she’s right on that one. Maybe I would have been a little more forgiving if Hamlet had remained a Prince but a Princess? Yes, men did play female parts in Elizabethan times and I could have lived with a 21st century take on that but, for me, re-gendering such iconic characters was too big a shift.

It all felt too pointed and, despite some great performances – one lady in the interval said she loved it and after 30 minutes had stopped seeing the gender shifts – I fear that seasoned Hamlet lovers will be left feeling a little disappointed by the loss of some characters – Osric is a case in point - and the various cuts designed, no doubt, to make it more palatable to an audience that still has a bus to catch and can only stomach 140 minutes rather than the customary three hours for this hefty Shakespearian tragedy.

Leeds Playhouse, until Saturday 30th March 2019


This article has prompted a much larger public response than usual. In particular many respondents have taken exception to the use of the term 'gender bender'.

The letter below is a direct response to this article and is presented here in full. Although critical of the article and the YT's stance in general, we are most grateful for the time and effort required to write this thoughtful piece.

For the sake of clarity, I (the editor) do not agree with the sentiments expressed in this letter. I believe them to be a misinterpretation of the review, and of the reviewer's intentions, and it implies personal characteristics of the reviewer which, I believe, do not exist.

However, please read the article, and this response, and form your own view. And do go and see the production at Leeds Playhouse. It is excellent.