Hamlet review, Almeida

While his sexy mum and his uncle, now his stepdad, celebrate their nuptials, Hamlet broods. It's less than two months since his father, the King of Denmark, died. How could the newly-weds, Gertrude and Claudius, be so disrespectful to his father's memory? When his father's ghost appear alleging he was murdered by the new king, Hamlet starts to unravel. Love goes out of the window in a series of rants, some further murders, and his own demise. That's it. No happy endings and lots of tension and pain. And some of Shakespeare's best used lines: never a borrower or lender be/though this be madness yet there is method in it/to be or not to be, that is the question/oh that this too solid flesh would melt... The list is endless.

This particular Hamlet is Andrew Scott, best known as Moriarty in TV's Sherlock.  He speaks his lines beautifully in a thoughtful, romantic, Irish lilt that suddenly tips into rage. His tone is poetic. It brings the language alive. The only problem is that everyone else is speaking in received English. It may be that his native accent and humble wardrobe - Scott is dressed in what looks like a teenager's first suit - is a deliberate device to show how he doesn't quite fit, but it feels odd within Robert Icke's very slick, very modern production. 

To add to the disconnect, Scott is a Marmite actor. He is luminous on screen, but dulling on stage. My knowledgeable companion remarked that whenever he was on, he sucked the oxygen from the space. He had a similar effect in Emperor and Galilean. There is no inner light or life - nothing for people to play off - though Jessica Brown Findlay does brilliantly as Ophelia. Juliet Stevenson is weighted down as Gertrude in a flesh-coloured frock and a large blonde wig that looks like a small dog. Every time the slinky Angus Wright as Claudius jumped her, one expected it to run away with his sausages.  

In conclusion: This is a beautiful production of Hamlet but it is onerously slow. The words jump out to be savoured, and that is fantastic, but they are polished at the cost of pace and tension. Other characters that normally shine, feel like they're slipping past. The pace lifts after Polonius's death, but that only happens halfway through the third hour. It's a long haul, probably best kept for Scott fans. 

Almeida Theatre, Almeida Street, London N1. Run ends 15 April. West End run later in year.