★★★★☆
This production of Shakespeare’s great play stars Tom Hiddleston and so it was dubbed, immediately, a HiddleHamlet. The hype has been huge. You cannot buy a ticket for love nor money to see the super-villain star of Thor in the role, as every one of them for the three-week run were allocated by ballot (proceeds go to Rada). Critics were not given tickets and The Times won its ticket via the ballot like everyone else.
It’s a terrific production. Sir Kenneth Branagh directs with style but then he’s had a while to think it over. Apparently he first floated the idea of doing Hamlet with Hiddleston a decade ago when he saw him in Othello. Since then the doomed Dane has become the