Shakespeare's Hamlet

Nicki Greenberg (illustrator)

Allen& Unwin, Australia: October 2010; 415pp

ISBN: 9781741756425

Genres: classic, drama, graphic novel

Issues: corruption, family, friendship, grief, loyalty, politics

A dead king; a disgruntled prince; an overly hasty post-funeral marriage between brother-in-law and sister-in-law; a time of political uncertainty. Sound familiar? It should - it's Hamlet. The fact that Shakespeare's work can be easily restaged for different cultures, contexts and generations is part of what makes it so powerful. In this graphic version, ‘staged on the page' by Nicki Greenberg, the characters are inkblots, the backdrop a collection of cogs and clock parts - ‘time is out of joint'.

Vibrant and at times disturbing background colours reflect the mood of the text - everything from icy blues of fear and cold at the arrival of the ghost through the rich, seductive reds of Gertrude's bedroom to the muddy browns of Hamlet's confusion and the bright greens of Claudius' jealousy. Gertrude's six breasts may offend some but are a wonderful visual pun on both her highly sexual and bitchy nature. Greenberg's faces are in fact masks, removed at times by the inkblot actors for greater effect, such as when Hamlet rips Ophelia's face off when chastising her (and women in general) for ‘wearing two faces'. The physical dissolution of Ophelia after that encounter - the melting of her inkblot form into a mere puddle and thereafter always weaker outline - is a moving visualization of her emotional collapse. Hamlet's madness, his putting on of an ‘antic nature' is all high energy and movement by contrast.

Heavy picture book paper bound in hardback make this an edition to treasture. Years in the making, this astonishing interpretation of a classic work will enlighten and enrich the experience of the play for both readers new to the text and those for whom it's an old and familiar friend.