In the first performance of a nine day run of The Factory’s Hamlet, actors hang from the gods, four people play one character at the same time and it doesn’t finish until 3.30am. In the penultimate performance a week later, scenes are performed in the order they come out of a hat. During the intervening week they play at a private party, in a warehouse and in the middle of Regent Street. Quite simply: anything can happen.
The Factory is an unusual theatre company and its Hamlet is not your usual Hamlet. No show is the same and even the actors aren’t let in on the secret. Through props brought by the audience and obstructions from the director both the actors and the audience are forced to examine the text in completely new ways. After my inaugural Factory experience at Shakespeare’s Globe, producer Liam Evans Ford challenges me to a second round, promising it will be completely different.
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