To the RSC at Stratford this week to see a rather unexpected production of Hamlet. It was unexpected because, as I discovered from the Times review before we went, it’s set on the Titanic. I have to say I wasn’t convinced, but it turns out it works surprisingly well, especially as I do love a metaphor, and the more I think about it the more this production is rife with rich metaphors. The director, Rupert Goold, and the production team explored the possibility of staging this Hamlet ‘within the context of a catastrophic event’, to explore ‘How do questions of life, death and human agency resonate within this heightened environment?’ (from programme notes). We know what the end of any Titanic narrative will be, and many in the audience will know the ending of Hamlet, so bringing the two together offers an interesting tension.

The play opens with the committal of Hamlet’s father’s body to the sea, and then a red digital message appears telling us ’50 DAYS LATER’, with digital countdown clocks on either side of the stage which appear at different moments. The digital figures are at odds with the Edwardian setting, of course, and yet they acknowledge that the audience knows what is coming, and what time the Titanic sank: the figures remind us of the inevitable march of time towards death, and also underscore that ‘the time is out of joint’. It’s a nice touch that ‘To be or not to be’ is rendered at 0:00.

When the ghost of Hamlet’s father first appears, there is a loud crack and a shudder throughout the set, as if the iceberg is struck by the arrival of the ghost which will set off the inexorable chain of events. Throughout the play there are moments of creaking, a gentle background noise which becomes increasingly threatening as we become more aware of what it portends: the destruction of the ship – and, at the same time, the destruction of the family and court at Elsinore. The stage itself tilts, more and more steeply until actors are rolling off it in the final scenes, making the performance quite a feat, and also indicating instability both of mind and of power. The only thing that jarred slightly for me was the odd echo of Titanic the film when Hamlet, bloodstained and mad, spreads his arms wide as if about to declare himself king of the world…

Then there is the fact that the play is saturated with sea-imagery; particularly metaphorically referring to madness. Gertrude says of Hamlet that he is ‘Mad as the sea and wind, when both contend/ Which is the mightier’, and of course Hamlet refers to ‘a sea of troubles’. Of Ophelia, he says ‘Too much of water hast thou, poor Ophelia/ And therefore I forbid my tears.’ Little is done, therefore, to tweak the play, although a few judicious excisions make the text work better for the context (such as concluding the play with Horatio’s line ‘Good night, sweet prince’). The characters pursue their various courses with apparent ignorance of the fate of their vessel, which works well since it emphasises the blindness to reality of the characters – and reminds us that Elsinore is doomed; it really is a sinking ship both literally and metaphorically.

The play has a stellar cast; some are well-known for television and film performances as well as theatre, such as Nancy Carroll (a fabulous Gertrude whose increasing disarray and anguish is utterly convincing), Jared Harris as an over-confident and jovially unpleasant Claudius, and Anton Lesser as a dramatic Ghost and Player King. Elliot Levey’s Polonius brought some levity to the evening in a recognisably paternal way. Luke Thallon, in his RSC debut, was brilliantly manic as Hamlet, understating the big speeches so that the audience hang on his words, and somehow controlling the events around him as he lost control himself. Nia Towle’s Ophelia (also an RSC debut) disintegrated beautifully, and the herbs speech was particularly memorable, while Lewis Shepherd as a convincing Laertes was also an RSC newcomer. It’s a long performance but we were rapt, and the young cast members played off the older characters in a reminder that this play is ultimately about the suffering of the young for the sins of the previous generation. In a play about grief, madness and power within a dysfunctional family group, that is completely appropriate.

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