Review: Dada Masilo's Hamlet (Sadler’s Wells)
- All That Dazzles
- May 26
- 4 min read
Review by Phil McCullough
⭐️⭐️
I consider Hamlet to be my all-time favourite play. Its themes are timeless, the language is poetic, and the characters are layered, nuanced and deeply human. This is the kind of play that raises questions which stay with you long after the curtain falls. Having seen over eleven productions, I’ve witnessed all manner of interpretations — from mental institutions to modern royal palaces, so I was fascinated to experience a dance interpretation of Shakespeare’s masterpiece finally. Hamlet is Shakespeare’s longest play and has given the English language countless famous phrases, from “The lady doth protest too much” to “To thine own self be true”. In my eyes, it is simply a masterpiece. So how successfully does choreographer Dada Masilo transform Shakespeare’s wordiest play into a contemporary dance theatre piece with minimal text, and does this production breathe new life into one of the Bard’s most iconic works?
Award-winning South African choreographer Dada Masilo, renowned for her bold reinterpretations of classics including Swan Lake, Giselle and The Rite of Spring (retitled The Sacrifice), now turns her attention to Hamlet in an ambitious hour-long dance theatre production. Blending classical ballet, African dance and period movement, the work is accompanied by an original score by Thuthuka Sibisi. The production premiered at Impulstanz in Vienna in 2024 before transferring to Hamburg and Antwerp.
Masilo selects key scenes from Hamlet to retell the story through the lens of misogyny, manipulation and violence within Elsinore. Boldly, she opens the production not with dance, but with dialogue. Hamlet’s “To be or not to be” soliloquy is performed by actor Aphiwe Dike, while dancer Tumelo Lekana embodies a second physical version of Hamlet through movement. In this production, you effectively get two Hamlets for the price of one.
Masilo also reorders parts of Shakespeare’s narrative. We first see young Hamlet falling in love with Ophelia and gifting her pearls as a symbol of their relationship, before projections and fierce tribal choreography depict the murder of Old Hamlet. However, because these moments occur before the events of Act One in Shakespeare’s text, opening the piece with Hamlet’s existential speech feels oddly misplaced. On top of that, Aphiwe Dike’s Hamlet begins at such a heightened level of rage that there is little sense of emotional progression once the tragedy truly unfolds. Since other speeches are also scattered throughout the production, I found myself questioning why this particular soliloquy was chosen as the opening moment.
Masilo recreates several iconic scenes, including Gertrude being wooed by Claudius, Hamlet’s “Get thee to a nunnery” confrontation with Ophelia, Claudius’ chapel confession, Ophelia’s descent into madness and the final duel between Hamlet and Laertes. The choreography itself is often striking and emotionally charged, but at times the ensemble work lacked polish. Some dancers appeared slightly under-rehearsed, with movements finishing out of sync during group sequences. For a production staged at Sadler's Wells Theatre, it occasionally felt rough around the edges.
This restaging by Llewellyn Mnguni uses an almost entirely bare stage. Black-and-white projections of Elsinore Castle, woodland settings and chapel imagery appear on the back wall, alongside more abstract visuals. While the simplicity allows the choreography to take centre stage, it also feels like a missed opportunity. This urban South African vision of Hamlet could have been brought more vividly to life with even minimal staging choices or stronger visual world-building.
The music, meanwhile, is one of the production’s strengths. A fusion of classical ballet influences, African rhythms and period-inspired compositions, the score by Thuthuka Sibisi and collaborators Ann Masina, Leroy Mapholo and Mpho Mothiba becomes crucial in carrying the emotional storytelling. With much of Shakespeare’s language removed, the music must convey grief, chaos, tension and dark humour — and for the most part, it succeeds.
Interestingly, this production places greater focus on Gertrude and Ophelia than on Hamlet himself. Aphiwe Dike captures the prince’s anger and thirst for vengeance effectively, particularly during the misogynistic fury of “Get thee to a nunnery”, while Tumelo Lekana’s choreography vividly reflects Hamlet’s spiralling mental state. Yet many of the emotional contradictions and philosophical nuances that make Hamlet such a compelling character are absent here.
Llewellyn Mnguni’s Gertrude is statuesque and commanding, dressed in a striking golden gown that sharply contrasts with the darker, muted costumes surrounding her. However, the standout performance comes from the production’s Ophelia. Her descent into madness and eventual death is genuinely haunting. Clutching flowers in a flowing white lace dress, she becomes engulfed by movement, music and manic laughter as she collapses towards her tragic fate. Slowly drifting downstream and offstage as death takes hold, the moment is visually stunning, unsettling and deeply poignant — easily the production’s strongest scene.
Thando Mgobhozi also offers an interesting reinterpretation of Claudius’ chapel scene. With his back to the audience and a projected stained-glass chapel window behind him, he writhes with guilt through movement as he confesses to murdering his brother. Repeatedly raising his hands heavenward before dragging them back down to earth, the choreography cleverly reflects the line: “My words fly up, my thoughts remain below.” The sequence is visually and physically powerful, although the emotional complexity of Claudius’ soliloquy is inevitably flattened without Shakespeare’s full text.
Overall, I found the production interesting rather than entirely successful. There are flashes of brilliance throughout, particularly in Ophelia’s scenes, but many of the play’s deeper themes and character complexities feel underdeveloped. Hamlet contains some of the richest writing ever put on stage, and ultimately, that is what I missed most here. As Hamlet himself says: “Words, words, words.” Without them, it becomes incredibly difficult to fully capture the emotional and philosophical depth that makes Shakespeare’s masterpiece so enduring.
Dada Masilo’s Hamlet plays at Sadler's Wells until 26th May. Tickets from:
Photos by Lauge Sorensen