William Shakespeare: Hamlet - BLU-RAY

Shakespeare Henry V [BLU-RAY] Released 2016 product/publication from BBC / Opus Arte

With his crown under threat from enemies both foreign and domestic, Henry IV prepares for war. Having deposed the previous king, he is only too aware how tenuous his position is, and the price to be paid if he falters. As his father prepares to defend his crown, Prince Hal is languishing in the taverns and brothels of London, reveling in the company of his friend, the notorious Sir. John Falstaff. With the onset of the war, Hal and Falstaff are thrust into the brutal reality of the battlefield, where Hal must confront his responsibilities to family and throne.

Hamlet has the world at his feet. Young, wealthy and living a hedonistic life studying abroad. Then word reaches him that his father is dead. Returning home he finds his world is utterly changed, his certainties smashed and his home a foreign land. Struggling to understand his place in a new world order he faces a stark choice. Submit, or rage against the injustice of his new reality. Simon Godwin directs Paapa Essiedu as Hamlet in Shakespeare's searing tragedy. As relevant today as when it was written, Hamlet confronts each of us with the mirror of our own morality in an imperfect world. Inch... an utterly engaging performance by Paapa Essiedu.Inch (The Times) InchThis is a landmark production; Paapa Essiedu is the first black actor to play Hamlet for the RSC in it's 55-year history. He is charismatic, capricious and compelling an impulsive, arresting presence at the heart of a production that reframes the dilemmas in the play by setting it in an unnamed African state.Inch (The Financial Times)