Hamlet underground, Hare in Skylight.

If it's summer there must be Shakespeare... as ubiquitous as music festivals and Pimms, outdoor versions of the bards works emerge from the foliage of parks and gardens across the southwest. And not just outdoor venues: Bristol Shakespeare Festival includes, among an exciting programme throughout July, Butterfly theatre company's production of Hamlet in the Redcliffe Caves.

These caverns are low ceilinged, and labyrinthine, lit largely by candles, a fantastic setting for dark melodrama. As audience we hastened, shuffling rather than promenading, along tiny passages to voyeur each new strand in this murderous web of intrigue. Our torches flickered on the faces of the innocent and the guilty, shadows flickered on the walls, Ophelia's beautiful mad song echoed softly and the angry ghost's death-rattle haunted the rocks...  and there were two terrific set-pieces in a more open, clearly-lit, space: a comedy act by the players hired by Hamlet to 'catch the conscience of the king' effectively involving random audience members, and the final death-fest, a dramatic sword fight as all the still-surviving main characters slaughter each other.  Vigorously abridged and pacily acted ~ the kings, both living and dead, especially strong ~ there was only one faltering step in my book and that was the replacement of Shakespeare's marvellously sententious creation Polonius for a bustling Mrs Bennett who had to be bricked squeaking to death without benefit of arras. Other than that small quibble, an excellent show, atmospheric and gruesomely entertaining, and I would be urging you to go see, except it's now sold out for the rest of the run.

David Hare's 1995 play Skylight, now revived by the National Theatre at Wyndhams and on nt Live screening, also begins with an angry young man railing about his surviving parent. This tale however isn't about revenge but atonement, as businessman Tom reconnects with ex-lover teacher Keyra in a passionate clash of ideals.
"I wanted to write a love story" the playwright tells Emma Freud in an interval interview, "and I've never written a play set in a room." With so much of the dialogue polarised argument I'm not convinced on the first aim but the play is certainly set in a room, though the title feature was in a different room and created by Tom for his dying wife, apparently in guilt for his infidelity. This room is Keyra's, and it's easy to share Tom's feeling there's something wilful in a woman on an Inner London teacher's salary with no dependents, or even the cost of running a car, choosing anywhere quite so dismal and unheated. There's a lot of 'relevance' still in the couple's debates, and some very funny lines but, especially with filmic close-ups emphasising the age-difference, the relationship doesn't really convince. Nevertheless, big credit to Merlin Theatre for bringing these ntLive shows to an appreciative full-house audience ~ this one's getting sizzling 5-star reviews from live audience reviewers ~ and I'll be at the next screening, though probably still churlishly muttering I'd rather be there in the flesh...