Hamlet (November 08)

I've never seen a girl play Guildenstern before. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are an undifferentiated pair, one of several 'doublings' in Hamlet and orthodoxy might suggest that they be played by similar types and so the pairing of two ostensibly contrasted actors in this production was either making an interesting point or accommodating the cast they had available.

After a recent all-male Romeo and Juliet in Portsmouth and remembering The Globe's tremendous all-female Richard III of a few years ago, gender isn't really an issue especially if and when the production is good enough. Hamlet himself was played by a girl here, too, apparently following in a tradition that includes Sarah Bernhardt and Frances de la Tour, and that wasn't remarkable either.

Except that it was very remarkable. Fran Lewis was captivating and mesmerising as the beleaguered prince, equally good both as the introspective, world-weary student thrust into a political crisis and as 'passion's slave' and sword-fighting hero. She was downbeat and thoughtful, but quick-witted and wily. Always great, put possibly best made up with sinister mascara in the central 'antic disposition' scenes, this production seemed to mark out the feigned madness by the application of make-up because it had gone again once Hamlet had decided to be decisive and drop the disguise.

The prevailing atmosphere was dark and threatening, making much of the claustrophobic themes of Denmark under siege, widespread suspicion, plot and counterplot and the rather too close emotional bond between Laertes and Ophelia. But the funeral of Ophelia, after an ambitious ballet that represented her drowning, was moving and beautiful, marked by one of Shakespeare's very finest passages, 'There is a willow grows aslant a brook'. And Hamlet isn't short of humour, the Gravedigger and Polonius here being augmented by some increasingly worried expressions on the face of Patric Howe's Claudius and the sublime, inauthentically 1600's mime of car driving to prompt 'carbuncle', which I'd like to think was rehearsed but won't be able to go back on another night to check.

Howe was well-judged in his balance between anxiety, attempted statesmanship and paying attention to his new wife, Gertrude. As is usually the case with SSA, the main parts were superbly realized and the minor parts didn't let them down.

David Green

Pugwash- University of Portsmouth Newspaper Review (Rating ****)

Producing a Shakespeare play is a bit like doing a painting by numbers of Da Vinci's The Last Supper. It has the potential to be a great ideological masterpiece but you are so paranoid of spoiling the intricate framework provided for you that the project is extremely daunting. But luckily, this is a "brave new world that has such people in it", like the Southsea Shakespeare Actors who take on this challenge.

The Tempest is not an easy play to recreate as it begins with an epic storm destroying an entire ship.

However, this problem was well avoided by using cinematic techniques as the actors imitated the destruction in slow motion. The majority of the acting ability was impressive, but it was the comedic characters that animated the play and made it exceptionally entertaining to watch.

The character that really held the heart of the play in her hands was Ariel played by Fran Lewis. Even when her contribution was non-verbal Lewis never abandoned her character and her presence became more mesmerizing than any of the action onstage. Some of her lines had even been adapted into a soft melody, which made her role even more enchanting.

To see such a collective passion for theatre demonstrated so unashamedly on stage is fantastic, and in my opinion to make a whole theatre laugh out loud to Shakespeare's words, including younger members of the audience, is a real achievement. This production was proof of how colouring inside the lines can still be creative and reminded me to add a painting by numbers to my Christmas list.