London Theatre Award nomination Michael Sheen: '.. just the right electrically dangerous, mocking intelligence for the part.' [Hamlet]

The Independent: “Nervily ruffling his mop of corkscrew curls, spasms of ecstatic elation and stricken self-doubt chasing each other over those big-eyed elfin features, Sheen has just the right electrically dangerous, mocking intelligence for the part.”

Director Ian Rickson's Hamlet attempts to make it's subject matter dark and difficult again, with heavy layers of Freud suffocating a lot of the spirit of the story, and so we're unsure of the reliability of the hero, who is played as mentally unstable by Michael Sheen. It's almost a shame that we don't get to see Sheen tackling a more direct take on the play, but this new direction does have a lot going for it, notably the focus on the protagonist's mental state. Sheen's performance, however, aces the role, and elevates the production into something special. Sheen has had a supporting role in far too many movies, Hamlet proves that he deserves to be the leading man. Photo Donald Cooper