Sh!t-faced Shakespeare: Hamlet at Leicester Square Theatre Review
Written by Katie for Theatre & Tonic
Disclaimer: Gifted tickets in exchange for an honest review
If you’re new to this madness, Sh!t-faced Shakespeare does exactly what it says on the tin: five classically trained actors take on a Shakespeare play, with one of them (chosen on rotation each night) turning up absolutely sozzled. The rest? A glorious mess of Elizabethan verse, audience meddling, and booze-fuelled chaos. No two shows are ever the same, and tonight it was the Prince of Denmark’s turn in the firing line.
This evening’s tipsy thespian was Jamie Sandersfield in the role of Hamlet. With no filter and even less inhibition, he hurled himself into the part, throwing in unexpected tangents at will - my favourite being a very niche Fiona Bruce/Antiques Roadshow gag that had the audience in stitches. It was silly, cheeky, and mischievous… In fact, ‘silly’ could quite happily be the show’s middle name.
Holding the whole thing together (just) was our host, Charlie Keable. Think sparkly sequined breeches, a squeaky horn, and a knack for keeping the chaos from tipping over into complete disaster. He was equal parts ringmaster, responsible adult, and mischief-maker. Armed with instruments for the audience to signal when more booze should be opened, he made sure we felt part of the mayhem. Keable had this brilliantly comical bluntness, whether aimed at us in the audience or at the cast, that somehow made you want to misbehave just so he’d tell you off. I loved his haphazard inputs, sometimes, dare-I-say, more than the show itself!
John Mitton as Claudius and Shady Murphy as Gertrude both leaned heavily into the production’s silliness, clearly adding more chaos than Shakespeare ever wrote in. Yet, when a scene was allowed to breathe, they revealed real acting talent. This particularly shone in the scene that preceded Ophelia's death, delivering moments of genuine dramatic weight that cut beautifully through the absurdity. It was a reminder that, beneath the farce, these are skilled performers who could easily carry a straight production if they chose to.
There’s no doubt the concept is side-splittingly funny. That said, the ‘one drunk actor’ idea did feel a bit watered down at times. Several sober cast members seemed equally determined to hog the limelight, unfortunately with Aaron Phineas Peters (Laertes/Hamlet’s father’s ghost) being particularly guilty of overplaying it. When everyone is acting smashed, it loses the delicious authenticity of watching the sober actors struggle to keep the story afloat and does somehow undermine the whole concept for me.
I think some of the humour also felt overly pre-prepared and frankly irrelevant (why did act 2 start with Gertrude singing Gangsters paradise?). Again, for me this only watered down the genuine unpredictability of the format, but I think in these specific moments it was more down to Stacey Norris’s direction than a cast choice.
The best moments, I thought, were between Hamlet and Ophelia (Princess Donough), who resisted the temptation to out-silly the sloshed star and instead worked hard to keep the scene going. That’s where the authentic funny really happened for me: watching a sober performer wrestle Shakespeare’s text back from chaos.
Audience interaction was another highlight. From granting us the power to ply Hamlet with more booze to drafting an unsuspecting audience member into the role of Polonius (who rose to the occasion brilliantly), the show thrives on its connection with the crowd.
Was it perfect? No. Was it riotous, unpredictable, and joyously daft? Absolutely. If you’re after a polished, traditional Hamlet, look elsewhere. If you want to see Shakespeare collide with sheer drunken anarchy, Sh!t-faced Shakespeare will be right up your alley.
Sh!t-Faced Shakespeare: Hamlet plays at Leicester Square Theatre until 21 September ahead of a UK tour.
★ ★ ★
