Remember this name: Hiran Abeysekera is going to be a star

Hamlet
Lyttelton Theatre, National Theatre, London, until November 22 and in cinemas from January 22

Traditionally, Hamlet is a breakthrough role for prodigiously talented actors. That was certainly the case with Ben Whishaw at the Old Vic in 2004, when he was 23. A generation or so before him, it was David Warner at the RSC in 1965, when he was 24. If there’s any justice in this world, it will be the case, too, for Hiran Abeysekera.

He is older than the other two – 39 – and has actually had a few “breakthrough” roles before – The Life of Pi comes immediately to mind, and then there was The Father and the Assassin. He was Horatio to Paapa Essiedu’s Hamlet in Stratford in 2016.

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Now his Hamlet is quite simply an unignorable feat of pure acting genius. Abeysekera is lithe and wonderfully natural, almost cheeky, in role and also brings to it that indefinable quality of charm.

Robert Hastie’s is a very modern, accessible take on the Shakespearean classic with a lot of entertaining touches – Hari Mackinnon and Joe Bolland getting a lot of laughs, for instance, as Rosencrantz and Guildenstern with their matching blond preppy quiffs. The supporting cast boasts some of theatre’s great character actors. Geoffrey Streatfeild as Polonius and Tom Glenister as Laertes are on great form, but probably the youthful Francesca Mills’ tragic, haunting Ophelia shines out the brightest.

This is the second production to be staged under Indhu Rubashingham’s tenure as artistic director of the National, and it confirms my initial impression that a venue which was starting to feel a bit old and tired is now enjoying a new lease of life.