| Director: | Royston Morley |
| Country: | Australia |
| Language: | English |
| Producer: | Royston Morley |
| Runtime: | 120 mins[1] |
| Company: | ABC |
| Budget: | £2,500 |
| Network: | ABC |
| Released: | (Sydney, live)[2] |
| Released2: | (Melbourne, taped) |
Hamlet is a 1959 Australian TV play starring William Job and produced by Royston Morley.[3] [4]
It was one of the first two productions of Shakespeare transmitted by ABC, the other being Anthony and Cleopatra.[5]
William Job had played Hamlet on stage in Adelaide in 1952. He then went to England and Canada and had only recently returned to Australia, appearing in a TV production of The Seagull.[6] It was Georgie Sterling's third TV appearance after The Multi-Coloured Umbrella and Sorry Wrong Number.
The show used some basic special effects to create the ghosts.
Owen Weingott helped choreograph the fight scene.
The production had a ten-minute intermission.[7]
The production was well received. The Australian Woman's Weekly called it "two hours of engrossing TV... It was just pleasure and wonderful entertainment. Even if you didn't like Shakespeare, any televiewer would appreciate the notable production and camera work.... A most satisfying night of TV."[8]
A critic from the Sunday Sydney Morning Herald said that it "proved that Shakespeare can be successfully translated to television" with Morley's direction responsible for "much of the credit... he kept the field of action small, relying on _closeups to intensify the drama. I also thought that William Job's portrayal of the young and tragic Dane was outstanding... A night to remember"[9]
A critic from the daily Sydney Morning Herald thought the production suffered from "the skimping of preparation time, the skimping of histrionic talent, and the skimping of imagination and subtlety" although it said Job's performance was one of "sensitiveness, vision and skill".[10]
The critic from The Age thought it was much better than Anthony and Cleopatra.[11] The Bulletin thought the tragedy of the play "shrank to middle-class size; Hamlet was a G.P.S. boy angry and hurt by what had been going on at home during term" but felt "the production was sound enough—even, in places, admirable."[12]
It was repeated in 1961 and 1964.[13]