JUDE Law and David Tennant have both recently taken up the famous mantle, but when Hamlet comes to Westcliff next week it will be a show with a difference.

Pioneering theatre group Icarus will put their own spin on Shakespeare’s most universal work when it is staged at the Palace Theatre.

“We’re trying to create an engaging, interesting and fun production of a play that is done horrifically badly so often,” says director Max Lewendel.

“Hamlet is often very passive and unable to do anything, but we’re trying to do the opposite of that.

“Hamlet is caught between two extreme choices – should he kill the king or himself? Nothing could be more emotionally charged than that question.”

Productions of Hamlet inspire fierce loyalties to particular interpretations of the iconic role. Lewendel’s version includes an ensemble cast who help to communicate ideas through physical theatre.

Although he keeps the traditional setting of Denmark in 1601, there is a contemporary twist.

He explains: “We’ve cast Horatio, usually played by a man, as a woman to experiment with how it would work for a woman to be educated along with the men at that time.”

Lewendel believes contemporary examination of the text and the physical interpretation means the production is more accessible.

Hamlet, Palace Theatre, London Road, Westcliff.

£16 7.30pm.

Thursday, Nov 18, and Friday Nov 19 Friday, 10.30am.

01702 351135