Benedict Cumberbatch in 'Hamlet'

True to his words, most actors play Hamlet as depressed, distracted, and distraught by the terrible, lonely burden of avenging a father’s murder.

So you’ll be surprised to hear that, though there’s plenty of method, there’s very little madness in Benedict Cumberbatch’s much anticipated interpretation of the immortal role. In fact, he might be the clearest, most rational and logical Hamlet I’ve ever seen. You could say that Cumberbatch has applied the detective skills he’s learned from his role as Sherlock Holmes to decipher the self-doubting Dane.

The wildly popular 39-year-old British actor has achieved rock star status for his flamboyant appearance as Conan Doyle’s sleuth in the BBC TV series, as well as his moving Alan Turing in The Imitation Game, a 2014 film, and his flashy Frankenstein at the Royal National Theatre in 2011. Indeed, Cumberbatch’s Hamlet has been the most anticipated performance of the season. This summer, tickets to the production at the Barbican Centre in London sold out before the three-month run even began, and immediate plans were made to broadcast a live performance around the world.

Justified hype

The hype is justified. Cumberbatch is a beacon of light in a dizzying, distracting production. He’s clear-eyed, energetic, self-reliant, decisive, and always in control, even when feigning madness — a radical departure from how the role is usually interpreted. There’s so much going on around him that his actor instincts tell him to keep it real and keep it moving.

Understandably, director Lyndsey Turner has felt the pressure to make this Hamlet special, so she’s thrown a lot of innovative ideas at the production. Some work, while others don’t. She’s set the play in the vast hall of a cavernous castle and directed the action at breakneck speed (the two-hour-long Act I whirls by, and I never checked my watch once). At the act’s close, when Claudius announces his intent to kill his stepson, a huge gust of wind blows onto the stage, bringing with it a ton of rubble that foreshadows the fall of the house of Hamlet.

It’s a stunning coup de théâtre, but other directorial choices are disorienting, like her decision to relocate some of the all-important soliloquies to moments in the play other than where Shakespeare placed them and to give them a surrealistic context. Turner has Cumberbatch leap on a banquet table to deliver the first soliloquy (“O that this too too solid flesh would melt”), spotlighting him and fading on the ensemble, who exit in slow motion. Similarly, she spotlights Cumberbatch in the third soliloquy (“What a rogue and peasant slave am I”), while around him the players continue their rehearsal in the dark. These showy, stylized choices tend to stall the fine momentum that she’s established.

“To be” too early

Turner’s most jarring and controversial choice was to move Hamlet’s famous “To be or not to be” soliloquy to the opening of the play. Thankfully, she changed her mind in previews and staged it a bit later, though still not in its original position. It is placed too early to for it to have its full, cumulative impact. Some of the eclectic costumes are needlessly distracting, such as Cumberbatch’s kitschy, period-style doublet marked “King” across the back in graffiti-style letters.

There are strong performances in the supporting roles. Ciarán Hinds is a cunning Claudius and Jim Norton plays an appropriately pompous Polonius. Anastasia Hille offers a vulnerable, remorseful Gertrude. As for poor Ophelia, however, Sian Brooke has been directed to play insanity from the very first scene, and her performance is uniformly overwrought. Mercifully, Turner gives her a powerful final exit, when she slowly and silently walks through the pile of rubble to her doom.

There are a few humorous touches, as in the scene when Hamlet dresses up as a toy soldier in front of a makeshift cardboard castle and “plays mad” before the bumbling Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.

There’s also an overeager Horatio (Leo Bill), sporting a plaid shirt and a bulky backpack as he follows Hamlet around the halls.

A game-changing Hamlet

In the end, though, it’s Cumberbatch’s show. Over the years, we’ve been treated to an impressive spectrum of Hamlets. There have been gallant ones (Kenneth Branagh), angry ones (Richard Burton), brooding ones (Laurence Olivier), brainy ones (Campbell Scott), vulnerable ones (Ethan Hawke), rebellious ones (Ben Whishaw), charismatic ones (David Tennant), elegant ones (Kevin Kline), and even macho ones (Mel Gibson).

And now, we have a game-changing one. I’ve never seen a Hamlet as together and ultimately appealing as Benedict Cumberbatch. “What a piece of work is a man, how noble in reason, how infinite in faculty. . . .”