Folk music and Shakespearean tragedy don’t normally hand-in-hand but Folksy Theatre’s take on Hamlet is a fresh adaptation that managed to transport us from a blazing hot Brighton to a chilly Denmark.

Strangely, for a troupe that emphasised its affinity with folk music, the music interludes don’t add greatly to the play.

It was particularly strange to hear that summer was coming in, just before the scene switches to a bitterly cold cast.

The only times the music did work, were in the plaintive songs delivered by Lee Cameron’s touching Ophelia.

However, the team of just six actors quickly made us forget the summery settings and, courtesy of director Philippa Tomlin, provided a fast-moving take on Shakespeare’s greatest tragedy.

Naturally, there are some cuts – Fortinbras’s martial activities get little mention, for example. Sometimes the frenetic speed meant lines were a bit gabbled, but it was mainly straightforward retelling.

When plays are truncated like this, it can get harder to follow the plot unless you know the play but my daughter, a Hamlet first-timer, easily kept up with the action.

The bucolic open air theatre was a strange setting for one of the world’s first Nordic psychological drama but it worked.

Three Stars