Castle Hedingham & Pantaloon’s Hamlet

It’s early August and summer in North Essex is well advanced, the cereal harvest is nearly complete, the Plum Growers of the neighbouring County of Kent are claiming a bumper season and the countryside is looking great. Meanwhile we visiting Kiwi tourists seek out entertainment, local pubs with own breweries, pretty thatched villages, timbered Guildhalls from the Middle Ages and plays about the Kingdom of Denmark, nothing rotten here!!

Thaxted Parish Church – St John the Baptist wth Our Lady & St Laurence ( and flight path to London Stansted)
Stunning Entrance and Doorway for short or stooping people
Half timbered Tudor and Georgian dwellings sit well together in Thaxted village
A lampost on the corner of a street!
Thatched Cottage Alleyways
Thaxted Guildhal built about 1460-75, Telephone Box now a library
2025 Pint of Beer Prices
Steak and Ale Pie – it tasted just as good as it looks

The Norman Castle – Keep , Moat (currently dry)& Ramparts at Hedingham , were built about 1140 by the then first Earl of Oxford, a Norman nobleman, on lands bestowed on him by William the Conqueror, (1066 and all that), to the victor the spoils! A Georgian house was added that is now lived in by his descendants, the whole premises are now a wedding or event venue including the setting for summertime Shakespearean plays.

Family Coat of Arms and visiting spider
Across the dry moat, the Norman Keep sits above the rampart
Heading across the bridge over the dry moat
Georgian family residence
The Norman Keep – external stairway leads to the Bar
Old and older steps up into the Keep and Bar
Keep interior
Keep bar interior

The Pantaloons Theatre Company has been performing for some 20 years, they say: – “We aim to recapture an aspect of Shakespeare’s drama which the modern naturalistic theatre has lost: the riotous energy of the clown. Hamlet tells us that the clowns in Shakespeare’s day spoke “more than is set down for them”, and we have found that tapping into this rich vein of anarchic humour can have a strangely moving and uplifting effect”.

Summer 2025, sees three Pantaloon Productions being performed across England- Hamlet, Mid Summer Nights Dream and Robin Hood. We saw Hamlet at Castle Hedingham but it was being performed on their tour from Yeovil in Somerset up to Sunderland, up in the north-east in Tyne and Wear.

And onto the play!! We had never seen Hamlet performed, but were pretty familiar with the storyline. This outdoor performance with the Norman Castle Keep as a backdrop, was definetly non traditional. There were only 4 performers for the many roles, one of whom was the “Producer” who introduced himself at the start, saying that he was “standing in” for an actor who was sick. The Producer apologised that he would be “reading his lines”, which he did with great theatrical verve and comedy.

There was a small stage with simple but effective “props”, and the actors interacted , wandered or ran around the audience seated at their picnic tables, as the performance progressed. At one stage they were chasing the ghost of the dead king through the audience. There was no doubt that each of the 4 actors were also at times anarchic clowns to their parts in the play.

At half time, the Producer announced the Interval and that it was a time, “ To Wee or Not to Wee”!! So we did!!

Three plays being toured across England in 2025
The cast tune up
Hamlets Uncle, the King presides, his wife who also plays Ophelia looks on and the Producer reads his lines – it worked super well.
Hamlets Uncle the King, now also plays the “gravedigger” and produces “Poor Yoric”
Hamlet on the left in pic, with Ophelia (aka her Mother), Uncle King mid stage

All the actors were superb and as evening came on, lights lit up the performance and as the temreatures cooled we added layers of clothing or blankets over knees .

The lady lead, playing Hamlet, was particularly good, as were all the “death scenes”. The sword fights had the accompaniment of small garden forks being scraped against each other, simulating the clash of weapons, most realistic sound effects. Live theatre can be wonderful, and this production was all of that. We shall certainly look out for future productions by the Pantaloons when we come back to England in the years ahead.