JOHN Topping is to direct York Shakespeare Project’s 2013 production of Hamlet.

To do so, the freelance theatre and opera director must travel the hour’s journey from Barnard Castle, where he settled after marrying at 60, having lived in London and Carlisle in his long career as a university performing arts lecturer and head of department.

“Why direct Hamlet?” he mulls over the question. “Because it’s unarguably one of the greatest plays in the English language and arguably the greatest,” he says.

“There’s the language, and the wide range of possibilities that the text offers as it must be one of the most discussed plays in the English language. ‘To be or not to be’ has ten sides of notes in the Arden edition, so where do you start?!

“One big reason to direct it must be a passion for Shakespeare. An actor friend of mine put it beautifully, saying, ‘You’re normally in the Sahara desert, crying out for water, and then you get Shakespeare and it’s water with bells on!”

John comes up with two further reasons for wanting to direct Hamlet. “It’s exciting as a director that the characters are almost mythic archetypes, so it gives anyone working on Shakespeare’s text the chance to create their Hamlet, their Laertes, their Ophelia…,” he says.

“It’s also just a really good play. When I was studying English Literature at university – at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge – there was this consensus thinking that Hamlet was a problem play and badly structured, but that’s nonsense. It’s probably the greatest revenge tragedy on the subject of bereavement – with three revenges going on in the play – written at a time when such plays were very in vogue.”

John first directed Hamlet for Bedfordshire Youth Theatre in 1984 with a company of 18 to 25 year olds, “which meant half the actors were of the right age as in a lot of senses it’s a younger generation play with the older generation being blaggards”.

John was in his early 30s at the time; he is 63 now. Does that alter his own perspective on the play?

“That’s a bit like a job interview question. I don’t think your age makes a difference. You’re either a good director or you’re not, but hopefully you have more experience and certainly more experience in directing Shakespeare and seeing Shakespeare performances, which is an advantage,” he says.

“You’re aware of the pitfalls from previous productions – both my own and other people’s.

“Everyone will have seen Hamlet, so this is just someone else’s shot at it. It’s always interesting, like a Chekhov production.”

While Hamlet remains a play for all times, John’s production for YSP will “focus specifically on York in 2013” and his significantly reduced version will cut approximately a third of the original text.

“The director is an interpretative artist, not an original artist, so you have to interpret the play for your times and all great plays have different resonances in different times.

“I think it’s fair to say it will be staged in a stylised, imaginative, historical world with a contemporary feel in the costuming: black and red, leather and steel will predominate. In other words, it will not be set in 2013, or in 1599, when it was written.”

Finally, John, what sort Of Hamlet will you be looking to cast?

“I’ll give you a clever answer,” he says. “The one that Shakespeare wrote. I will know my Hamlet when I see him.”

York Shakespeare Project’s Hamlet will run from July 18 to August 3 at St Martin-cum-Gregory Church, Micklegate, York. If you have any questions about the production, write to info@yorkshakespeareproject.org