WHEN I studied Hamlet at school, I had the usual visions of it being set in the remote mountains and forests of Scandinavia.

Gangland Glasgow I did not.

This is where Scottish theatre company Rapture has set Shakespeare’s most famous play, which is running at Greenwich Theatre until Saturday.

Shakespeare’s Denmark has become the Denmark Corporation, a modern day organisation run by a Glaswegian gangster family.

The characters are dressed like the cast of the Sopranos, with the women boasting outlandish outfits undergoing more wardrobe changes than Lady Gaga.

At the start of the play the headline on a newspaper billboard reports the death of a Godfather, as does a radio bulletin, which is played throughout the performance to update the modern story outside of Shakespeare’s script.

Interestingly, an extract of Barack Obama announcing troop deployment is played to presumably foreshadow the invasion of Norway’s Fortinbras at the end of the play.

Although only those with a knowledge of the story can guess at that, as the role of the Norwegian prince is omitted.

Having also studied Tom Stoppard’s spin-off Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, I was left wondering where Guildenstern was, as perhaps due to cast shortages, only Rosencrantz turned up.

However the play remained true to the majority of Shakespeare’s script, although the play’s modernisation made for a few fleeting laughs.

At times the performance plunges from the sublime into the ridiculous, with Hamlet’s signature soliloquy To Be Or Not To Be, performed as the character played by Grant O’Rourke strolls around a pool table.

Shakespearian language can be hard to follow at the best of times, but in thick Glasgow drawl it verges on the incomprehensible.

As a play of strong emotion with frequent outbursts, Rapture’s production has a bit too much saliva and not enough acting.

Anyone can shout or scream their head off.

But as the play limped to its climax where everyone dies, I was left preferring the traditional Elizabethan version.

Hamlet. Greenwich Theatre, Crooms Hill, Greenwich. Until Saturday. 020 8858 7755.