We can talk about Hamlet being mad. But nobody likes to talk about mental illness today. Yet depression affects one in five adults in the UK, and 90% of sufferers say they have been stigmatized and discriminated against as a result. So much for all the silence.

Shakespeare writes lucidly and movingly about madness most powerfully in 'King Lear' and 'Hamlet'. Ruby Wax, a long-time sufferer of depression, says that Hamlet’s line ‘O that this too too solid flesh would melt/Thaw and resolve itself into a dew’, has got to be one of the most accurate descriptions of depression ever heard. “If a shrink heard you say that he’d have you on meds in seconds”.

The current RSC production of ‘Hamlet’ at Stratford-upon-Avon seems to have Jonathan Slinger’s Hamlet going down the mad route – he spends most of the play in a strait jacket. But in his hands, Hamlet is a strong, insightful, compassionate, empathetic and incredibly 'sane' man.

Most of the action is set in a 1950s-style fencing hall, a bit shabby, a bit working-mans’ club. Hamlet, pre strait-jacket days, turns up in a faded suit and battered suitcase, looking like a middle-manager on his way for a drubbing by head office because he hasn’t reached his sales targets. The usurping Claudius is all sharp-suit and sales-person-of-the-month, Queen Gertrude a stylish-but-pushing-on nightclub singer, and everybody else is wearing jumpers – Brabantio in thick cardy, Rosencrantz in heavy fleece and Ophelia, poignantly gauche in thick tights and chunky Fair Isle knit. Even Hamlet himself loses the strait jacket for an Aran jumper by the end of the play.

Strong passions lead him to ‘melancoly’, he panders to the idea of himself as mentally unstable as he plans to avenge his father’s death. To the characters on stage he is clearly mad – to the audience, his reactions to a world where he grapples with death and loss, corruption and greed, seem quite normal. What are the situations that would lead any of us into ‘madness’? Could we step over that line?

But it’s a play of two halves. The first part is incredibly strong, the powerful balance is unfortunately not sustained through the highly theatrical second half - though the body count and impassioned speeches render 'balance' difficult. But it filled me with joy and admiration for the inspiring passion of theatre - it made me feel like I wanted to go straight out and book myself tickets for another play. It made me think - about life as much as death - and not just life, but living - and how we live. How we see others and the constraints we place on them - and on ourselves. About what could push us over the edge into ‘melancoly’?

It made me ask questions, it gave me pause for thought and it made me smile. It was a great evening out even if I didn't enjoy the second part as much as the first. It did everything that good theatre should and it reminded me how amazing good theatre can be.

Where to book

Hamlet runs at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon until September 28 2013; phone 0844 800 1110 or visit www.rsc.org.uk to book

Staying in Stratford?

Read our review of Billesley Manor hotel, complete with its own Shakespearian connections