Such a reading of the play may well have been influenced by the last Hamlet that Nunn was associated with, when he was artistic director of the RSC.
Buzz Goodbody was directing it and committed suicide the day after the dress rehearsal. The experience affected Nunn deeply. 'It took me several years before I felt I could return to the play,' he admits.
Nunn has always been a contentious figure, provoking inverse snobbery for bucking the thinking that working in the theatre should be synonymous with abject poverty - he made millions from a string of musicals in the 1980s - while his love for the medium has prompted criticism among those who feel that it's a perverse squandering of his prodigious directing talents.
He maintains that contrasting media fuel each other creatively and that his dream situation is an ensemble cast such as the one he established at the National, when the same actors performed Anything Goes and Love's Labour's Lost in tandem.
As for Nunn himself, both his admirers and his critics would maintain he is at his best when directing Shakespeare. It's surely significant that he should still be so keen to do so from such a youthful perspective.
Hamlet, tonight until Jul 31, Old Vic, The Cut SE1, Mon to Thu 7pm, Fri and Sat 7.30pm, Wed and Sat mats 2pm, £7.50 to £37.50. Tel: 020 7369 1722. Tube: Waterloo
