Now not being a Russian speaker I was a bit trepidatious about tackling this with just the subtitles. Well I needn’t have feared as a basic knowledge of the original Shakespearean tragedy is all that is required to underpin this experience as I sat back and savoured this exquisitely dark, brooding and melancholy story of betrayal, duplicity and madness - written as only the bard could and quite possibly delivered as only the Soviets could. We start in the best place, the oppressive and formidable fortress of Elsinore (well, Ivangorod, actually) with it’s thick, high walls and imposing…