Hamlet is by far the cleverest of Shakespeare’s characters — a student prince whose formidable intellect is instrumental in his downfall. Endlessly weighing the pros and cons of every action, he fatally delays revenge on his fratricide uncle Claudius. The result is a bloodbath in which he and many others perish. Rory Kinnear, a Balliol English graduate, brings his own considerable intelligence to his portrayal of the tortured hero. A much-praised feature of the National Theatre’s winter programme, director Nicholas Hytner’s modern-day take on the tragedy is on a short tour before returning for final performances on the South Bank from April 13.

As I noted last October, reviewing Kinnear’s performance at the Olivier Theatre, he presents us with a likable lad equipped with a good sense of humour. It is easy to see his appeal for the cruelly abandoned Ophelia, who is now more sympathetically presented by Ruth Negga than she had been earlier in the run, and for his fiercely loyal friend Horatio (Giles Terera).

Nerdily attired in hoodie jacket, T-shirt and track-suit bottoms, he is obviously now far removed in style and attitude from his old college pals Rosencrantz (Ferdinand Kingsley) and Guildenstern (Prasanna Puwanarajah). Gilbert and George-like in their snappy suits, they slip easily into their new role of spying on him for uncle Claudius, joining the sinister figures, ear-pieces in place, lurking in the dark shadows of the new king’s frightening court.

We are uncomfortably thrust into an Elsinore run as bureaucratic tyranny, all clipboards, cameras and bugging devices. “You don’t need to tell us what Lord Hamlet said,” Polonius (David Calder) tells his daughter Ophelia. “We heard it all.” The girl visibly winces, but is unsurprised.

Patrick Malahide’s Claudius, as with so many modern-day politicians, is a smooth operator. He is seen at his craftiest as he works on Laertes (Alex Lanipekun) to revenge himself on Hamlet for his accidental slaying of his father, Polonius. Behind the silky words, though, can be detected the soul of a thug.

Like many before her in the role of Hamlet’s bed-switching mother Gertrude, Clare Higgins shows her seeking solace for her guilt in the bottle. Her fondness for booze plays particularly well in the corpse-strewn climax to the drama when she reaches woozily for the glass containing the poison her husband intended for Hamlet.

This remains a gripping, hugely successful production. The spooky music and sound (Alex Baranowski and Paul Groothuis) at the appearances of the Ghost of the late King (James Laurenson) add greatly to the atmosphere of menace.

The lines are beautifully spoken across the cast; that they sound marginally less compelling than they did at the Olivier is a function of Milton Keynes Theatre’s mushier acoustic.

Until Saturday. For tickets call the box office on 0844 871 7652 or go to the website, (www.ambassadortickets.com/miltonkeynes).