Since Shakespeare wrote HAMLET, arguably his finest play, over 400 years ago, it has been THE role that so many actors have aspired to play. Often leaving it to when they are at the peak of their career and feel they have the weight and substance to undertake it.  Looking back through the play’s history, and you notice that the one thing that shines through is that every actor wants to put their personal spin on the Prince, and they are aided and abetted by directors who also want to re-interpret the text.

For example in 1911, in Japan,  Shoyo Tsubouchi translated Hamlet and produced a performance, blending Shingeki (“new drama”) and Kabuki styles. About the same time Constantin Stanislavsk  of Moscow Art Theatre one of the 20th Century’ most influential theatre practitioners, hoped to prove that his recently developed ‘system’ for producing internally justified, realistic acting could meet the formal demands of a classic play.  John Barrymore introduced Freudian overtones into the closet scene and mad scene of his landmark 1922 production in New York. In 1937, Tyrone Guthrie directed Olivier in a Hamlet at the Old Vic based on psychoanalyst Ernest Jones‘ “Oedipus complex” theory of Hamlet’s behaviour. 

The list is literally endless,  but the one that stands out in our mrmory is that of Ian Charleson  who performed Hamlet from 9 October to 13 November 1989, in Richard Eyre‘s production at the Olivier Theatre,  Seriously ill from AIDS at the time, Charleson died seven weeks after his last performance. Fellow actor and friend, Sir Ian McKellen, said that Charleson played Hamlet so well it was as if he had rehearsed the role all his life, and the performance garnered other major accolades as well, some even calling it the definitive Hamlet performance.

Now very appropriately during Trans Awareness Week, it has just been announced that Eddie Suzy Izzard will be playing HAMLET in LA on the next stop of their Tour.  To say their performance is unique is an understatement as he PLAYS ALL 37 PARTS in the drama.  Whilst we are applauding them for this undertaking (They are THE Eddie Suzy Izzard after all), some of the more ‘serious critics’ have been less than kind. 

But we agree with this one viewpoint we came across: Will the reviews affect Izzard? I doubt it. If there is one thing Izzard seems to have it’s bulletproof determination. Whether its performing stand-up in a foreign language, running countless marathons or trying to be selected as a Labour candidate, Izzard just keeps pushing through. Bad press is not going to stop Izzard.