Is it (1) a tour de force, (2) a stunt or (3) a tour de force stunt? I’m going with (3). The “it” is William Shakespeare’s Hamlet that Eddie Izzard — who uses the pronouns she/her and dresses accordingly — is now playing extremely well in a solo presentation, well directed by Selina Cadell on a stunningly simple Tom Piper set that Tyler Elich lights ingeniously.
Izzard isn’t the first to tackle not only Hamlet but also Claudius, Gertrude, Ophelia, Laertes, Polonius, Horatio, the deceased elder Claudius, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, Osric, and the rest. I know of two who’ve taken on the assignment: Alan Cumming was all the dramatic personae in 2015; the English-Canadian actor Raoul Bhaneja has also been the entire Hamlet cast. There may be others, likely are.
Neither is Izzard the first Hamlet using she/her pronouns. She has predecessors including none others than Sarah Bernhardt, Eva Le Gallienne, Judith Anderson, and, perhaps the most recent one-person Hamlet in Manhattan, Diane Venora in 1983.
[Read Sandy MacDonald’s ★★☆☆☆ review here.]
Yet for obvious reasons, Izzard is the first taking on the classic tragic hero in this fashion. As for the fashion in which she’s taking it on, costumers Piper and Libby da Costa have picked out a form-fitting blazer with just a glimpse of a lacy undergarment, tights, and low-rise black boots. There’s no credit for make-up, though Izzard wears lipstick resembling the fire-and-ice Revlon shade Dorian Leigh and Suzy Parker used to advertise. She displays long fingernails in the same shade.
Throughout, Izzard switches from one character to the next with admirable dexterity — pacing the stage and the auditorium as actors did at Shakespeare’s Globe then and still do now. Director Cadell and the solo player have figured out ways to differentiate the figures, including, perhaps obviously, speech patterns and postures. The most amusing choice involves Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. When they appear, Izzard curves her arms as if embracing them, then uses her hands to indicate them uttering their inanities. When Hamlet and Horatio encounter the gravedigger, he’s got a within-the-sound-of-Bow-bells accent.
Needless to say, actors since the first Hamlet in 1600 or 1601 have had the soliloquies to themselves, Hamlet’s “to be or not to be?” being the most celebrated. Indeed, it’s not unusual for those speaking that speech trippingly on the tongue to be judged all but solely on its interpretation, its content an internal debate about the pluses and minuses of choosing to live or die.
Izzard is lucid and moving through that soliloquy and the others, during which Hamlet, when not considering suicide, often chastises himself for his inability to act on revenging his father’s murder. If there is one drawback to Izzard’s approach, it’s the way she sometimes uses her hands. The problem is far from constant, only occurring intermittently. When it does, however, a suddenly “lady-like” Hamlet emerges, surely never Shakespeare’s intention.
Only once does Cadell falter in her staging. Fight director J. Allen Suddeth is implicated here, too, as may be movement director Didi Hopkins. The Hamlet-Laertes fight to the poisoned finish — fought without props — is the sequence. (There are no props at all, start to finish.) Cadell and Suddeth haven’t found a convincing way to show the intense thrust and parry. The look is more as if the duelists are actually boxers who’ve lost all stratagems and are merely pushing each other into the ropes.
Incidentally, the marvelous gift of classics is that no matter how often they’re seen, there’s always something new — or somethings new — to think about. This time around, I started fixing on Hamlet’s repeatedly criticizing himself for not taking action sooner. Yes, he frequently hunkers in his own thoughts, but at other times he’s quite active. Stabbing Polonius through the arras is only the most obvious example.
It occurred to me that it might have been playwright Shakespeare’s notion to prompt disagreement between an observer’s assessment of Hamlet’s behavior and Hamlet’s assessment. Just a thought, but if Hamlet is forever thinking, why not those watching him while he watches himself. That is the reason for theater, isn’t it—to think, to form opinions?
A few final questions about a production trimmed but not extensively by Mark Izzard: Might Eddie Izzard’s impressive achievement now as well as Cumming’s nine years back trigger a trend? For over four centuries, actors (male and females) have sought to prove themselves by putting on some version of Hamlet’s doublet. Is it possible that in the future actors will decide that electrifying as Hamlet only isn’t sufficient? Will playing Hamlet and everyone else become the supreme acting test?
Eddie Izzard Performs Shakespeare’s Hamlet opened February 11, 2024, at Greenwich House Theater and runs through March 16. The production will then move to the Orpheum Theatre, opening March 19 and running through April 14. Tickets and information: eddieizzardhamlet.com
