Performing Hamlet: Actors in the Modern Age

Hamlet is arguably the most famous play on the planet, and the greatest of all Shakespeare's works. Its rich story and complex leading role have provoked intense debate and myriad interpretations. To play such a uniquely multi-faceted character as Hamlet represents the supreme challenge for a young actor. Performing Hamlet contains Jonathan Croall's revealing in-depth interviews with five distinguished actors who have played the Prince this century: Jude Law: 'You get to speak possibly the most beautiful lines about humankind ever given to an actor.' Simon Russell Beale: 'Hamlet is a very hospitable role: it will take anything you throw at it.' David Tennant: 'No other part has been so satisfying. It was tough, but utterly compelling.' Maxine Peake: 'Hamlet was a way of accessing bits of me as an actress I've not been able to access before.' Adrian Lester: 'Working with Peter Brook on Hamlet changed me as an actor, and for the better.' The book benefits from the author's interviews with six leading directors of the play during these years: Greg Doran, Nicholas Hytner, Michael Grandage, John Caird, Sarah Frankcom and Simon Godwin. Many other productions are described, from those starring Michael Redgrave, Alec Guinness and Paul Scofield in the 1950s, to the performances of Benedict Cumberbatch, Andrew Scott and Paapa Essiedu in recent times. The volume also includes an updated text of the author's earlier book Hamlet Observed, and an account of actors' experiences of performing at Elsinore.

Table of Contents:
Contents List of Illustrations Acknowledgements Reflections Introduction Stage History 1 The Fifties: Michael Redgrave 1 – Alec Guinness – Richard Burton – Paul Scofield –Michael Redgrave 2 2 The Sixties: Jeremy Brett – Peter O'Toole – David Warner – Nicol Williamson 3 The Seventies: Alan Howard – Ian McKellen – Albert Finney – Ben Kingsley – Derek Jacobi – Frances de la Tour 4 The Eighties: Jonathan Pryce – Michael Pennington – Anton Lesser – Roger Rees – Kenneth Branagh 1 – Mark Rylance 1 – Daniel Day-Lewis 5 The Nineties: Kenneth Branagh 2 – Alan Cumming – Stephen Dillane – Ralph Fiennes – Alex Jennings – Paul Rhys 6 The Noughties: Mark Rylance 2 – Adrian Lester – Samuel West – Michael Maloney – Ben Whishaw – Jamie Ballard – David Tennant – Jude Law 7 The Teens: Rory Kinnear – Michael Sheen – Jonathan Slinger – Maxine Peake – Benedict Cumberbatch – Paapa Essiedu – Andrew Scott 8 Simon Russell Beale, Hamlet Observed: The National Theatre at Work 9 Hamlets at Elsinore Main Sources Further Reading Bibliography Index

About the Author :
Jonathan Croall is a theatre historian and biographer, and author of Performing King Lear: Gielgud to Russell Beale (The Arden Shakespeare, 2016), John Gielgud: Matinee Idol to Movie Star (Bloomsbury Methuen Drama, 2011) and Buzz Buzz! Playwrights, Actors and Directors at the National Theatre (Methuen Drama, 2008).

Review :
In Performing Hamlet Croall gives a glimpse into preparing and performing the role of Hamlet … Croall's examination is not purely academic: he enriches it with interviews of five actors and six directors engaged in productions of Hamlet. This makes the text much more appealing and applicable to the modern actor/director. Chapter 9 offers an extensive “day in the life” look at the 2000 National Theatre production with Simon Russell Beale as Hamlet. This chapter helps convey the fast-paced life of the professional actor in preparation, performance, and touring … This is a solid and fresh study for actors/directors and those researching the production history of Hamlet. Summing Up: Recommended. An extremely impressive work which will be of great interest not only to actors and directors tackling this most demanding of plays but also to people studying Hamlet as a work of literature. This absorbing study embraces an extraordinary range of directorial and acting approaches to the Himalayan challenges offered by the play. As might be expected in the light of his magisterial biographies of John Gielgud and Sybil Thorndike, Croall's account of the phenomenon that is the play is superbly researched. It is hard to do justice to such a rich array of viewpoints. I'm so glad to see such a detailed analysis of the work Simon Russell Beale and I did together. The book looks very handsome and has been much admired. I had a wonderful time reading the book. All the chapters are fascinating. 'Tracking more than 70 years of a range of actors tackling one of the biggest roles in theatre, Jonathan Croall's insightful Performing Hamlet....is a look often not just behind the scenes, but deeper than that. A reflection of the cost, and the catalytic energy, making theatre and performances takes on those who have dedicated their lives to it. And that is what I go to theatre books for.'