The Great Hamlets

According to RSC director Trevor Nunn, every year he received requests from actors (some of whom were quite hopeless, though he didn't drop any names) who wanted to come to Stratford to play Hamlet. What Nunn does in this documentary is take a small selection of actors who played what he thinks were great Hamlets and interviews them about how they got under Hamlet's skin and what they found there.

Nunn's "great" Hamlets include Laurence Olivier, John Gielgud, Nichol Williamson, Ben Kingsley . . . And, rather surprisingly for non-English speakers, Maximilian Schell and Vittorio Gassman. For a joker in the deck, Nunn chooses one actor who HASN'T (yet) played Hamlet, but it planning to: American Mandy Patinkin ("My name is Hamlet. You killed my father. Prepare to die.")

Some of the moments are shocking, for those who love good acting. Richard Burton's cold recitiation of some of Hamlet's lines was phenomenal. Burton also points out something usually not considered for we who aren't actors: the audience is a different animal every night and before proceeding with one's interpretation one must gauge what sort of animal they'll be.

Listening to those great actors offer their insights is lovely. Naturally, everyone has their own idea of Hamlet. Hamlet is a mirror, not only of his age, but every age where he's been played, while also reflecting the actor playing him.

As a writer, I do miss a writers' perspective. I wish Nunn had lined up a few notable Shakespeare-loving writers to toss in a tidbit. Why does Hamlet delay? Well, of course, in the original sources, Hamlet is scared for his own life and so plays mad to plan his vengeance in safety. In Shakespeare, he's not sure whether the ghost is a demon trying to pull the rug out from under his own soul. But a writer's answer is, and it must have crossed Shakespeare's mind, if Hamlet plunged at once into his revenge we wouldn't have much of a play. The thing has to be strung out somehow.

Of course, one thing I've always wondered is, what happens to Hamlet between the time when he pronounces "My thoughts be bloody or be nothing worth" and when he pops back up joking with the gravedigger (and the skull) and says, "there's a special providence in the fall of a sparrow." What did these great actors bring to the role to interpret Hamlet in these questionable moments, and how did actually being Hamlet change their own perceptions? We don't get answers to all these questions. But hearing those who actually "fight the bull" (from the old poem by Domingo Ortega) is fascinating. They've done something most of us will never do: mount a stage and actually recite some of the greatest lines ever penned, offering the world (or, at least, the nightly audience) Hamlet the way we see him.

Hamlet is one of the greatest plays (arguably the greatest) play in the English language and certainly the greatest role. It's also a long, exhausting journey for any stage actor night after night. There's no "ultimate" Hamlet, there's only individual preference for how he's portrayed. It's good to hear some of those given the opportunity to play Hamlet to talk about it. This documentary is a must for any Shakespeare lover.