Shakespeare Magazine 14
Hamlet is the theme of Shakespeare Magazine Issue 14, with each and every article devoted to the fictional Prince of Denmark and the play that bears his name. Rhodri Lewis asks “How Old is Hamlet?” while Samira Ahmed wonders “Why do Women Love Hamlet?” and we review recent productions of the play starring Tom Hiddleston and Andrew Scott. There's a set report from the making of Daisy Ridley's Ophelia movie and a visit to Hamlet's historic home, Kronborg Castle. We also delve deep into the Victorian Illustrated Shakespeare Archive's Hamlet collection, while Gyles Brandreth tells us about his family production of the play, and Alice Barclay recounts how she taught a group of amateur actors to become Hamlet.
Hamlet is the theme of Shakespeare Magazine Issue 14, with each and every article devoted to the fictional Prince of Denmark and the play that bears his name. Rhodri Lewis asks “How Old is Hamlet?” while Samira Ahmed wonders “Why do Women Love Hamlet?” and we review recent productions of the play starring Tom Hiddleston and Andrew Scott. There's a set report from the making of Daisy Ridley's Ophelia movie and a visit to Hamlet's historic home, Kronborg Castle. We also delve deep into the Victorian Illustrated Shakespeare Archive's Hamlet collection, while Gyles Brandreth tells us about his family production of the play, and Alice Barclay recounts how she taught a group of amateur actors to become Hamlet.
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Samira Ahmed<br />
Andrew Scott/Juliet Stevenson Almeida/West End<br />
production last year was how she was finally in a<br />
happy marriage and having wonderful sex for the<br />
first time with a considerate lover. I did discuss this<br />
with Juliet Stevenson, so I know I’m right. And<br />
here’s Hamlet, totally self-absorbed and unable<br />
to cope with the idea that she has basically finally<br />
found happiness with another man. Actress Nicola<br />
Walker told me Sarah Phelps has written a version<br />
of Hamlet from Gertrude’s point of view. Perhaps<br />
we need more of that, in the way that Jean Rhys’<br />
Wide Sargasso Sea was able to give Bertha’s story<br />
and challenge Jane Eyre.<br />
I don’t have a problem with women playing<br />
Hamlet. We need to take ownership of the right to<br />
be the angst-ridden hero/ine who matters, and it<br />
emphasises the feminine aspects of the character –<br />
but I think it changes everything. Under patriarchy<br />
a female Hamlet is such a different being. I find<br />
it interesting that Janet Suzman – a very famous<br />
Ophelia opposite David Warner – wrote a book,<br />
Not Hamlet, frustrated by the lack of such a part<br />
for women, but is insistently against women<br />
playing those male roles.<br />
The thing I can’t fathom is Hamlet being 30.<br />
That makes no sense, for him as a young romantic<br />
hero. That seems practically middle-aged for<br />
<strong>Shakespeare</strong>’s age, though more palatable today in<br />
the age of eternal middle youth.<br />
But I would say Hamlet can still grip your<br />
heart the way he did when I was a young girl. The<br />
Paapa Essiedu RSC Hamlet moved me more than<br />
any for years, for the tears in his eyes as he faces his<br />
death at the end, suddenly realising how, despite<br />
all his clever plotting, he was a naive young man,<br />
who could not conceive of the depth of the adult<br />
wickedness of his Uncle and his courtiers. For all<br />
his faults, he is a noble soul.<br />
<br />
<br />
36 shakespeare magazine
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