All the world’s a stage for Queen Camilla, who attended a star-studded event at London’s Grosvenor House Hotel on Tuesday night as part of the 400.he-Anniversary celebrations of Shakespeare’s First Folio. His Majesty had originally planned to enjoy this Valentine’s Day trip with the King; instead, luminaries like Dame Judi Dench offered their best wishes for his speedy recovery. Robert Lindsay dedicated his performance of Cole Porter’s Brush Your Shakespeare to the royal couple, saying it was “a perfect day to celebrate the King’s love for Shakespeare and indeed the love between the King and Queen”.
It was especially shameful that the King missed this opportunity to pay tribute to the Bard. In 2016, the then-Prince Charles happily joined acting royalty, including Dench and Sir Ian McKellen, to perform Hamlet’s famous “To be or not to be” monologue during the RSC’s Shakespeare Live premiere. But the Queen ably proved that the show must go on, and Lindsay was duly photographed with some of our favorite past Hamlets, including Simon Russell Beale, Tom Courteney, Samuel West and Alex Jennings.
Should King William recreate this image during his own reign, who might be his sweet princes? Here are the 10 Hamlets most likely to join his future court.
Andrew Scott
The Irish actor was rightly nominated for an Olivier for his heartbreaking portrayal of the Prince of Denmark in Robert Icke’s flamboyant modern dress staging at the Almeida Theater in 2017. Icke gave us Elsinore, a paranoid surveillance state (the king’s ghost is spied on by CCTV) filled with political power brokers who have little place in the Succession.
But it’s not so much the high concept as Scott’s painfully weak performance that lingers in the memory. You expected the wit and volatile twists and turns from his final stint as Moriarty, but you didn’t expect the despairing grief. This was a Hamlet that elegantly balanced head and heart.
Benedict Cumberbatch
From Moriarty to Sherlock – and thanks to Cumberbatch’s immense popularity as the genius detective, Hamlet sold out at the Barbican in record time in 2015. Lyndsey Turner’s moody production divided opinion, thanks to her cutting and changing of text and busy design that tended to overshadow the actors.
But Cumberbatch emerged victorious. He amply rewarded his enthusiastic fans (many of whom were new to Shakespeare) with crystal clear poetic speech that spilled into a seemingly stream of consciousness. He also brought some Sherlockian charisma and wry ruthlessness to the role, convincingly channeling his pain into violence in the play’s climactic scenes.
Rory Kinnear
The National Theatre’s then Artistic Director, Nicholas Hytner, directed Kinnear in the 2010 production at the massive Olivier venue. Hytner had actually reached this point before Icke by presenting the play as a police state; In this case, Kinnear’s initially sane Hamlet was first subdued and eventually provoked into outright rebellion.
This fascinating framework gave Kinnear plenty of room to manoeuvre, creating a duly powerful arc for his Hamlet, from a depressed loner to a blinkered nihilist poisoned and radicalized by a totalitarian regime. Memorably, he sang “To Be or Not to Be” between a world-weary puff of a cigarette.
David Tennant
In 2008, Tennant replaced the TARDIS with Stratford; He starred as Claudius in Gregory Doran’s RSC production, opposite science fiction icon Patrick Stewart. Was the resulting show out of this world? Many thought so, praising Doran’s subtly detailed and psychologically astute reading of the play.
At the center of this was Tennant’s indefatigable prince, physically dynamic (everything the Doctor ran through corridors did) but also mentally agile, and one of the funniest Hamlets on this list. This biting sarcastic humor and a truly wild “antique bent” kept the audience guessing throughout the exciting performance.
Ben Whishaw
We’re so used to Hamlet being played by established actors in their thirties or older (Ian McKellen even managed it at 82) that it was a shock when Trevor Nunn cast the then 23-year-old Whishaw, fresh from RADA. – In the 2004 Old Vic production. But his gamble was amply rewarded.
A gaunt and frail, sullen adolescent whose innocence is shattered by the death of his father and the subsequent disintegration of his family, Whishaw’s raw, youthful interpretation of the role allowed us to see Hamlet again; not as a royal or political schemer, but as a lost child. Many can relate.
Paapa Essiedu
Quite surprisingly, Essiedu (who was again notably 25) became the first black Hamlet in the RSC’s history when he took on the title role in Simon Godwin’s 2016 production. Godwin moved the action to a modern-day African nation ruled by a military dictator; pounding drums punctuated the fiery drama.
Essiedu made Hamlet, the graffiti artist who expresses his sense of alienation with large, Jean-Michel Basquiat-style canvases, a cocky, lovable, idealistic man who has to bear this terrible responsibility. Revenge first hardens him, then breaks him. It was an instant star-making performance.
Jude Law
We bought the romantic hero version of Hamlet from Hollywood leading actor Jude Law at the Donmar Warehouse in 2012. It was Michael Grandage who pulled him back onto this stylish but sadly gloomy stage (like you couldn’t see a thing) He took on the game that imprisoned his players.
Still, audiences were impressed by Law’s extremely intense reading. It gave Hamlet a visceral disgust at the moral decay in his rotten kingdom, and like most zealous tsars fighting against corruption, he saw this as his personal crusade to set things right – but this aim was tragically undermined by his self-harm. impulses.
Maxine Peak
What a great job for one man! But it’s not just the men who are making their mark with this huge role. Sarah Siddons was probably the first woman to play Hamlet in 1775; More recently, the powerful Peake starred in Sarah Frankcom’s production of Manchester Royal Exchange in 2014. With his close-cropped hair and blue suit, he had a vaguely androgynous quality, but his performance was extremely specific.
Cool and attentive, this Hamlet didn’t miss a trick. As the attacks on Elsinore increased, so did Peake’s fiery temper and furious emotional outbursts. He also gave Errol Flynn a run for his money with his accomplished sword swinging skills.
Cush Jumbo
Another standout piece of crossover casting was rising star Jumbo’s portrayal of the sweet prince at the Young Vic in 2021. Greg Hersov’s experimental but rather convoluted production, dominated by giant mirrored pillars surrounding the cast, was not to everyone’s taste.
However, Jumbo’s prowling, street-smart, visibly dangerous Hamlet – made more physically imposing by baggy men’s clothing – was a revelation. Never have the play’s reflections on toxic masculinity emerged more forcefully than when Hamlet sheds light on Ophelia and becomes bogged down in his own narcissism. What a brave performance; Not being afraid to go to dark, ugly places.
Tom Hiddleston
The most outstanding Hamlet on this list; Only a few lucky viewers were able to witness Hiddleston take on the role. He chose to donate the award to his alma mater, RADA, with a brief fundraising effort in 2017 directed by Kenneth Branagh, who had previously cast Hiddleston in Thor.
Hiddleston’s Hamlet was a cynical devil, perhaps inspired by the trickster Loki, but he also retained an arrogant nobility; his white-hot temper stemmed from both loss of status and loss of parents. Perhaps we can persuade this acclaimed Shakespearean to give a public reprise so more people can appreciate the method in his madness.