Hamlet & Me (Part III)

I have this poster.

December 1990, the school of theater had arranged a tour of London and Stratford. We got to see Royal Shakespeare performances of King Lear, Love’s Labour’s Lost, Much Ado About Nothing, and Chekhov’s The Seagull.

I was still pretty jet-lagged when we rolled into the Royal Shakespeare Theatre for Lear, and literally pinched myself through the show to stay awake. The most compelling reformer was He Who Played Edmund (that’s a hint, by the way). In the first scene, Edmund says little, but gracefully endures the verbal bullets cast his way by other for his “illegitimate” birth.

When all have gone, this Edmund took his position, center stage, one foot forward, and delivered the most cutting and hilarious rendition of the “Bastard” speech I have ever heard, feet planted, hands at his sides, he just said it. His voice, his face, and the text doing all the work.

This was Ralph Fiennes, twenty-eight years old, and three years from Schindler’s List and international acclaim.

The next day he was Berowne in Love’s Labour’s. For the “Love’s Whip” speech he did the same thing as with Edmund's soliloquy, he just said it, standing there. And I thought, "Oh, this is his bit. He does this.” For some reason, that left the twenty-two year me unimpressed.

Then came Schindler’s List, and Quiz Show, and then he performed Hamlet at the Belasco Theater on Broadway in 1995, where it was quite the palpable hit. And we went to see it!

Once more, I was seated in the very back row of a theater to see a live production of Hamlet. After being subjected to his uncle’s condescension and his mother’s entreaties, the Prince is left alone on stage, and recites “O, that this too, too solid flesh would melt …”

Fiennes stood, one foot forward, hands at his side, and just said it.

I leaned over to my girlfriend and whispered knowingly, “He does this."

Ralph Fiennes as Hamlet
Belasco Theatre, 1995
Photo: Mark Thompson

Of course, he did so much more, too. Hamlet has several soliloquies and monologues, each of which move the plot forward and track the progression of his psyche throughout the play. “Too, too solid flesh” is the rock bottom; if he does have a suicide soliloquy it is this, and not “To be or not to be.” That first speech mentions “self-slaughter” as a viable (if damnable) option. If anything, “To be …” is an argument against entropy.

Regardless, Fiennes stood, for that one moment, and was on the move for the rest of the show. I recall in particular his delivering Hamlet’s advice to the players as he worked with them to set up chairs for the performance. Kinetic, engaged – a participant.

I stood, too, during the curtain call. I even hollered “Bravo!” which is slightly embarrassing to recall. Was it that good? I think he was, he was certainly the best Hamlet I had seen to that date, which included GLT’s 1989 production, Zeffirelli's 1990 film, and another local production in 1991, the inaugural offering from the Cleveland Theater Company, an entirely unabridged production directed by Tom Fulton and featuring every Equity actor in town.

Ralph Fiennes won a Tony Award for Best Actor for playing Hamlet in 1995. The next year would provide us a high-profile, star-studded film adaptation about which I have so many thoughts.

To be continued.