Duffy - Mercy

I used to think that everyone was an actor, that everyone could carry out a simple role in a drama. (We're not all Peter O'Tooles and Meryl Streeps.) However, I've learned today that acting doesn't come naturally to everyone.


I'm not just talking about the whole self-conscious issue. I'm talking about those logic-orientated, scientifically wired minds - there are steps to everything, and always a right answer to everything. In drama, as we thespians know, there are no right or wrongs in interpreting a role.


Let's talk about an actor's nightmare role - Hamlet.



One of the best known actors who's portrayed Prince Hamlet, Edwin Booth (brother to Lincoln's assassin, incidentally), portrayed the ill-fated son of Denmark as a quiet, thoughtful, sensitive man. His portrayal is considered one of the best in the history of theatre.
Edwin Booth as Hamlet, c. 1870
(source: Wikipedia)



In a more recent production, Ed Stoppard (son of Shakespeare in Love writer and famed playwright Tom Stoppard) played the Prince Denmark as, what I perceived from the reviews, a little indecisive (perhaps because Stoppard's Hamlet was younger) and fast-talking (not in the John Leguizamo way) with just the right touch of madness.

Ed Stoppard as Hamlet
(source: indielondon.com)





Hundreds of actors from Richard Burbage (original Hamlet) to David Tennant (current Hamlet on the West End) have portrayed Hamlet, and they've all done it differently. They did it as their "actory sense" told them to. There's no logic in acting besides the fact that you have to logically think how your character would react in that situation. However, unlike most "logical issues", there's no right and wrong to that one.