Toronto Star, July 05, 2005
Handicapping Hamlet
By: Richard Ouzounian
The Shakespeare classic will likely be on the festival's 2006-07 playbill.
Five actors may share the title role. We evaluate the rumour mill favourites.
It's true that every actor wants to play the Prince of Denmark, but that doesn't mean they ought to do it.
If a theatre does five productions of Hamlet in one year, does the most famous quote from the play become "Ten be or not ten be, that is the question"?
That's just one of the problems which might be facing the Stratford Festival next season.
Although it hasn't been announced, reliable reports indicate Hamlet will be part of the festival's 2006-07 playbill.
That's the good news.
On the flip side comes the suggestion that three to five actors will be playing the role. (No, not simultaneously.)
If you were charitable, you could call this "wildly inventive," but the festival has done it before, when Richard Monette and Nicholas Pennell shared the role in 1976.
And since Monette is in his penultimate season as artistic director, it looks less like a stroke of theatrical ingenuity and more like the Senate appointments that a prime minister makes in his final days. In other words, many favours to repay and not a lot of time to do it.
It's true that every actor wants to play the Prince of Denmark, but that doesn't mean they ought to do it.
If Shakespearean roles were horse races, Hamlet would be the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness and the Belmont all rolled up in one. So, we decided to evaluate the five actors whose names are being most frequently mentioned by the rumour mill and handicap their chances.
JONATHAN GOAD
Pedigree: Now in his seventh season, he's generally regarded as the most interesting young talent to come along in years. His performances as Hotspur, Jack Cade and Pericles have earned him critical cheers and a strong audience following.
Strengths: Has the intelligence and complexity necessary for Hamlet, as well as the ability to make thought seem interesting.
Weaknesses: Never played one of the "giant" Shakespearean roles; does he know how to pace himself on a difficult track?
Odds for success: 6-5
Appropriate quote: "The readiness is all."
GRAHAM ABBEY
Pedigree: Nine years with the festival in a wide variety of parts from D'Artagnan to Macbeth. He jokes in his bio that he has been "married, divorced, impaled, poisoned, decapitated, shot and even graduated high school on the Stratford stage."
Strengths: Handsome, heroic, sympathetic. Has proven he has the stamina to tackle major Shakespearean roles.
Weaknesses: Verse speaking is not his strongest suit and Hamlet has more to say than any other character in Shakespeare.
Odds for success: 7-2
Appropriate quote: "The glass of fashion and the mould of form."
MICHAEL THERRIAULT
Pedigree: First noticed at Stratford as Mordred in 1997's Camelot. Played Ariel, Konstantin, Aguecheek, many others. Seen as Leo Bloom in Toronto's The Producers and recently finished filming the title role of CBC's The Tommy Douglas Story. Currently on Broadway as Motel in Fiddler on the Roof.
Strengths: Therriault is a performer of great sensitivity and warmth who knows how to deliver text well.
Weaknesses: He's also very gentle and it's hard to picture him killing Polonius or pulling off the climactic swordfight with Laertes.
Odds for success: 5-1
Appropriate quote: "There's a special providence in the fall of a sparrow."
LUCY PEACOCK
Pedigree: After 18 years with the festival, audiences have seen her play Rosalind, Dolly Levi, Portia and Lady Macbeth as well as dozens of other parts. Why Hamlet? Well, other actresses from Sarah Bernhardt to Kelli Fox have all had a go at the melancholy Dane.
Strengths: Certainly knows the course well (perhaps too well) and has proven time and time again that she can go the distance.
Weaknesses: Her work has gotten increasingly artificial in recent years and, at 44, she's the oldest of the potential Hamlets. Who's going to play Gertrude opposite her, Elaine Stritch?
Odds for success: 8-1
Appropriate quote: "Get thee to a nunnery."
DAVID SNELGROVE
Pedigree: Seven years at Stratford playing such young romantic leads as Troilus, Lorenzo and Bertram. Received generally negative notices for his last two leading roles: Edmond Dantes and Brick. Has never played the kind of part that has to carry the show, as Hamlet does.
Strengths: Looks good in tights.
Weaknesses: Lacks vocal passion or facial expressiveness. Usually winds up in his dramatic moments looking as though he were pouting.
Odds for success: 10-1.
Appropriate quote: "It is not nor it cannot come to good."