Theatre

Mr. Redgrave's "Hamlet"
NO character in literature comes nearer to human stature than Hamlet (OLD Vic : New
THEATRE); the paradoxes of his conduct are truer to life than art. His complexity is human and unfathomable and we cannot pass
final judgment. His filial epitaph upon the dead king : he was a man, take him for all and all. I shall not look upon his like again, is wise posterity's verdict upon the prince. The secret springs of his acts, manlike. are wrapped in mystery. The great critics agree that it may be impossible for any actor to do full justice to Shakespeare's creation. We know Hamlet as we know a dear friend whose behaviour, if he is an old friend, sometimes, inevitably, bewil
ders us. He fives and it seems he has a soul.
SWEET PRINCE
We must not go beyond Shakespeare if we arc to see the " sweet prince " as he is ; there are too many interpreters and, especially in our day, some most despicable. Those who know the prince give us the materials for his portrait. Marcellus and Bernardo, simple soldiers, wise in the way of such honest men. to whom the dead king first manifests himself, turn to " young Hamlet " as to a leader when they, sensibly. corroborate their vision with Horatio. We know he is the best swordarnin at Elsinore and confident in his prowess. When he speaks to the players his apprec:ation of the arts
is keen and comprehensive. His manners are princely and humane ;
he is an aristocrat. The usurper Claudius, who is not lacking in courage, fears his nephew, tries to win his favour with flattery and favours and, in the end, defeated, resorts to assassination. Hamlet is formidable, A philosopher, he speculates upon the metaphysical plane. As Fortinbras stands in the gateway, the speech of the dying Prince suggests latent qualities of statesmanship. Confronted by the ageing POlonius, his humour, which makes him lovable, has a touch of cruelty that bespeaks immaturity ; his love for Ophclia, the girl's pure love for him, the prudence it evokes in Polonius, all imply those natural features that attract youth to youth. A good son, he mourns his father and. in the beginning, defers to the mother who deeply has injured him.
COMPASSIONATE PRINCE
Shakespeare composed a picture of Hamlet that is magnificently catholic ; prince, philosopher, fighting man. artist, ironist, scholar, son and lover, he is the refinement of masculine virtues, young, but a true man who is less, not more. vacillating, in common circumstances, than the generality of men. The wayward judgment which, with boring consistency. is traced to innate weakness of character, is consequent upon an abnormal, and truly tragic. situation that goes straight to the prima/ depths of the human soul. Hamlet's noble father has been killed by his uncle ; his beloved mother, with amazing haste has made an incestuous marriage with the murderer. Poison, fratricide and incest are fitting
stimulants for the " primal eldest curse." The obscene marriage casts the young prince into sadness and thus we first see him. The torrents of tragic emotion are loosened by the events on the battlements, on the
night that follows. One and only one actor, in our generation, has come close to encompassing the whole man exposed in the poem, Mr. Gielgud remains supreme ; but we have had many fine essays in the role. Mr. dunes accentuated the intellectual; Sir Laurence Olivier, with an interpretation that derived entirely, including the highlighted blondness, from Goethe's sentimental notes in Wilhelm Meister, gave us a reading of a renaissance adventurer; Mr. Eddison was all melancholy. More catholic in range than these Hamlets, Mr. Michael Reclgrave's portrayal is firmly rooted in an intelligence more apprehensive of the greatness of the play. It is limited, in its opening performances, by a quality that it would he unkind to describe as stolidity. The actor lacks the mercurially controlled range of emotion that is Mr. Gielgud's qualification for greatness. He has compassion. but his rages seem forced.
GOOD DEATH
In his quieter moments he is memorable. Kindness and love are the dominant qualities of this prince; the nobility of the character is stated. Most beautifully touching, the interlude with Ophelia, the feeling of doomed love, graciously moving. is exquisitely conveyed. Lecturing the players, the young lord is a fellow-artist who has set aside the trappings of royalty to dispute with peers. There is no trace of condescension and he is princely; the playful humour does not detract from the authority of the speech. In the death scene, the tragic blankness is so masterfully built into by Mr. Redgrave's enunciation of the last words that the " goodnight" sounds in our ears with a note newly poignant, utterly appropriate. If this actor can encompass the high volcanic emotional moments of Hamlet we may see a great performance before the Old Vic's memorable season ends. He now is giving an uncommonly good impersonation of the " sweet prince."
Mr. Peter Copley's Laertes and Mr. Mark Dignam's Claudius are two ?laws in Mr. Hugh Hunt's admirable production. These good
actors are comedians. Mr. Copley is virile in action, but in speech as uncertain as a second-hand gramophone. For a player of his general quality the performance is bad. Mr. Dignam's king is two-dimensional, a cardboard monarch. brittle, without audacity, at his most courageous a falsifier of ballots at " democratic " elections.
W. J. 1.