Susan Granger’s review of “Hamlet” (Greenwich House: Off-Broadway)
Requiring an inordinate amount of talent, passion and stamina, a solo theatrical performance can be brilliant or boring – or, as is often the case, fall somewhere in-between.
British stage/screen star Eddie Izzard tackles William Shakespeare’s longest and, perhaps, most challenging play with wit, determination and gusto, playing and differentiating its 23 diverse characters in the Danish court of Elsinore.
Dressed in black vinyl pants and a Tudoresque blazer, one minute she’s the melancholic Prince ordered to revenge the murder of his father, the next she’s treacherous Claudius, Queen Gertrude, vulnerable Ophelia or garrulous, stiff-gaited Polonius.
Perhaps Izzard’s cleverest interpretation is turning hangers-on Rosencranz and Guildenstern into her hand puppets, chirping and squawking at one another.
Adapted by Eddie’s older brother Mark Izzard and directed by Selina Cadell – with movement choreographer Didi Hopkins – it’s vital and fluid as the self-styled “executive transvestite” darts about the stage, into the audience and up to the balcony, even fighting herself in the climactic duel (staged by J. Allen Suddeth).
Tom Piper’s minimalist stage is basically a bare white box without adornment or props, evocatively lit by Tyler Elich, punctuated by Eliza Thompson’s original medieval-style music.
Born Edward John Izzard on Feb. 7,1962, in Aden, Yemen, to English parents, Izzard grew up in Bangor, Northern Ireland, before moving to Skewen, Wales in 1967. After “coming out” as a straight transvestite in 1985, she began performing improvisational comedy at London’s Covent Garden and made her West End dramatic debut in David Mamet’s “The Cryptogram.” Her American breakthrough came with HBO’s 1999 concert special “Eddie Izzard: Dressed to Kill.” In last year’s solo “Great Expectations,” she collaborated with director Selina Cadell.
In her director’s program notes, Cadell reminds: “Shakespeare’s theater was essentially street theatre. No darkness separated the audience from the cast…This fundamental connection to the audience kept the experience present…talking to the house, acknowledging the audience as the purpose of the evening, making theatre together.”
Running two hours, 20 minutes with one intermission, this unique “Hamlet” plays at Greenwich House Theater through March 16.