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 Hamlet
Oxford Playhouse, 1961
Strand Theatre,
London, 1961
Role: Hamlet
Jeremy spoke about his role in Hamlet
during a July 1967 Homes and Gardens
magazine interview:
I think I got away with it though the
only thing I had on my side was youth. I had an enormous sense
of identity with Hamlet, though I never understood fully a
scene like the Ghost scene, which is why I would dearly like
to play the part again. Of course, that's the frustrating
thing about these marvelous Shakespearian parts which you
must play in your twenties and early thirties, though you're
not really fitted to act them properly until you're in your
fifties. Just imagine what understanding and warmth Peggy
Ashcroft could bring to Juliet, if she was to play her now.
Despite his youth, Jeremy brought some
considerable depth of experience to the role. In one his last
interviews -- for a TV documentary called Playing the Dane
-- Jeremy spoke about his performance:
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I couldn't believe the circumstances. I
thought they were monstrous. I was very rough on my mother [in
the play] ... I was angry at that time. My mother had been
killed savagely in a car accident in 1959. And I was very
angry about that because my son when she was killed was only 3
months old. There was anger ... in me and I think that came
through. I felt cheated; I felt my mother was cheated. The
rage of that I think came through. ...
Jeremy's version of Hamlet was directed on an almost-bare stage by Frank Hauser.
Co-starring were Helen Cherry, Robert Eddison, Joseph O'Connor.
Reviews
of the Oxford and London performances are available at The
Brettish Empire. A sample:
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As to acting, Jeremy Brett as Hamlet was alone remarkable.
... He was manifestly a prince among players.
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Here was a Hamlet youthful, princely, embittered, passionate in his
vengeance-seeking ... a man who in voice and mien suggested a royal personage.
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Mr. Brett's speaking of the language had a consistently fine and expressive musicality.
In the July 1967 Homes and Gardens magazine
interview, Jeremy related this swordplay mishap that occurred
during one performance:
I was supposed to disarm Laertes by
flicking his sword nearly out of his hand. This was always
most effective until one night when it landed neatly on the
lap of a young lady sitting in the front row of the stalls. I
knelt down and peered over the footlights and she very kindly
passed the sword over to me, which I needed rather badly in
order to stab Laertes. You might have thought the audience
would have rocked with laughter, but they didn't, nor did we
lose any of the atmosphere that the play needs for a
successful ending.
Wikipedia
page about Hamlet // Full
text and analysis
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