“When
you’re young you’re kind of judged on your Hamlet. If you get
through that hoop successfully, you’re admitted to the classical
club. When you’re older, you have to go through the Lear hoop to
see if they were right to admit you to the club in the first place.”
Derek Jacoby
The
Herculean, most recognizable and oft quoted play is Shakespeare's
Hamlet. Playing The Dane of Elsinore is a pentathlon mixed with
tag-team timing.
The
role is routinely played by actors over 40. Sarah Bernhardt waited
till she was 55 to give him a go (and with a wooden leg).
The
Shakespeare's Globe Theatre production from London is led by Michael
Benz, 30, with substantial and substantiated humor. The media has
regularly mentioned Mr. Benz's youth and compared his performance to
that of the traditional morose black clad actors.
Seasoned
theatergoers can put aside their doubts that this pup would stumble
in the role.
For
the Globe's less brooding version what better training can a young
man bring with him than an acting career begun at age 11, a
Georgetown degree in Psychology and Theology and successful passage
through the sacrosanct Royal Academy of Dramatic Art? He's also a
natural blonde, a characteristic rarely seen in a traditional Hamlet.
Between
meetings with directors and casting people the Espresso-Refill caught
up with Mr. Benz by phone.
Espresso-Refill:
What was your audition for Hamlet like?
Michael
Benz: I did the first soliloquy, "O, that this too too solid
flesh would melt." I was nervous they (directors) are so lovely
and wonderful. Even if you don't do a good job they'll smile at you.
(laughs) You still feel that confidence. They asked me to do it again
and some other bits. It was about the clarity of thought they were
going for.
ER:
Does the Globe have company classes?
MB:
We have experts at the Globe. We get movement support, voice support
and text support.
ER:
Have you played the outdoor recreation of the Globe?
MB:
Yes.
ER:
Are the voices amplified?
MB:
No. No. Never. That's what the training is for.
ER:
I find amplified voices in Shakespeare festivals extremely
disappointing. For instance, Adrian Noble's productions at the San
Diego Globe are amplified. At one performance the mics went out. The
natural voice was pleasing to hear with the natural acoustics. It was
much more human.
MB:
I think the mic takes away the voice's levels and takes away
subtlety.
ER:
Your portrayal has a different take on the role, hence the
production.
MB:
It is a performance showing the Hamlet before everything happens.
There is no evidence to show he was a melancholy young man before
this (death of his father). There's evidence that he was the life of
the party. We try and show the Hamlet that was before his father
died, before his uncle marries his mother. When horrible things
happen to you, people don't completely change their personalities.
That's the harder thing (to play).
ER:
What is your response to the Jacoby quote?
MB:
(laughs) Any actor at all who takes on this role, takes on those
thoughts, these broad thoughts, not to mention the lines, the
movement, the through-line through this big mythic, huge play. Anyone
who can do that, to get on-stage in front of people for three hours I
applaud them. Ferociously.
ER:
Do you have a daily regimen?
MB:
I sleep a lot. And I eat a lot. I can't eat much before a show. I am
absolutely starving after the show.
ER:
Does your performance change?
MB:
Yes. Depending on the venue. The Folger Theatre there's only about
250 people (in the audience), (its) very quiet and very intimate. The
audience can hear you breathe. That's a different type of performance
than if you are at the the Globe with 1,700 people or on the edge of
a cliff in Cornwall with the rain coming down. Over the course of
months and months my performance has shifted and changed. I hope
(its) gotten better. I'm so lucky to not be doing it with an amateur
group above a pub. I'm doing it for the Globe.
#
# #
Now
in the last leg of its U.S. tour, the production plays Santa Monica's
Broad Theatre where it closes on November 25th.
