Eddie Izzard’s one-person Hamlet coming to New York in 2024
Eddie Izzard is returning to a New York stage this winter for an ambitious version of Hamlet with the actor-comedian playing the only person on stage.
Izzard will take on all the parts in the William Shakespeare play in a one-person staging adapted by Izzard’s brother, Mark, and directed by Selina Cadell. Performances at Greenwich House Theater run from 25 January to 3 March.
“It’s a great challenge but there is no point living and not going for challenges,” Izzard said to the Associated Press on the eve of the play’s announcement. “You’re just at the edge of your skill set and pushing out even further.”
This Hamlet will ask Izzard to play noblemen, women, ghosts, soldiers, courtiers, lovers and fools. “I want it so that 10-year-old kids can grab this. I want it for the people who don’t find Shakespeare easy, like I didn’t when I was a dyslexic kid.”
Hamlet sees Izzard reunited with her brother and Cadell after all three worked on a one-person adaptation of Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations, which played at Greenwich House and in London’s West End last year.
“I have always gravitated towards playing complex and challenging characters and Hamlet is the ultimate,” she said. “This is a production for everyone, a timeless drama with an accidental hero. Selina, Mark and I want audiences to see and hear an accessible, touching, scary and dramatic Hamlet.”
Izzard’s career includes the Emmy award-winning standup Dress to Kill, the FX series The Riches, the film Victoria & Abdul opposite Judi Dench, and the Broadway shows A Day in the Death of Joe Egg and Race.
“I have played multiple characters down the years and, yes, they have been comedic characters. But I realized it could be done for drama as well. And having done dramas now for over 25 years, I thought, ‘Why don’t I try that?’” she said.
Earlier this year, Izzard said she was adding Suzy to her name but would remain known as Eddie Izzard in public. She also said at the time that she would prefer she/her pronouns but didn’t mind he/him pronouns.
“I’m very serious about being a dramatic actor,” she said earlier this year.