Critics hail McKellen’s historic Hamlet as a triumph
SIR Ian McKellen’s historic performance as Hamlet has been hailed as “courageous” and a triumph of “understated artistry”.
The 82-year-old has returned to a role he first played in 1971 for a radical age blind production of Shakespeare’s great tragedy at the Theatre Royal Windsor.
His performance was hailed by Paul Taylor in The Independent as “wholly truthful” and “fresh”. Giving the show four stars, Taylor said: “The miracle here — and it is an uber-feat — is that McKellen wholly subsumes himself into an interpretation of the part that makes you, for long periods, quite forget the difference between his calendar age and the hero’s official age.”
He tipped the show for West End success.
Evening Standrd critic Nick Curtis said it was a “privilege to watch and hear” Sir Ian, describing him as “England’s greatest living classical actor” and adding: “He’s a vigorous if not dynamic Dane: speaks the verse beautifully, almost mournfully, but is also drily funny. The soliloquies are riveting.” Sir Ian is the oldest actor to perform the part professionally on a UK stage.
In the Daily Telegraph, Dominic Cavendish said that given the difference in age between the actor and the Danish prince, he had produced a performance that was “coherent and compelling”. In the Daily Mail, Patrick Marmion gave the production four stars, saying Sir Ian was “the sort of octogenarian we all aspire to be”. The critic wrote that the actor brings “an overwhelming melancholy and pathos” to Hamlet’s famous “to be or not to be” speech. In the Guardian, Arifa Akbar said Sir Ian “is sprightly, delivering a fast, physical performance, but trembles and bursts into tender old man’s tears too.” Hamlet runs until September 25 before it is followed by a production of Anton Chekov’s The Cherry Orchard where Sir Ian will take on another role. Director Sean Mathias said he hoped both productions would be rays of hope in the “return of British theatre from the long dark night of Covid-19”.