Eddie Izzard on Bringing ‘Hamlet’ to L.A. as a One-Person, 23-Character Show, After 200 Global Performances: ‘I Want to, as a Trans Person, Give Honor to All the Characters’
“Comedy is my day job,” says Eddie Izzard. “Shakespeare started with his comedies, then he moved to his dramas and tragedies, and that’s what I’m doing.”
Even the Bard might have to step back marvel at the malleability of Izzard on her current global tour, though, as Izzard moves not just from comedy into the realm of Elizabethan drama, but shifts through 23 different characters, in a one-person production of “Hamlet.” With a couple hundred shows already under their belt on the tour, she’s bringing the show to L.A.’s Ricardo Montalbán Theatre for seven performances, starting with a preview Thursday night and official opening Friday, running at the Hollywood venue through Jan. 31. (Tickets are available here.)
Is it madness — doing what many consider the greatest ensemble drama of all time as a solo show — or is there method in it? No one will accuse Izzard of not having done her homework on every aspect of the historical backdrop of the show, as well as having done the difficult work of imagining the blocking and voicing that will help an audience keep all those characters straight. Izzard had some experience with a one-person production, first having done it with an adaptation of “Great Expectations” that similarly traveled around the world. Now, there’s no definite end in sight for Izzard’s “Hamlet,” with the actor having too good a time to not keep adding cities to the run. Reviews and accolades in prior engagements have been enthusiastic, including nominations from the New York Outer Critics Circle and the New York Drama League for a run back east.
Prior to coming to L.A., the Tony-nominated, Emmy-winning performer (who is billed as just Eddie Izzard for this appearance but also privately goes by Suzy Eddie Izzard) Zoomed with Variety to talk about both the practical and theoretical underpinnings of this challenging achievement. (The following Q&A has been edited for length and clarity.)
Do you have a count of how many times you’ve done this “Hamlet” now?
It’s 205 now. It is soaring on, and it’s about 50,000 tickets sold. Some people are going, “Oh, this is most unusual.” It’s not that unusual. A lot of people are doing solo shows all around the world. I like the idea of taking Shakespeare around the world — we’re negotiating taking it to India, and Australia is this year as well, and the third leg of the tour of America. I just think it is a wonderful thing to do. I hope that Shakespeare would approve.
As you say, one-person shows are not totally uncommon, but the sheer amount of characters you play seems like it might be more taxing on you than perhaps someone who’s doing a monologue-type show. Is there any weariness that sets in when you’re doing two hours a night of all those characters?
It is a tough show. But when you mention people doing monologues, I mean, these are full shows that other people are doing, playing multiple characters, so I am really in the same bracket as them. So it’s as taxing as for them as it is for me. You have to be totally on top of it because it’s yourself out there for two hours. But it does mean that people can concentrate more on the text rather than saying, “Who’s wearing what costume?” You can really focus in on the story and the text and the wonderful poetry of Shakespeare. So I think that’s something which is unusual and gives it an interesting focus in that way. So I’ve been looking forward to getting back out there. That’s the odd thing. Because maybe now you’d be thinking, “Do you wanna keep doing this thing?” Yeah, I do. Every night is press night — that’s how I feel. It is tiring. If you got ill and did it, then I think it’d be really tricky. But I’m loving doing it, so I just wanna continue.
You said you wanted to pay special attention to the female characters.
Absolutely. I just want to, a trans person, give honor to all characters. You know, trans is getting such a buffeting at this time. But on a positive side, when I came out 40 years ago, January ‘85, no one was talking to us at all. We were just non-people. So even though there’s buffeting, even though there’s loud voices raised, left, right, and center, trans people exist. We’re not going anywhere, so it’s good to be out there. And people get obsessed about male/female. But most people who are thinking people see everyone somewhere on a spectrum. So to get out there and play classically male characters, classically female characters, it’s an intriguing thing to do. And as a trans person, as someone who’s gender-fluid, I don’t see much difference in my own personality, between a male version of me or a female version of me. It’s just me. It’s slightly more of a presentation to people or how people see me. But, yeah, to be the best version of Ophelia that I can be, the best version of Gertrude that I can be, is a wonderful challenge. So I go for it.
It’s funny that there’s so much Hamlet in the air now, in popular culture. Taylor Swift, named her single “The Fate of Ophelia,” which got young people looking the character up. Of course there’s the “Hamnet” movie now, which ends with a version of “Hamlet” that has been condensed into about 10 minutes. L.A. just had a very experimental adaptation of “Hamlet” at the Mark Taper Forum where the play was condensed into one hour, and then the second hour was a sort of modern-day sequel. In all, it’s a play that comes back and resonates for people, and it’s maybe just coincidental that there’d be some of that in the air at the time you have chosen to do this.
It is odd. I keep noticing it. I’m thinking, does this help me or hinder me? I think it helps. If there’s more “Hamlet” out and people saying, “Let us revisit, let us look at this,” and people coming from completely different directions on it, I think that’s kind of wonderful. And it has lasted for so long. “Hamlet’s” in the ether at the moment, so I’ll just keep riding that wave.
What was most attractive to you about doing this? Was actually doing all those Hamlet soliloquies kind of the main attraction, or was it more about performing the 23 roles in one fell swoop?
Well, it’s more actually just doing Shakespeare. It didn’t have to be “Hamlet.” I was a severely, atypically dyslexic kid, so I had great difficulty just reading off the page. But I was someone who was, from the age of 7, saying, “I really want to act,” trying to get into school plays desperately. Even with standard, modern-day text, I found that tricky, getting it from the page through my brain and out of my mouth. So I was always intimidated by Elizabethan verse and by Shakespeare. As time went on, I decided to concentrate on comedy. Then I started pushing into my dramas and going through Broadway and onto the dramatic films. But I really wanted to do Shakespeare. I wanted to really challenge myself. I considered “Richard III” and considered others where I could start. It was a fact that, because my career has been so unusual, I was not on top of everyone’s list (for Shakespearian productions). And I’m trans as well, so I’m just such an unusual person, putting everything together — I don’t think people say, “We’ve gotta build (a show) around this person.” It’s a very high bar. No one was that keen on putting me forward to do it.
So I just thought, “Well, I’ll do this myself.” When “Great Expectations” took off and worked so well, it came from something that I was already doing, performing against myself, something I had been doing in my comedy. I realized it could work for drama as well as it could work for comedy. I just decided, “Let’s do ‘Hamlet.’” And I could do that without getting permission from other people or making sure that they were setting the budgets for that. I wanted to do Shakespeare and I wanted to go towards this thing that had scared me as a teenager.
As you say, going back and forth between different characters is something that you have done as part of your comedy, so that didn’t feel like a totally unfamiliar thing. You had to figure out how people will understand that you’re shifting personas here.
In the first five, 10 minutes, some people do go — well, maybe most people go — “What are you doing here?” I haven’t watched everyone else’s solo shows, but sometimes they’re using screens, they’re using recorded videos. They’re talking to themselves as other characters on screens or videos or however they’re doing it. I’m playing it where I’m flipping and changing physicality, changing a voice. Not overtly, not in a caricatured way, but in a subtle way. And gradually, I feel the audience will pick up on who the character I’m playing is. And there are guides to that. And maybe we mention people’s names more often. You drop in a “Yes, Horatio.” …
Basically you’re obeying Shakespeare’s script, however you’ve adapted it. But the bottom line is to be truthful in all your performances and all the arcs of the characters that you’re driving them through, and hopefully the audience can grab it. I’m sure some people are going, “I cannot get this. How this works is unusual to me.” It’s not for them. But, you know, we’re up to 50,000 tickets now, so people are coming back a second or third time, so I know it works. And I also have had so much experience, not just on stage — I spent four years as street performer. And if you think of Shakespeare’s actors, their training must have been pretty similar to that training, because they were not going to drama school. Just one generation before “Hamlet” was written, they were performing at festivals and fairs and market days, and then the Curtain Theater was built in the late 1570s, and this is only 1600, so it’s so close. At the Globe Theater in London, keeping everyone focused and interested was a tricky thing to do. My training has been through all that, so I know I can do something on stage which is a little unusual for most actors, and I bring all those skills to bear in every performance.
And, yeah, no screens, and it works, but they have to tune into what I’m doing. I’ve worked very hard with my movement director, Didi Hopkins, who’s steeped in commedia dell’arte, to make these transitions between characters so that people can feel there is a sharp difference between them, as opposed to a confusing difference between them. I’m crisp on the architecture. If I move one character to another character, when I move back to that first character, they will not be somewhere else on the stage, they will be back where you left them. And that’s something I’ve been very dogmatic on. That must happen so that if Gertrude wanders across the stage, talking about the fact that her previous husband has died and then they pass through to eternity, Hamlet will be in the same place when you flip around.
Do you have a favorite character to play apart from Hamlet?
Ophelia is wonderful to play — the twin soul of Hamlet, some people say. The women are underwritten; Gertrude is underwritten. So as a trans person, I’m very keen to land those characters, separate ’em, and land them as well as I can, because I just feel they’re underwritten by Shakespeare. Claudius is someone who has a great
