This blog entry is from Charles Edward Pogue, who is currently in rehearsals playing Claudius opposite Adam Luckey's Hamlet. More forthcoming!!

Peace and Love

Richard (Rick) St. Peter

POGUE’S HAMLET BLOG

(September 28, 2007)

I must be an aberration as an actor. I’ve never had a driving ambition to essay the role of the melancholy Dane, Hamlet. I’ve always recognized it was a great role, a complex role, a defining role for an actor, as well as a yardstick role by which an actor is measured against others. Perhaps that’s part of my curious disinterest in it as a vehicle for myself. I just didn’t want to plunge into that competition... and worse, be found wanting by it.

I suspect, however, it was more a matter of temperament. There has long been this debate or suggestion, at least, that Hamlet is an introvert part, as opposed to say, Richard III or Macbeth, which are extrovert parts. I’m not sure I quite believe that, as Hamlet can be a very antic fellow…You’ll usually find Gielgud’s Hamlet praised over Olivier’s whereas Olivier triumphed in roles like Richard III and Henry V, roles of action. Gielgud was always regarded as music and air and to co-exist along with Hamlet on those more contemplative, poetic planes (though I hardly find Olivier’s Hamlet devoid of poetry; I never saw Gielgud’s…though I’ve heard recordings); whereas Olivier was fire and earth, better suited to heroics or roles of action. Growing up, I was always in the Olivier camp of fire and earth (as most young men are), but as a grew older I got to appreciate more and more Gielgud’s “silver trumpet muffled in silk” (as Alec Guinness once referred to his voice), his great gift of caressing words for meaning and emotion, and I believe I mourned his death far more than I did Olivier’s (which I mourned considerably)…for with it came the end of an era, that of the Lyric Actor. To some, this may not be a tragedy, but I think there is much to be said for it and that it is a style that can very much be incorporated into modern acting. We still see echoes of it in actors like Peter O’Toole, Derek Jacobi, and others… In view of the desk at which I sit is a photo of Gielgud framed with the Old Code from the film DRAGONHEART, which I wrote. It is Sir John’s working copy of the text that he read as the voice of King Arthur’s Ghost in the movie. As well as being personally inscribed to me by Sir John, it has in tiny, very light pencil markings his notes scribbled along side my words. A prized possession.

But back to the somewhat strayed-from point. Rather than this whole extrovert/introvert argument about Hamlet, I think I’d placed the difference as follows: Hamlet is a contemplative/poetic part (as opposed to Richard III or Henry V which are rather forceful action parts) which doesn’t necessarily make him an introvert.

And which still doesn’t explain why I’ve never particularly drooled for the role. Oh, had I been offered it at some point, I’m sure I would have jumped at the chance. But my only experience with playing the Dane was back in my college days. There was a theatre conference over at Translyvania and several colleges were asked to bring scenes which would then be dissected and re-directed by Word Baker, then Artistic Director of the Cincinnati Playhouse -In-The –Park (and probably best known for directing the original Fantasticks). Ray Smith, UK theatre professor, who was directing our scene, chose the “get thee to a nunnery scene” between Hamlet and Ophelia. I was Hamlet (What did you think? Ophelia?).

We did our scene. Mr. Baker re-worked it. Oddly enough, I had recently been up to Cincinnati to see Mr. Baker’s own production of Hamlet at his theatre (While not the best production of Hamlet I’ve ever seen; it was the best Hamlet I’ve ever seen on stage – Daniel Davis, who later came to prominence to TV audiences, playing the butler in THE NANNY with Fran Drescher. Not too many years ago, I encountered Mr. Davis in a local bistro through mutual friends and got a chance to tell him how much I had admired his Hamlet). As it turned out, in re-directing the scene, Mr. Baker used the same direction he had used in the Cincy Production and I, of course, lapped it up. He must have thought I was a very inspired actor.

But I doubt I was then. Certainly eager, ambitious…but, alas, never for Hamlet --arguably the greatest part in the theatre. Go figure. As far as Shakespearean roles go, Richard III (arguably the second-greatest part in the theatre) was the one that always made my thespian heart go pitter-pat. I’ve also always had my eye on Richard II, Macbeth, Benedick, Coriolanus, Malvolio…some of which I’m now probably too old to play. But I’m not too old for one role that has always intrigued me…Claudius! The role that I hankered to play in Hamlet was always Claudius. Funny how things turn out…

More anon!

Charles Edward Pogue

Charles Edward Pogue appears courtesy of Actor's Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States

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