Context:
To look like a ghost from another world takes a lot of make-up.
Using one 100ml bottle per performance, a thick white cream
like a mousse was poured into a paint-tray. The actor had
to be covered from head to toe. (They initially even tried
using a paint-roller!) He was then speckled using an environmentally-friendly
natural-type sponge so as not to give a completely solid effect.
It took about 3 layers to get him covered and textured. The
room was kept quite warm to help the make-up dry and the whole
process took around 25 minutes with 2 or 3 make-up artists
and Greg Hicks himself working on it at the same time.
At first Greg Hicks wore a long wig. Later local clay worked
into a slip was used like hair gel to point up his
own hair. White make-up was used over it like frosting. The
area round the hairline was smudged bringing the greyer clay
colour down onto the face and the white up into the hair.
Out of the left ear was a long black dribble of blood down
to the waist to indicate the poison that had killed Old Hamlet.
This was done with 086 paintstick.
A dark blue-black was used in the nostrils and into the groove
beneath the actor's nose. His eyes had a black line underneath
and black- blue stick where the eye meets the nose to deepen
the socket. Red-blue stipple was used up to the eyebrow and
as far below to create deep, staring haunted eyes. | 
