Hamlet

How old is Hamlet?
In this section you will find reviews of actors in past productions and, at the end, an exercise to try in the classroom: Casting Hamlet.

At the time his father dies, Hamlet is a student at the University of Wittenburg. When we first meet him, his mother tells him to “cast his knighted colour off” and Claudius reprimands him rather severely and in public:

to persever
In obstinate condolement is a course
Of impious stubbornness. ‘Tis unmanly grief.
It shows a heart unfortified, a mind impatient,
An understanding simple and unschooled. (1.2.92-7).

We might, therefore, suppose that Hamlet is a young man. But the gravedigger tells us he has been a grave-maker since the day Hamlet was born, thirty years ago. He throws up a skull, Yorick’s skull, which “hath lain i’th’earth three-and-twenty years” (5.1. ) Hamlet remembers Yorick, his father’s jester: “he hath borne me on his back a thousand times… Here hung those lips that I have kissed I know not how oft.” (5.1. )

If Hamlet is 30, how old should the actor playing Hamlet be? Does it matter if the actor playing Hamlet looks as old as the woman who plays Gertrude? Does skill matter more than looks? Actors playing the part have ranged widely in age, from the 13-year old prodigy Master Betty to Sarah Bernhardt, a woman of 55 with a wooden leg. According to John Gielgud, who very unusually for those days first played Hamlet when he was in his mid-20s: “It was the kind of prize that an actor, when he went into management at the age of 40 or 50 allowed himself”. The part was first played by Richard Burbage who, in 1601, would have been in his early to mid-30s (he was born around 1567). Shakespeare also wrote the parts of Lear, Othello and Richard III for Burbage, which gives us some idea of the actor’s range and skill. Hamlet speaks 1,507 of the play’s 4,042 lines making it a difficult role for young or inexperienced actors to sustain. More often it is tackled by those at the heights of their powers than by those just out of drama school.

A noticeable exception was Trevor Nunn’s “Youth Hamlet” at the Old Vic Theatre (London) in 2004 in which an unknown 23-year old, Ben Whishaw, played the title role. In an interview with Georgina Brown (Theatregoer May 2004), Nunn said: “I don’t have a problem with anyone saying that Hamlet is a character of mature experience, but when you go the other way you discover that there is one word that is used more than any other in the play. It’s the word ‘youth.’ It’s on every page, in speech after speech, jumping out at you. This isn’t anything to do with a solution to the play, all I’m saying is that Shakespeare is saying that Hamlet is a student at university.”

Other Hamlets
The following extracts are taken from reviews of other actors in the role: Michael Pennington (RSC 1980); Roger Rees (RSC 1984); Daniel Day-Lewis (National Theatre 1989); Alex Jennings (RSC 1997); Simon Russell Beale (National Theatre 2000); Sam West (RSC 2001).

Pennington, who was 37 when he played Hamlet, felt it was the right time. Described as a “sensitive, aristocratic “Cambridge” student”, he felt that Hamlet has a mixture of imagination and emotional immaturity: “I’ve played a number of roles here in Stratford which have helped pave the way. Berowne in Love’s Labour’s Lost - his mixture of flair and imagination coupled with emotional inexperience is quite close to Hamlet.”

In his Guardian review (03/07/80) Michael Billington wrote: “He plays him as a sensitive, intelligent young man, face wreathed in blonde curls, who cautiously regards killing a king as melodramatic excess.” And yet, he wrote, this Hamlet displays a certain maturity: “Pennington’s is a mature Hamlet who doesn’t want to be a Kyd.”

John Barber (Daily Telegraph, 03/07/80) saw Pennington as welcome throwback to more conventional, regal Hamlets not evocative of current young trends: “A royal Hamlet, a gentle and a poetic Hamlet—Michael Pennington’s new interpretation comes as a shock at a time when playgoers have come to expect Shakespeare’s sweet Prince to be a raving neurotic, a skinhead, a tearaway—or a woman … Mr. Pennington dominates the stage with a grace that defies fashion: goodly height, a noble presence, a musical voice, and such winning incidentals as a handsome face and unruly blond hair.”

Roger Rees (RSC 1984)
Don Chapman, (Oxford Mail 06/09/84) felt that “Roger Rees’s Hamlet is no superannuated Christopher Robin. Like Frances Barber’s Ophelia, he is an adolescent of unusual nobility, sensitivity, and idealism who finds it difficult to adjust to the dishonesty and corruption of the real world.”

Peter McGarry (Coventry Evening Telegraph 06/09/84) disagreed: “It’s hard to swallow Mr. Rees’s petulant schoolboy image, the marionette-like flapping of arms, the wide-eyed expressions.”

John Barber (Daily Telegraph 07/07/84) wrote “This bony, hollow-cheeked, well-graced young actor flings it all off with a thrilling technical address.”

Daniel Day-Lewis (National Theatre 1989)
Peter Kemp (Independent 18/03/89) wrote “As if genetically typecast for Hamlet, Daniel Day-Lewis could hardly look more the part of the brilliant, moody undergraduate … In a performance that perfectly complements this physical persona, Day-Lewis never lets you forget the central fact about Hamlet: that he is a young intellectual, someone whose mind is more developed than his emotions.”

John Gross (Sunday Telegraph 19/03/89) felt that Day-Lewis’s matinee idol looks emphasized his youth but this interpretation was too immature: “How old is Hamlet? He is a student, but in the course of the play we are also told that he is 30; a young man, certainly, but not so young that we can’t also think of him simply as a man. In Richard Eyre’s production of Hamlet…the emphasis falls on his youthfulness, and with Daniel Day Lewis in the part it is hard to see how it could have been otherwise. Day Lewis is still in the first flush of his career as a leading man, not a say a leading heart-throb: the prince he presents us with is slim, fast-moving, conspicuous for his romantic good looks. Day Lewis is good at conveying vulnerability and (where he doesn’t overdo it) the fits of ‘sore distraction,’ but he lacks the deep reserves of bitterness and bitter intelligence that make Hamlet a hero as well as a victim … I would be interested to see what he makes of it, say, in 10 years’ time. But meanwhile he has given us a Hamlet who is not so much young as immature.”

Michael Coveney (Financial Times 18/03/89) wrote “What he lacks is fever, impulsiveness, immaturity.”

Kenneth Branagh (RSC 1992)
How old do you think this Hamlet looks?

Alex Jennings (RSC 1997)
In a review entitled “Modern Day Twist to the Classic Tale of Tortured Souls” a critic in the Coventry Evening Telegraph (10/05/97) wrote: “…Alex Jennings is a mature student prince, hiding his grief for his late father behind a stiff upper lip.”

Sam West (RSC 2001)
Rhoda Koenig (Independent 08/05/2001) felt that Sam West was “entirely convincing as an anguished young man trying to understand his situation and decide what to do.”

Charles Spencer (Telegraph 04/05/2001) felt that West’s “scruffy student prince has a lot going for it.”

Benedict Nightingale (Times 04/05/2001) wrote: “The Prince is discovered sulking at court in a hooded sweatshirt that makes him look like an anti-capitalist demonstrator who has wandered into a City boardroom; but once his face appears, he successfully establishes himself as a naturally sensitive, gentle, reflective young man who matures and hardens with time, but is driven to bouts of frenzy and thoughts of suicide as he desperately tries to make himself want to use violence.”

Casting Hamlet
Imagine you are a casting director casting a production of Hamlet. Draw up a list of qualities you’re looking for in the actor you want to cast as Hamlet – age, height, colouring, build etc. Are you looking for dark looks? Or for someone notably Scandinavian looking? Go through the text and pick out quotations that will help you build up a picture of the type of man you’re looking for. Next try to find pictures in magazines of men who fit your image. Cut them out and make a poster of words and images to display on the classroom wall.

Related sections
A discussion of other actors in the role can be found in 'Stage History' in the About the Play section. And you can also read about other Hamlets by going to our Archive exhibition. For more about madness, please see Madness in Hamlet.


			In this section you will find reviews of actors in past productions and, at the end, an exercise to try in the classroom: Casting Hamlet. At the time his father dies, Hamlet is a student at the University of Wittenburg. When we first meet him, his mother tells him to “cast his knighted colour off” and Claudius reprimands him rather severely and in public: to persever In obstinate condolement is a course Of impious stubbornness. ‘Tis unmanly grief. It shows a heart unfortified, a mind impatient, An understanding simple and unschooled. (1.2.92-7). We might, therefore, suppose that Hamlet is a young man. But the gravedigger tells us he has been a grave-maker since the day Hamlet was born, thirty years ago. He throws up a skull, Yorick’s skull, which “hath lain i’th’earth three-and-twenty years” (5.1. ) Hamlet remembers Yorick, his father’s jester: “he hath borne me on his back a thousand times… Here hung those lips that I have kissed I know not how oft.” (5.1. ) If Hamlet is 30, how old should the actor playing Hamlet be? Does it matter if the actor playing Hamlet looks as old as the woman who plays Gertrude? Does skill matter more than looks? Actors playing the part have ranged widely in age, from the 13-year old prodigy Master Betty to Sarah Bernhardt, a woman of 55 with a wooden leg. According to John Gielgud, who very unusually for those days first played Hamlet when he was in his mid-20s: “It was the kind of prize that an actor, when he went into management at the age of 40 or 50 allowed himself”. The part was first played by Richard Burbage who, in 1601, would have been in his early to mid-30s (he was born around 1567). Shakespeare also wrote the parts of Lear, Othello and Richard III for Burbage, which gives us some idea of the actor’s range and skill. Hamlet speaks 1,507 of the play’s 4,042 lines making it a difficult role for young or inexperienced actors to sustain. More often it is tackled by those at the heights of their powers than by those just out of drama school. A noticeable exception was Trevor Nunn’s “Youth Hamlet” at the Old Vic Theatre (London) in 2004 in which an unknown 23-year old, Ben Whishaw, played the title role. In an interview with Georgina Brown (Theatregoer May 2004), Nunn said: “I don’t have a problem with anyone saying that Hamlet is a character of mature experience, but when you go the other way you discover that there is one word that is used more than any other in the play. It’s the word ‘youth.’ It’s on every page, in speech after speech, jumping out at you. This isn’t anything to do with a solution to the play, all I’m saying is that Shakespeare is saying that Hamlet is a student at university.” The following extracts are taken from reviews of other actors in the role: Michael Pennington (RSC 1980); Roger Rees (RSC 1984); Daniel Day-Lewis (National Theatre 1989); Alex Jennings (RSC 1997); Simon Russell Beale (National Theatre 2000); Sam West (RSC 2001). Pennington, who was 37 when he played Hamlet, felt it was the right time. Described as a “sensitive, aristocratic “Cambridge” student”, he felt that Hamlet has a mixture of imagination and emotional immaturity: “I’ve played a number of roles here in Stratford which have helped pave the way. Berowne in Love’s Labour’s Lost - his mixture of flair and imagination coupled with emotional inexperience is quite close to Hamlet.” In his Guardian review (03/07/80) Michael Billington wrote: “He plays him as a sensitive, intelligent young man, face wreathed in blonde curls, who cautiously regards killing a king as melodramatic excess.” And yet, he wrote, this Hamlet displays a certain maturity: “Pennington’s is a mature Hamlet who doesn’t want to be a Kyd.” John Barber (Daily Telegraph, 03/07/80) saw Pennington as welcome throwback to more conventional, regal Hamlets not evocative of current young trends: “A royal Hamlet, a gentle and a poetic Hamlet—Michael Pennington’s new interpretation comes as a shock at a time when playgoers have come to expect Shakespeare’s sweet Prince to be a raving neurotic, a skinhead, a tearaway—or a woman … Mr. Pennington dominates the stage with a grace that defies fashion: goodly height, a noble presence, a musical voice, and such winning incidentals as a handsome face and unruly blond hair.” Don Chapman, (Oxford Mail 06/09/84) felt that “Roger Rees’s Hamlet is no superannuated Christopher Robin. Like Frances Barber’s Ophelia, he is an adolescent of unusual nobility, sensitivity, and idealism who finds it difficult to adjust to the dishonesty and corruption of the real world.” Peter McGarry (Coventry Evening Telegraph 06/09/84) disagreed: “It’s hard to swallow Mr. Rees’s petulant schoolboy image, the marionette-like flapping of arms, the wide-eyed expressions.” John Barber (Daily Telegraph 07/07/84) wrote “This bony, hollow-cheeked, well-graced young actor flings it all off with a thrilling technical address.” Peter Kemp (Independent 18/03/89) wrote “As if genetically typecast for Hamlet, Daniel Day-Lewis could hardly look more the part of the brilliant, moody undergraduate … In a performance that perfectly complements this physical persona, Day-Lewis never lets you forget the central fact about Hamlet: that he is a young intellectual, someone whose mind is more developed than his emotions.” John Gross (Sunday Telegraph 19/03/89) felt that Day-Lewis’s matinee idol looks emphasized his youth but this interpretation was too immature: “How old is Hamlet? He is a student, but in the course of the play we are also told that he is 30; a young man, certainly, but not so young that we can’t also think of him simply as a man. In Richard Eyre’s production of Hamlet…the emphasis falls on his youthfulness, and with Daniel Day Lewis in the part it is hard to see how it could have been otherwise. Day Lewis is still in the first flush of his career as a leading man, not a say a leading heart-throb: the prince he presents us with is slim, fast-moving, conspicuous for his romantic good looks. Day Lewis is good at conveying vulnerability and (where he doesn’t overdo it) the fits of ‘sore distraction,’ but he lacks the deep reserves of bitterness and bitter intelligence that make Hamlet a hero as well as a victim … I would be interested to see what he makes of it, say, in 10 years’ time. But meanwhile he has given us a Hamlet who is not so much young as immature.” Michael Coveney (Financial Times 18/03/89) wrote “What he lacks is fever, impulsiveness, immaturity.” How old do you think this Hamlet looks? In a review entitled “Modern Day Twist to the Classic Tale of Tortured Souls” a critic in the Coventry Evening Telegraph (10/05/97) wrote: “…Alex Jennings is a mature student prince, hiding his grief for his late father behind a stiff upper lip.” Rhoda Koenig (Independent 08/05/2001) felt that Sam West was “entirely convincing as an anguished young man trying to understand his situation and decide what to do.” Charles Spencer (Telegraph 04/05/2001) felt that West’s “scruffy student prince has a lot going for it.” Benedict Nightingale (Times 04/05/2001) wrote: “The Prince is discovered sulking at court in a hooded sweatshirt that makes him look like an anti-capitalist demonstrator who has wandered into a City boardroom; but once his face appears, he successfully establishes himself as a naturally sensitive, gentle, reflective young man who matures and hardens with time, but is driven to bouts of frenzy and thoughts of suicide as he desperately tries to make himself want to use violence.” Imagine you are a casting director casting a production of Hamlet. Draw up a list of qualities you’re looking for in the actor you want to cast as Hamlet – age, height, colouring, build etc. Are you looking for dark looks? Or for someone notably Scandinavian looking? Go through the text and pick out quotations that will help you build up a picture of the type of man you’re looking for. Next try to find pictures in magazines of men who fit your image. Cut them out and make a poster of words and images to display on the classroom wall. A discussion of other actors in the role can be found in 'Stage History' in the About the Play section. And you can also read about other Hamlets by going to our Archive exhibition. For more about madness, please see Madness in Hamlet.