Ben Kingsley was cast as Hamlet in the production, having joined the Company in 1967. The award-winning actor and RSC Associate Artist was knighted for his services to the film industry in 2002.

During the run of Hamlet, one audience member was so impressed by Kingsley's performance that he told his father, director Richard Attenborough, not to cast the title role in the film Gandhi until he had seen the actor. This was a turning point in Kingsley's career as he acknowledged in an interview with the New York Times in 1982: Ben Kingsley’s Journey From Hamlet to Gandhi.

THE MIRROR UP TO NATURE

Performing in The Other Place, Ben Kingsley really appreciated Hamlet’s advice to the players in Act 3 Scene 2 “to hold, as ‘twere the mirror up to nature”. He noted that the company “learned to brave a much closer level of scrutiny from our audience, moving from ‘us and them’ to ‘you and I’.” ('Flashback: A Pictorial History 1879-1979, one hundred years of Stratford-upon-Avon and the Royal Shakespeare Company', compiled by Micheline Steinberg, RSC Publications, 1979.)

The proximity of the performer and audience enhanced the drama, so when Kingsley tore up the love letters to Ophelia, he threw them at the spectators. Kingsley epitomised the style of the production with his energetic, realistic and truthful performance.

COMPANY

Gareth Armstrong – Francisco, Rosencrantz, Priest

George Baker – Claudius

Charles Dance – Reynaldo, Player 3, Fortinbras

Griffith Jones – Ghost

Ben Kingsley – Hamlet

Mikel Lambert – Gertrude

Sidney Livingstone – Horatio

Yvonne Nicholson - Ophelia

Bob Peck – Player 1, Norwegian Captain, Gravedigger 1

Christopher Saul – Barnado, English Ambassador, Guildenstern

Andre Van Gyseghem – Polonius

Stuart Wilson – Laertes, Player 4

Terence Wilton – Marcellus, Player 2, Marcellus, Osric

CREATIVES

Director – Buzz Goodbody

Designer - Chris Dyer

Lighting designer –Leo Leibovici

The RSC's archive is held at the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust. You can visit the Library and Archives there to look at production related information, including photos, videos of shows and stage management documents:

Shakespeare Centre Library and Archive homepage

You can search the RSC catalogue here: 

RSC performance database