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ing of the whole "revenge" motif throughout the play. 
     It is ironic that Shakespeare's solicitude for his actor-companions should have been repaid by actors of succeeding generations in such doubtful coin. I have been unable to trace the origin of the appellation of "The Gloomy Dane" as descriptive of Hamlet, but it is safe to surmise that some actor of mournful aspect was responsible for this forbidding label. All of us who play the part inevitably bring something of our own personalities into the portrayal and each of us has his own pet theory about Hamlet's character. The Gloomy Dane makes way for [[next column]] the Princely Dane (Sir Johnston Forbes-Robertson), the Intellectual Dane (Sir John Gielgud), for (in my own case) the Soldierly Dane. Whatever approach the actor elects to adopt he should be constantly aware of his solemn responsibility, because there is no question that the impression made by the most recent performance of Hamlet can have a lasting effect on all who see it. Would I play Hamlet again? Have the years dimmed my enthusiasm for this play, this role? Of course not. It is a magnificent challenge that few actors could resist. I am certainly not one who could [[image - square]]
Christoper Plummer
Hamlet is curiosity. His mind is possessed by it. It perplexes, fascinates and even threatens his very existence- and at the last is driving him still to examine minutely that final experience ... death. 
He is also an intellectual, a philosopher, an aesthete and only as mad as any genius is considered mad. He has the serenity of a Galahad, the poetry of a Dante and the passion of a Christ. 
[[image - photograph of two actors in costume]] [[caption for photograph]] Christopher Plummer as the doomed Dane with Frances Hyland as Ophelia. [[/caption for photograph]]
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He is a bit of a monster with a touch of the divine, a sprinkling of the athlete and an abundance of the scholar. 
Very much a victim of destiny, Hamlet is both frustrated and cruel and his flashes of fiery and sardonic wit illustrate that he is probably one of the originators of "sick" humor. 
I disagree with the theory that he is a man of indecision. The truth is that he has made up his mind many times over and it is only through his self-analytical precision and towering imagination that he finds himself living the deed long before he commits himself to its performance. This questioning of his own motives and the forces surrounding him gives rise to self-revelations of such complexity they cloud the issue and prevent his natural instincts for great simplicity and truth from achieving their ends. 
Hamlet could live in any age and his problems would remain valid. I would never go so far as to say Hamlet is Everyman--he is very much an extraordinary man. Nevertheless, somewhere deep inside all of us there is a part of Hamlet.

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I have played the part twice now, most recently on film. I am still just as puzzled. No actor can ever play it thoroughly and satisfactorily once, twice or even in a lifetime because so much of the general public over the last 400 years has brought to the play its own personal and particular preconception. I doubt there has ever been a definitive performance.

I've found the concentration required to achieve the correct inner intensity of the man exhausting and depressing, so much so in fact that on many occasions it has spilled over into my own life. Naturally, the moments I enjoy most are those that come most easily to me - the extrovert side of the man - in other words whenever - as Hamlet - I can come out of my shell and feel released.

The great challenge in the soliloquies is to make them as intimate as a whisper, fresh as a new thought, as natural as life and yet never to lose the beauty and flow of their poetry. When I first played the part I found these were my weakest moments. I hope to play Hamlet once more before I'm too old - on the stage again - so that I can experiment in this respect with the marriage of these two mediums. It is so easy to make Hamlet self-pitying: I was a bit guilty of this my first time through. Not so, I hope, the second! As he doesn't possess a scrap of self-pity, this must be avoided at all costs.
Even though we may or may not be "great" Hamlets, if we have the chance we must take it, "grapple it to the heart with hoops of steel" ... try to "tear its passion to tatters", for whatever happens we'll all emerge better actors for it.
Hamlet will always be there - very much alive and very, very human. [[image - square]]

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