By: Ashley Barrow
“To be or not to be that is the question:” Andrew Scott while playing Hamlet The Prince in Hamlet on July 18 at The Harold Pinter Theatre. Soothing, yet dramatic, Scott knows how to relate to the audience even though the play was written in the 1600’s.
Every line was perfected and he was able to exaggerate, yet relate to the audience at the same time. A profile in Evening Standard said, “As his career-defining Hamlet comes to West End, Andrew Scott speaks to Marcus Field about moving away from psychopath roles, rejecting religion and the future of Sherlock.”
I noticed during the course of the play that Scott is very intimate with the audience. He sees to talk to the audience with some of the lines and truly mesmerizes everyone with every line. He also has a very naturalistic approach to his acting that makes the audience think about real life situations. Scott seems to make the show a world of his own and seems to bring out real life issues that could be relatable to the audience.
Scott seems to put his whole heart and soul into the performance. “To die, to sleep- to sleep, perchance to dream- ay, there’s rub, for in this sleep of death what dreams may come…”. During this part of the play I noticed that Scott seemed to be almost talking to the audience in a soothing way. It wasn’t very dramatic, yet captivating to the audience at the same time. An article in gaytimes.co.uk states, “Andrew Scott absolutely shines in his bold, ambitious and intelligent reimagining of the Shakespearean tragedy. Adopting a conversational style, he breathes new life- and on occasion, some much-needed humour- into Hamlet’s well-known soliloquies. It’s a complex performance ranging from quiet contemplating to maddening rage, adopting the whole gamut of emotions in-between, but in each scene, he oozes authenticity. It’s evidently a hugely demanding role but he never falters, delivering a captivating performance from start to finish.”
The main aspect that I grasped about Scott is that he performed in an authentic way. He truly brings out the modern-day issues through his acting and lets the audience relate to his performing on a deeper level. After seeing Scott perform live I have a deeper appreciation for Scott and London theatre in general. It makes a big difference to find out how a performer acts in person instead of finding out about who performers are on the computer.
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