Mark Twain wrote, "There are five kinds of actresses: bad actresses, fair actresses, good actresses, great actresses. And then there is Sarah Bernhardt." In 1899, the international stage celebrity set out to tackle her most ambitious role yet: Hamlet. Theresa Rebeck's new play rollicks with high comedy and human drama, set against the lavish Shakespearean production that could make or break Bernhardt's career. Janet McTeer, "one of the finest classical actresses of her generation" (The Telegraph), brings the legendary leading lady to life. The remaining cast and creative team will be announced soon.
Playwright Theresa Rebeck offers her star many such pithy moments in her fact-based comedy/drama Bernhardt/Hamlet. Her explanation as to why a woman would be the most sensible choice to play Shakespeare's 'passionate, confused boy with the mind of a man of forty,' is inarguably logical. Her act one curtain line is a real kicker and there's a glorious scene of intellectual fury as she justifiably chastises a playwright who has written a role for her that he regards as 'the embodiment of female perfection,' but she immediately recognizes as 'some statue for you to throw your genius poetry at.'
While von Stuelpnagel seems intent on out-Heroding Herod, McTeer and Rebeck are caught in a trap that's at once more difficult and more sympathetic. They're torn between the seduction of Bernhardt's myth and the more unknowable essence of her humanity - between the compulsion to hold up this spectacular woman from history as both an artistic legend and a feminist hero, and the less flashy, much more personal impulse to tell the story of a woman of the theater who's wrestling with ego, uncertainty, mortality, and Shakespeare. I know which story interests me more, but Bernhardt/Hamlet never fully makes the leap. Instead, it spends its time plucking low-hanging fruit and getting its characters into arguments that feel like cul-de-sacs. It can't decide whether it wants to ridicule or re-envision Hamlet's lack of resolve, and in the meantime, it never quite finds its own.
2018 | Broadway |
Roundabout Theatre Company Original Broadway Production Broadway |
Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
---|---|---|---|
2019 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Costume Design for a Play | Toni-Leslie James |
2019 | Drama League Awards | Distinguished Performance Award | Janet McTeer |
2019 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Scenic Design | Beowulf Boritt |
2019 | Tony Awards | Best Costume Design of a Play | Toni-Leslie James |
2019 | Tony Awards | Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play | Janet McTeer |
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