What can you say about a performer who willingly takes on 23 roles in a one-person show?
If you replied, “probably the same sort of performer who would run a marathon followed with a stand-up comedy set, every day for a month” that would be oddly specific. But you’d be correct.
Eddie Izzard ’s acclaimed solo performance of Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Hamlet features her portraying cast members from the title character to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. It will be presented March 13-16 in Straz Center’s Jaeb Theater.
Izzard’s Hamlet run was extended three times in New York City and has sold out in Chicago, London and Sydney. Tampa is one of a handful of U.S. cities in which Izzard is performing on this tour.
Reviews have been ecstatic, expressing amazement at Izzard’s gripping performance as well as the mental and physical accomplishment the show demands. If any current performance can be rightfully called “unique,” it’s Izzard’s Hamlet.
Dame Judi Dench led the cheers in London, describing Izzard’s performance there as “spectacular,” while other reviews called Izzard’s performances “absorbing and intimate,” “monumental” and “masterfully accomplished.”
The marathon/comedy double-header took place during the pandemic as a multi-charity fundraiser for groups such as Walking With the Wounded and Covenant House. Lockdown meant no live audience for the comedy set, not to mention marathons run on a treadmill. Running 26.2 miles on a treadmill might strike some as a tad boring, but Izzard assured that it is, in fact, “mind-numbingly boring.”
“I didn’t think it would be as boring as it was,” said Izzard, who staved off the tedium with as many as a dozen Zoom calls a day to whoever she knew who was up for a chat.
The post-marathon sets were sometimes stand-up in name only. “I kept falling asleep during the show, so I had to sit on a chair in the end, and it was more of a thing to do rather than a great show,” she said.
For now, she’s challenging herself with 23 Shakespearean characters instead of 26.2 miles. Even though she studied drama in college, Izzard found Shakespeare intimidating. Her dyslexia made reading Shakespeare, much less memorizing dialogue, a major challenge.
“My teenage reaction was, ‘Oh well, Shakespeare’s not for me,’” Izzard said.
After college, she worked for years as a street performer in the U.S. and Europe before developing her performance for the stage. By the mid-1990s, Izzard was one of comedy’s most recognizable stars with a string of commercially successful and critically lauded specials such as Definite Article and Dress to Kill.
After her successful pivot to comedy, Izzard wanted to take on dramatic roles as well. But Shakesperean roles weren’t being offered.
“I wanted to do Shakespeare,” Izzard said. “I felt I was ready for it, but I found that people were reluctant to take me on probably because of comedic baggage or me being an unusual person or whatever it is, they just didn’t put me as the top of their list.”
After performing a solo version of Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations, Izzard knew she could apply the techniques she’d learned to Shakespeare.
“I’m not quite sure why I decided to go to Hamlet,” Izzard said. “Richard III was on my trajectory. I don’t think I wanted to go straight for Macbeth.”
For Hamlet, Izzard drew from her street performer days.
“All of Shakespeare’s actors, they had come from performing in marketplaces in open festivals,” said Izzard. As with street performance, the fourth wall isn’t so much broken as never installed.
“I had a huge experience of talking to people and admitting that they were there,” Izzard said. “And so we thought, let’s take that in.”
Audiences will take in Izzard changing characters with a turn or a step to the right. Tom Piper’s bleak, minimalist set keeps the focus on the story. And Izzard. “There’s a clarity where you get the stories and the words very clearly when everything is stripped away,” Izzard said. “So that’s how we’re performing it.”
