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For pure performance panache, there is no better role for a twenty-something actor than the twenty-something Dane. Campbell Scott's portrayal of Hamlet in 1990 at San Diego's Old Globe Theatre (well-timed, at age 28, and well-suited to Scott's own blend of gentleness and bravado) might have laid this ghost to rest forever--especially for an actor who by now an already-seasoned Shakespearean. (Scott played Iago in the Philadelphia Drama Guild's Othello, Angelo in Measure for Measure at Lincoln Center Theater. and turned in a much-admired Pericles at the New York Shakespeare Festival.) "I do think Hamlet's a young man's play, " Scott reasons, "because it's the story of a young man who has to grow up and become a prince. If you play it at 40, that's a bit much. "But after West Coast plaudits like "simply awesome" and "electrifying," Scott is defying augury anyway, feigning an antic disposition for a second time (at Boston's Huntington Theatre, through April 7). So what is Hamlet to him, or he to Hamlet, and is Scott flirting with madness doing it all over again? This Hamlet had no trouble making up his mind.
Was it a hard decision to tackle Hamlet a second time?
When we closed the last one, Jack O'Brien
artistic director of the Old Globe
wanted to take it somewhere else. In fact, it felt as if we were just beginning to learn about this play. I didn't feel "done" with Hamlet after three months...none of us did. While some parts--even Shakespearean roles--leave you after you close a play (you forget the lines, you're on to the next thing, that's it), Hamlet stayed with me over the years. I'm shocked how much, really. Especially the verse.
Other actors have said that after your first time you feel...