The Greatest Roles

[Phantom of London]

I have read playing Hamlet is the gold standard in acting, especially playing the titular role 8 times a week, where you have exactly one chance to get it right.

I guess playing Hamlet is the greatest role you can play on stage and is the absolute gold standard.

What are the other massive characters to play on stage?

[oxfordsimon]

Few actors will play Hamlet 8 performances a week these days. So often Shakespeare is performed in rep that the idea of a 3 month run of a single play is a rarity.

Hamlet is a big role with many memorable speeches but I am not sure it is the most demanding of the Shakespearean leads. Because it is open to a broad range of interpretations, it is somewhat harder to absolutely crash and burn in the role.

Personally I think Macbeth is a more difficult role. I have yet to see a performance on stage that truly convinced me of all sides of the man. I have seen the noble thane but not combined with the war worn warrior. And the warrior with no nobility. And so forth.

If you want a modern role that feels monumental in scale and scope then it has to be Rooster in Jerusalem. That has epic writ large through it. Rylance was miraculous in the part. It is hard to imagine that performance being bettered. But it will be and by someone unexpected. I just don't know who yet

[vickyg]

Of the things I've seen: Blanche in Streetcar. I can't imagine a two show day playing that character!

[Jan]

Most leading stage actors play Hamlet and King Lear. For leading stage actresses it is less clear cut, up until recently most would play Hedda Gabler at some point.

[David J]

King Lear is a challenging role to me because he is not easy to empathise with. And yes the way he is treated after being locked out in the storm is not good, but before that I can't help but agree with the daughters. He gives up his kingdom for an unknown reason (which is why I would like to see a production that begins with his wife's funeral) and yet assumes he still has power and can do whatever he wants afterwards. That and disowning his daughter because she's honest and feels actions speak louder than words.

But that is why I have seen countless King Lears because I like to see what the actor can do with the role. Derek Jacobi is the only one I cried for at the end. One of the best performances I've ever seen. Frank Langella's Lear was also sympathetic at times.

Leontes is also a challenging role to get right. Sure his jealousy manifests from his own mind with no real proof, but the actor has to convince us that he would go so far as defy the gods in condemning his wife. Greg Hicks' intense performance set the standard for me, Orlando James gave a really convincing performance and somehow made me feel a small amount of pity for him.

[Jan]

Feb 23, 2021 11:02:17 GMT David J said:

 He gives up his kingdom for an unknown reason (which is why I would like to see a production that begins with his wife's funeral) 

King Lear is a play where one of the key characters (in terms of perhaps explaining the motivation of the other characters) is already dead. Uncle Vanya is another, and even more so. 

Leontes is a tough role as it is very unsymapthetic (until maybe right at the end) - Greg Hicks is one of the few actors who have been prepared to play it that way, as he did Coriolanus. He was a genuinely scary Richard III at the Arcola too. He'd be good as Titus Andronicus.  

[oxfordsimon]

When I directed Lear in 2008/9, I opened the action with a funeral. I left it open as to who had died. It was either Mrs Lear or Mrs Polonius. But it was a clear trigger for Lear to make a significant decision.

I suspect the death of my own mother between casting and starting rehearsals was very much playing in my mind.

The other choice that was central to my take on the play was to use an older definition of 'mad' - at the time of writing madness was often used to refer to anger. So my Lear was driven by his own rages and inability to control them. This was a primary cause of his distraction. It meant the storm was a manifestation of the battle raging inside of him.

It was a fascinating play to work on particularly at that point in my life.

[Phantom of London]

Not just acting the role is no mean feat in itself, but also the capacity to remember so many lines. I said earlier Shakespeare could be regarded as the gold standard of acting, it is the equivalent of doing the Iron Man

Just recently watched Othello, with Ian McKellan and the role of Lago is amazing, just the amount of script you have to learn, more so than Othello.

Even if you don’t play Hamlet 8 times a week, you still have to learn all those marvellous soliloquys and on stage you don’t get a second chance. Imagine being Hamlet’s understudy learning all those lines and speeches and never using them.

[oxfordsimon]

Hamlet isn't the largest role in the canon. Richard III is!

www.playshakespeare.com/study/biggest-roles

As a rule, neither play is given uncut. Modern audiences aren't easy to convince to sit for 5 hours

[lynette]

I read somewhere that Burbage was down the pub one night boasting he could play anything that Shakespeare wrote for him. So Shakespeare wrote Othello. I am of the unpopular opinion that Shakespeare saw or read with women who acted his female characters , maybe in private houses and he wrote for women not yet born but who would, he knew, eventually act professionally - for them he wrote Cleopatra.

[Phantom of London]

Feb 23, 2021 19:00:54 GMT oxfordsimon said:

Hamlet isn't the largest role in the canon. Richard III is!

www.playshakespeare.com/study/biggest-roles

As a rule, neither play is given uncut. Modern audiences aren't easy to convince to sit for 5 hours

Wasn’t aware of that website, neither was I aware that King Richard III was the largest Shakespearean role. I have saved that website I’m my folder, for future reference. Where I mentioned above that Lago is pretty much a meaty role, I had no clue then 2 hours ago, it was the 3rd largest role.

To grapple with such a role must take absolutely weeks to learn and I mean to a visceral standard? Even for a film, you would have to learn all your lines before shooting.

[oxfordsimon]

Some people can learn lines with great ease... it's a real skill. When 8 directing, I don't like cast members bring fully off book before rehearsals as there is a tendency to make decisions too early in the process. But it is different for each actor.

You could, of course, just rely on an earpiece to feed you the lines....

[Jan]

Feb 23, 2021 14:58:45 GMT oxfordsimon said:

The other choice that was central to my take on the play was to use an older definition of 'mad' - at the time of writing madness was often used to refer to anger. So my Lear was driven by his own rages and inability to control them. 

That was notably the way Derek Jacobi played the role, on a short fuse and suddenly exploding with rage (going alarmingly red-faced into the bargain).