Change Your Image
tonykcb
Reviews
Hamlet (2000)
Delivering Shakespeare
Usually, Americans playing Shakespeare make a hash of the language - see "Much Ado About Nothing" with Keanu Reeve and Robert Sean Leonard for unassailable proof. In this version of "Hamlet", though, Campbell Scott's unassuming, straightforward delivery of some of Shakespeare's most challenging lines is almost flawless. It is not that the American accent is unsuited to dealing with Elizabethan English, it seems, but the tradition of allowing the language to speak for itself is usually lacking with American actors. They seem to need to imbue everything with their own idea of what the character's emotional state should be, which the language, if it is powerful enough, should be able to do all by itself. As a result of seeing this version of "Hamlet", I have had to rethink completely my prejudices about Americans playing Shakespeare.