GIELGUD'S HAMLET

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 280, 26 November 1938, Page 10 (Supplement)

GIELGUD'S HAMLET

OF all Shakespeare's productions, the most popular is "Hamlet," and of all his dramatis personae, the most difficult to impersonate is the young prince. The extraordinarily subtle , complexity of his character presents the actor with a psychological problem, and different actors have accordingly interpreted it in different ways, and many hooks have been written on ft, no two of them on quite the same lines. Among the most recent of these books is Miss Rosamond Gilder's ".John' Gielgud's Hamlet" (Methuen). Miss Gilder is a Xew York theatre qrititf, as well as the author of several books oh the theatre, and

Mr. Gielgud is one of the most outstanding modern imj>ersonators of Hamlet. In the first part of the book Miss Gilder describes in vivid detail Mr. Gielgud's performance as witnessed by her, and analyses its effect. In the second, she gives Mr. Gielgud's own commentary of his performance along with notes by him on the "tradition" of Hamlet and on problems and questions regarding the play. He describes the complexity of Hamlet's character as "enormous," and makes it clear that the interpreting of it makes great physical as well as intellectual demands on the actor. The book will apjieal to students of Shakespeare, and will be especially helpful to actors and producers. It contains several illustrations.