WOMAN PLAYS HAMLET
EXPERIMENT IN LONDON.
The "Sydney Morning Herald's" London correspondent writes: "I had the curious experience the other day of seeing 'Hamlet' played by a woman. The brave actress who made this experiment was Miss Esme Berenger. I was pleasantly surprised and eventually absorbed by her rendering of what must be one of the most difficult stage parts in the English language. It is true that I never forgot that she was a woman, but this did not seem to matter.
"I was most impressed by the distinction which Miss Berenger drew between Hamlet's moments of complete, sanity and his lapses into madness. This she achieved for the most part by varying her facial expression, for she had an effective trick of making her usually humorous eyes look quite wild and mad.
"Miss Berenger, I learned, is getting on for 50, but she acted with all the zest and vigour of a young man, and the lines round her eyes served to give character and a certain necessary haggard appearance to the role of Hamlet. She has a figure which any young girl might envy, and made a brave show in doublet and hose. A courageous experiment!"
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Bibliographic details
Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 48, 26 February 1938, Page 19
Word Count
199WOMAN PLAYS HAMLET Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 48, 26 February 1938, Page 19
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