Summer Drama Festival. Last year George Clark, the festival’s talented and innovative director, sent on to Broadway a very smart and excruciatingly funny production of Sheridan’s eighteenth-century classic The School for Scandal. Two years before we had Louis Murray and Merrill Kane in a very fine and passionate Antigone, a play that was distinguished by Mr. Clark’s excellent use of the chorus. This year, with a piece of casting that takes one’s breath away, Mr. Clark is presenting Christopher Douglas in Hamlet.
Hamlet is perhaps Shakespeare’s most fascinating and demanding character. The actor who portrays Hamlet places himself in a position of inevitable comparison to the great actors of our century: John Gielgud, Laurence Olivier, and Richard Burton to name a few. The challenge is daunting. Mr. Douglas first of all is an American, and no American actor in recent memory has risen to the challenge of Shakespeare in any way comparable to the British. Secondly, Mr. Douglas’s main experience has been in movies. He had stage experience as a student, and was in fact given his first screen test on the basis of a performance at New Haven’s Long Stage, but the fact remains that the greater part of his career has been spent in films.
It has been a phenomenally successful career, one hastens to add. There is not another screen actor performing today who can equal his popularity. His films invariably make back their initial investment in the first month of showing. But is that admittedly astonishing record enough to enable him to undertake so demanding a role as Hamlet?
One’s immediate reaction is to say no. No, the man who starred in Raid on Kailis, that glossy, adventurous blockbuster, is not the man who can play Hamlet. Which is not to say that Mr. Douglas was not very fine in his last film. He was. He has a screen presence that is possibly unsurpassed by any other actor in recent memory: a really beautiful face in the classic sense, a lean and splendid body and a voice that most actors would sell their souls for. Perhaps that is the problem, perhaps he has so much going for him that it is too easy for him to sit back and let the facade do all the work.
And yet... one remembers Ivan of The Russian Experiment. It was his first role and his best, and hinted at possibilities within him yet to be explored. In his recent films he has portrayed the popular modem hero: casual on the surface, tough and self-sufficient underneath. He has done it charmingly, effortlessly, and has managed at the same time to convey a sexual quality that is remarkable considering the restraint of most of his love scenes. But in Ivan we had something more: a depth and complexity hinted at, but palpable. The man who played Ivan may be able to do Hamlet.
Mr. Douglas apparently thinks himself that it is time he moved on from the world of popular movies into something more challenging. He could not, however, have picked a more formidable role. One applauds his courage. And awaits the outcome.
There was the sound of a chair being pulled out and Mary looked up to see Kit sitting down with a cup of coffee. “Have you seen the Times?” she asked immediately.
“No, I haven’t.” He sipped his coffee. “Good morning.”
She wrinkled her nose slightly. “Sorry. Good morning. And read this article.” She handed it over and picked up her own cup, her eyes on his face as he read. When he had finished he put it down and looked thoughtful.
“I don’t know what whim brought you to Yarborough, my friend, but you’ve put yourself behind the eight ball, haven’t you?” she said tensely.
“Have I?” he replied calmly.
“Yes. George said the first-night audience would be packed with critics waiting to see if you were going to fall on your face. Apparently he was right.” She tapped the paper with a long, nervous finger.
“Everything Calder said here is true, you know. I did coast through my last three movies. It was
Hamlet is perhaps Shakespeare’s most fascinating and demanding character. The actor who portrays Hamlet places himself in a position of inevitable comparison to the great actors of our century: John Gielgud, Laurence Olivier, and Richard Burton to name a few. The challenge is daunting. Mr. Douglas first of all is an American, and no American actor in recent memory has risen to the challenge of Shakespeare in any way comparable to the British. Secondly, Mr. Douglas’s main experience has been in movies. He had stage experience as a student, and was in fact given his first screen test on the basis of a performance at New Haven’s Long Stage, but the fact remains that the greater part of his career has been spent in films.
It has been a phenomenally successful career, one hastens to add. There is not another screen actor performing today who can equal his popularity. His films invariably make back their initial investment in the first month of showing. But is that admittedly astonishing record enough to enable him to undertake so demanding a role as Hamlet?
One’s immediate reaction is to say no. No, the man who starred in Raid on Kailis, that glossy, adventurous blockbuster, is not the man who can play Hamlet. Which is not to say that Mr. Douglas was not very fine in his last film. He was. He has a screen presence that is possibly unsurpassed by any other actor in recent memory: a really beautiful face in the classic sense, a lean and splendid body and a voice that most actors would sell their souls for. Perhaps that is the problem, perhaps he has so much going for him that it is too easy for him to sit back and let the facade do all the work.
And yet... one remembers Ivan of The Russian Experiment. It was his first role and his best, and hinted at possibilities within him yet to be explored. In his recent films he has portrayed the popular modem hero: casual on the surface, tough and self-sufficient underneath. He has done it charmingly, effortlessly, and has managed at the same time to convey a sexual quality that is remarkable considering the restraint of most of his love scenes. But in Ivan we had something more: a depth and complexity hinted at, but palpable. The man who played Ivan may be able to do Hamlet.
Mr. Douglas apparently thinks himself that it is time he moved on from the world of popular movies into something more challenging. He could not, however, have picked a more formidable role. One applauds his courage. And awaits the outcome.
There was the sound of a chair being pulled out and Mary looked up to see Kit sitting down with a cup of coffee. “Have you seen the Times?” she asked immediately.
“No, I haven’t.” He sipped his coffee. “Good morning.”
She wrinkled her nose slightly. “Sorry. Good morning. And read this article.” She handed it over and picked up her own cup, her eyes on his face as he read. When he had finished he put it down and looked thoughtful.
“I don’t know what whim brought you to Yarborough, my friend, but you’ve put yourself behind the eight ball, haven’t you?” she said tensely.
“Have I?” he replied calmly.
“Yes. George said the first-night audience would be packed with critics waiting to see if you were going to fall on your face. Apparently he was right.” She tapped the paper with a long, nervous finger.
“Everything Calder said here is true, you know. I did coast through my last three movies. It was
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