Before Hamlet begins, Suzy Eddie Izzard walks out onto the stage for a short preamble. She notes a parallel between William Shakespeare’s journey from comedies to tragedies to her own as a comedian currently performing his most famous tragedy, before gifting the audience with some of the most beautiful storytelling you might ever see.
I had written “ambles out..” just before, but amble has connotations of being casual, and there’s nothing casual about this undertaking. It’s clearly in her bones, but then again where the heck else are you supposed to fit an entire play? The human head can surely only expand so far.
Unabridged, the text is four hours long, which Tom Stoppard got down to 15 minutes (and even shorter still in his play’s coda). This adaptation by Mark Izzard, and directed by Selina Cadell, comes in at two hours, robust without ever overstaying its welcome.
Shakespeare wrote, The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, at the turn of the 17th Century, but the manner in which Izzard tells this story reaches much further back. Human beings have been telling stories to each other – many in amphitheatres similar to the shape of the Fairfax Studio – for thousands of years. The simplicity of this presentation and how enthralled the audience were, evoked something of that tradition.
The tale may be grim at times, but the telling is anything but. Compelling yes, but Izzard is clearly enjoying herself, and that sense of fun is infectious with no shortage of laugh-out-loud moments.
Alan Moore is considered one of Britain’s greatest storytellers and a self-declared magician/warlock. Like Alan, it’s difficult not to think you were witnessing magic or some kind of sorcery with Izzard’s ability to communicate so much in the audience’s mind with only the smallest gesture.
When the ghost of Hamlet’s father appears, Izzard, as Hamlet and the Prince’s guards, view him at first by merely looking up, yet with this small action we understand so much about the horror and substance of the ghastly visage in front of them, and of the depth of the violation that caused his death. She then moves to the back, the narrow, stark spotlight illuminating the King, resolving his form in terrifying fashion as he describes his murder.
Besides the general wash, that spotlight is one third of what is a genius lighting design by Tyler Elich, with just two other lights on the floor that for all its minimal setup enables magic to happen.
For scenes where there are multiple characters, Izzard steps back and her body casts two shadows and the stage feels inhabited. For any of the soliloquies, she steps forward and the shadows disappear and we are inexorably brought along and drawn into Hamlet’s path of revenge.
We know where that path leads, we know it will eventually consume everything, and we can’t look away from any of it. Wring the thesaurus with all your might and you would still want for words to articulate the brilliance of this performance – the first word being, Compulsary. Get to it!
Eddie Izzard performs Shakespeare’s Hamlet
Fairfax Studio – Arts Centre Melbourne, 100 St Kilda Road, Melbourne
Performance: Tuesday 30 June 2026
Season continues to 12 July 2026
Information and Bookings: www.artscentremelbourne.com.au
Following the Melbourne season, Eddie Izzard performs Shakespeare’s Hamlet will be presented at the Heath Ledger Theatre, Perth (27 – 28 July) and Canberra Theatre Centre (31 July – 1 August).
Image: Suzy Eddie Izzard (supplied)
Review: June Collins