Eddie Izzard and Suzy Izzard are one and the same. The standup comedian and actor came out more than 40 years ago, she explains in this video interview, and identifies as trans.
And that makes playing the female characters in Hamlet – making them strong and believable – something of a mission for this veteran British entertainer.
Izzard becomes Ophelia and Gertrude – as well as Hamlet, Polonius, Claudius, Horatio, Laertes and the other (male) characters in Shakespeare’s best-known tragedy. It’s a full-on solo performance.
There are five shows Friday through Monday (including two matinees) at the Straz Center in Tampa.
“You would think that’s kinda my job – if you’re going to be trans, do honor to them. As opposed to, there’s a big thing in the British pantomime tradition with men playing women, in big boots and clomping around. And not playing the female that’s inside them, but playing some weird, grotesque version of a female. That’s not what I’m trying to do.”
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Izzard plays 23 characters in the play. In this interview, she discusses the ups, downs, ins, outs and arounds of darting about the stage and speaking all sides of a group conversation (she mastered the technique in 2022, with a solo production of Dickens’ Great Expectations).
One thing the audience needs to know: This is not a comedic Hamlet. “This frenetic staging is earnest, surprisingly traditional and deadly serious,” the New York Times said in its review.
So don’t expect Benny Hill Does the Bard.
Izzard is one of England’s wittiest comics, in the absurd, pomposity-puncturing Monty Python vein, and has won numerous British (and American) awards, including two Emmys and a Tony nomination.
She also maintains a career as a dramatic actor, and that’s the well from which this Hamlet is drawn.
“I fight for the thickness of the silence,” Izzard says. “Because in comedy, you fight for the thickness of the laughter.
“To be so inside these characters, I’m really not worried – people could almost have a fight out there, I would just talk over and carry on. Because I’m so in the space. Maybe I’ve fought my whole life to get to this place.”
In other words, the audience helps her fight for the silence. They’re absorbed in the production. “Yes … or they walk out!” she offers, “saying ‘Where’s the flying car?’ ‘Where are all the other actors?’ Where are the costumes?’ I’m not doing that.
“I’m working with my imagination and their imaginations, and we get to a beautiful place.”
The Tragedy of Hamlet is performed in the Jaeb Theatre. Find showtimes and tickets at this link.