![\"Actor](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Suzy-Eddie-Izzard-B.-Lenoir-shutterstock_2374500295.jpg\")
Suzy Eddie Izzard at at Odeon Luxe, Leicester Square, on Oct. 11, 2023. Credit: B. Lenoir \/ Shutterstock<\/p>\nSuzy Eddie Izzard at at Odeon Luxe, Leicester Square, on Oct. 11, 2023. Credit: B. Lenoir \/ Shutterstock<\/p>\n
If you were going to pick a Shakespeare play to adapt into a solo work, you probably wouldn\u2019t pick \u201cHamlet.\u201d The bard\u2019s longest work is known through the centuries for its psychological complexity and its interweaving subplots.<\/p>\n
And if you were going to pick a type of actor to take on the task of performing that show, your first pick might not be someone who\u2019s best known for comedy, and who delights in casual gender-fluidity.<\/p>\n
But if you\u2019re familiar with Suzy Eddie Izzard, you\u2019re probably unsurprised, and pretty jazzed, that she\u2019ll perform \u201cThe Tragedy of Hamlet\u201d five times inside Jaeb Theatre at Tampa\u2019s David A. Straz Center of the Performing Arts<\/a> this weekend.\u00a0<\/p>\n Izzard allows that she\u2019s most widely considered a comic actor or even a comedian\u2014her last appearance at the Straz was an evening-length stand-up performance to a packed and appreciative theater a couple of years back\u2014but drama has always been a focus\u00a0 of her career.<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of people know me from comedy,\u201d Izzard said. \u201cBut if you watch \u2018The Riches,\u2019 that was a drama. \u2018A Day in the Life of Joe Egg,\u2019 when I was Tony-nominated for best actor along with Philip Seymour Hoffman and Stanley Tucci, that was drama. \u2018Valkyrie,\u2019 that was drama. Nearly all the films and television that you might have seen me in, they have been dramas. But I\u2019m maybe less known for them because none of them quite broke out the way I wanted them to.\u201d<\/p>\n So, despite that reputation, and despite the tendency people might have to think that a one-person \u201cHamlet\u201d is some kind of parody, Izzard stresses that what she\u2019s performing is real Shakespeare.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s \u2018Hamlet,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s \u2018The Tragedy of Hamlet,\u2019 as we say on the poster.\u201d<\/p>\n Izzard, as fans know but others say not, first came to prominence as Eddie Izzard. Over the course of her career she started dressing primarily in women\u2019s clothing and wearing eye makeup, then asking to be referred to as Suzy. She\u2019s not a female impersonator or a drag queen. She just likes wearing dresses. When she did her stand-up show at the Straz she was tastefully attired tastefully in a short skirt and high heels; during her Zoom interview with Creative Loafing Tampa Bay she wore traditional woman\u2019s make-up and beads. Izzard was drawn to performing very early in her life. Her mother died when Izzard was five years old. When she saw a play and witnessed the praise that actors could garner from audiences, she knew almost immediately that he wanted theater to be his life. Somewhere in her 20s she discovered her talent for comedy and realized he could create and perform her own work.<\/p>\n But a longing to perform drama, and Shakespeare in particular, never ebbed. She had established herself as a comedian, then decided to find a way to pursue dramatic roles. But dramatic roles aren\u2019t easy to come by when you have a reputation as a comedian.<\/p>\n \u201cNo one would really throw roles at me,\u201d she said. \u201cNothing was coming my way.\u201d Her brother, Mark Izzard, adapted \u201cGreat Expectations\u2019 into a one-person show, which Suzy Eddie performed in New York and London. Audiences loved it, so Izzard thought maybe \u201cHamlet\u201d could work in the same format.<\/p>\n \u201cThat was quite a radical idea, but a lot of people are doing solo performances around the world now,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n But Izzard\u2019s dyslexic brain still told her that she might not be able to handle Shakespeare. When she tried to read Shakespeare in school, the elevated and sometimes archaic language had been an obstacle. It was still intimidating to her as an adult.<\/p>\n \u201cI realized by watching Polanski\u2019s \u201cMacbeth\u2019 that that was an action movie,\u201d she said. \u201cThere are stories in that, visceral stories with characters. Don\u2019t get so caught up with the Elizabethan. For me, I wanted the guts, that visceral story of Hamlet. That\u2019s what I was pushing for.\u201d<\/p>\n Izzard plays 22 different characters in her solo version, which was also adapted by brother Mark. She\u2019s everyone from Hamlet and Ophelia to both Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.<\/p>\n It sounds as though it could be exhausting for both audiences and for Izzard, who often performs the show twice in a single day. In fact, at least one critic, in an otherwise positive review, has used the word \u201cexhausting\u201d to describe the audience experience, fatigue isn\u2019t much of an issue for Izzard.<\/p>\n Besides her performances and nontraditional wardrobe, Izzard is known as a marathon runner. She famously runs dozens of marathons in a matter of weeks to raise money for various charities, often doing shows later that same evening.<\/p>\n \u201cFirst of all it was 43 in 51 days, that was around the United Kingdom, then I did 27 in 27 days in South Africa as a salute to Nelson Mandela, and then I did 29 in 29 days through the cities of Europe,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd then I did 32 in 31 days on a treadmill during COVID. That was tough.\u201d<\/p>\n The numbers for \u201cThe Tragedy of Hamlet\u201d are quite as awe-inspiring, but they\u2019re impressive.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve now done over 220 performances and we\u2019ve sold 65,000 tickets,\u201d Izzard said. \u201cSo we\u2019re in a good place.\u201d<\/p>\n Tickets to see Suzy Eddie Izzard in \u201cThe Tragedy of Hamlet\u201d inside David A. Straze Center For the Performing Arts\u2019 Jaeb Theater Friday-Monday, March 13-16 are still available and start at $79.<\/a><\/p>\n Pitch in to help make the Tampa Bay Journalism Project a success.<\/a><\/p>\n Subscribe to Creative Loafing newsletters.<\/a><\/p>\n Follow us:\u00a0Google News<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0NewsBreak<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Reddit<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Instagram<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Facebook\u00a0<\/a>|\u00a0BlueSky<\/a><\/p>\n This article appears in Mar. 05 \u2013 11, 2026<\/a>.<\/p>\n \n\tRelated\n<\/p>\n \t
She prefers to be called \u201cSuzy Eddie Izzard,\u201d and prefers to be referenced as \u201cshe,\u201d but she doesn\u2019t make a big deal about it.
Anyway, back to \u201cHamlet.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought, \u2018My god, some is getting this great reaction on the stage. I want to do this acting. I want to be an actor\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cI think it was a substitute for love and mum\u2019s affection. I think it\u2019s a very healthy way of dealing with the loss of one\u2019s mother.\u201d
There was a problem, though: Izzard was dyslexic, so preparing for auditions was difficult at best.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter a while I decided, \u2018I really want to do Shakespeare now, because I\u2019m ready\u2019,\u201d she said. \u201c\u2018I want to test myself and push myself and get to the limits of what one can do as an actor.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Her stand-up comedy often involved multiple characters, so Izzard figured she could do the same with drama.<\/p>\n![\"Actor](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Eddie-Izzards-The-Tragedy-of-Hamlet-Photo-by-Carol-Rosegg.jpg\")
Suzy Eddie Izzard in \u2018The Tragedy of Hamlet\u2019 Credit: Carol Rosegg \/ Straz Center<\/p>\n