Hamlet Exacts a Princely Toll, Which Many Will Pay

Hamlets, Hamlets everywhere: Among the actors essaying the dispirited Dane as part of the festival are Paata Tsikurishvili, above, in Synetic Theater's wordless "Hamlet . . . The Rest is Silence" and Jeffrey Carlson in the Shakespeare Theatre Company's spring production. The Tiny Ninja Theater will present the tragedy using plastic figurines similar to those featured in its version of "Macbeth." (By Stan Barouh)

Hamlet famously wished that his too too solid flesh would melt, but during the Shakespeare in Washington festival over the next half-year, the area will be teeming with incarnations of the Danish prince.

The playwright's arguably most demanding role, it seems, is constantly in demand.

In March, Israeli actor Itay Tiran will play the character in the Cameri Theatre of Tel Aviv's Hebrew-language "Hamlet," hosted by Signature Theatre. Synetic Theater's artistic director, Paata Tsikurishvili, will reprise his turn as the melancholy royal in May, in the troupe's acclaimed wordless piece "Hamlet . . . The Rest Is Silence." Days later, Jeffrey Carlson tackles the heir of Elsinore for the Shakespeare Theatre Company. And he'll have some competition:

New York-based Tiny Ninja Theater, known for interpreting the Bard's great plays with tiny plastic figurines, will bring its "Hamlet" to the Kennedy Center in June. That same month, opting for a more-the-merrier approach, the D.C.-based interdisciplinary ensemble Musica Aperta will offer "Six Degrees of Hamlet." (Drawing on "Hamlet"-inspired music by Tchaikovsky, Shostakovich, William Byrd and others, the performance will feature a singing Ophelia, a dancing Ophelia and an acting Ophelia, with three matching versions of her blue-blooded suitor.)

The University of Maryland will present "Hamlet" on film. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy will oversee an audience-participatory trial of Hamlet, co-produced by the Shakespeare Theatre Company and the Kennedy Center. Hamlet will even crop up in a modern play in May, when the Studio Theatre mounts Tom Stoppard's Shakespeare riff "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead," with Marshall Elliott portraying the courtiers' noble pal.

Depicting the prototypical Man in Black, however, remains a daunting proposition.

The role of Hamlet is often considered the Everest of the acting profession, and it has lured such legendary performers as Laurence Olivier, Edwin Booth, John Barrymore, John Gielgud, Richard Burton, even Sarah Bernhardt. It can be nerve-racking to follow in such footsteps, particularly when considering all the interpretive decisions the role entails:

Is Hamlet chronically indecisive, or resolute and cunning -- or too volatile to be either? Is he a courtly poet-philosopher or a cynical, self-destructive rebel? And what principally stokes his angst -- an overactive intellect? Disillusionment? Grief? An Oedipus complex?

And then there's the trauma involved in channeling the guy's psychological turmoil. As Shakespeare scholar Robert Hapgood has noted, many actors in recent times have described how grueling -- even debilitating -- it can be to play Hamlet.

Olivier warned fellow artists that the role "will devour you and obsess you for the rest of your life." Daniel Day-Lewis withdrew from a run of the tragedy, which he said brought him "closer to the abyss than anything else." Mel Gibson called the part "an assault on your personality" -- and look what happened to him.

Tiran agrees that depicting Hamlet is exceedingly taxing. "You're, like, married to this play, it's so demanding," he said from Tel Aviv.

He found rehearsals to be particularly strenuous. "You ask yourself about life, death, love -- every basic issue in life. It can be very, very heavy," says Tiran, adding that after the Cameri Theatre production premiered in 2005, his life became a cycle of anticipation and adrenaline-fueled insomnia.