Actors can't play Hamlet as simply mad in world of mental health awareness, actor says

Shakespeare’s Hamlet cannot be played simply as “mad” nowadays because audiences are so tuned in to mental health issues, the actor Andrew Scott has said.

Scott, who is currently playing Hamlet at the Harold Pinter Theatre, said analysis of the play has previously focused on the questions of “is he mad or is he not mad”.

But with a newly-enlightened focus on mental health issues, aided by the Duke of Cambridge and Prince Harry, it is no longer enough to make it that simple, the actor said.

“The idea with Hamlet is that there have been a lot of questions about is he mad or is he not mad?” Scott told the Andrew Marr Show. Putting an antic disposition on, as they call it in the play.

“I think we’re at a very embryonic stage in our knowledge about mental health.

“So I think you can’t ignore this new interest we have in mental health now and just play it as ‘mad, crazy’.”

The work of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry for Heads Together, he said, had been “extraordinary”, with the two brothers both speaking frankly about their own mental health issues following the death of their mother 20 years ago.

“That will make a big difference,” said Scott, who also stars in Sherlock. “You take away the idea of shame. This [Hamlet] is about a young man who’s grieving for his father, and he’s told ‘stop, we don’t have time for that, come on get over it’.

“That’s a big thing for young men. Suicide is as we know very high in percentage among young men. “So it [the play] is certainly relevant. My God, is it.”

The Telegraph’s review of Scott’s performance called him “lyrical but low-key”, adding “this Hamlet’s forte is a quivering, quavering emotionality”.