Hamlet comes of age as Sir Ian McKellen, 81, signs up to play the Dane

BAZ BAMIGBOYE: Hamlet comes of age as Sir Ian McKellen, 81, signs up to play the Dane

Ian McKellen, the last of the great theatrical knights still performing centre stage, revealed he’s fighting fit and ready to take on the role of Hamlet — 50 years after he first played the youthful Dane.

‘I do Pilates three times a week, and I have a trainer twice a week — all long distance — so I’m fairly fit for the thriller that is Hamlet,’ the 81-year-old said, during an exclusive interview down the line from East London.

McKellen will lead the Theatre Royal Windsor’s summer season company, established by the venue’s owner Bill Kenwright and artistic director Sean Mathias, in Hamlet from June 21 (he’ll be 82 then). 

Ian McKellen, 81, revealed he’s fighting fit and ready to take on the role of Hamlet

The actor will lead the Theatre Royal Windsor’s summer season company in Hamlet from June 21. Pictured: McKellen and the cast of Hamlet during their rehearsal 


Emmanuella Cole (left) and Francesca Annis (right) will star alongside McKellen in the production this summer 

By which time the Government’s social distancing restrictions should be lifted, according to its roadmap out of lockdown. The production was postponed from last summer.

McKellen will play the Prince of Denmark for ten weeks — and then assume the part of manservant Firs in the company’s second production: Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard. Adapted by Martin Sherman, it will run for seven weeks.

Francesca Annis will play Ranevskaya in that show, after first taking on the part of the Ghost in Hamlet.

The company also includes Jenny Seagrove (who’ll play Gertrude, Hamlet’s mother); Steven Berkoff (Polonius); Alis Wyn Davies (Ophelia) and Emmanuella Cole (Laertes).

‘Age, gender and colour blind casting!’ Kenwright and Mathias declared proudly, ticking off the boxes.


The production will see Jenny Seagrove (left) play Hamlet’s mother Gertrude and Steven Berkoff (right) play Polonius


Alis Wyn Davies (left) and Ben Allen (right) will also star in Hamlet which will open to the public from June 21 

The director urged audiences to ‘see if you can park your conditionings at the door, and go along with it for the whole ride’. 

He observed that McKellen will play the youngest person in the Shakespeare show — and the oldest in the Chekhov.

McKellen told me ‘that the business of playing so much younger than myself [in Hamlet] is only really a reverse of what I’ve done quite a lot of in my life, which is play a lot older than myself’. 

When a young person plays an old person ‘we don’t know what it’s like — but I DO remember what it’s like to be young!’


The company also includes actors Asif Khan (left) and Nick Howard-Brown (right) 


Joining the Lord of The Rings star will be Llinos Daniel (left) and Ashley D. Gayle (right) 

Missy Malek will join the cast for the production which will see McKellen play the Prince of Denmark for ten weeks

There’s topicality, too, thanks to recent Royal ructions. ‘Princes don’t have an easy time, do they?’ he said. ‘I wouldn’t push the parallel any further than that, but it’s just that he’s [Hamlet’s] having to cope with being royal.’

McKellen stressed: ‘I won’t be trying to make myself look young…that’s not the point.’ And he joked that he’s not the ‘first inappropriate person’ to play Hamlet. 

He watched Michael Redgrave play the part when he was 50. And Dame Judith Anderson was 72 when she explored Hamlet at Carnegie Hall in 1971.

To prepare, McKellen has been brushing up on his fencing. Luckily, Emmanuella Cole, who’s playing Laertes ‘is a prize fencer — and she’ll be able to give me some tips. I hope’.

But even the more youthful thespians who’ve tackled the role of the Danish Prince have said it’s like running a couple of marathons, nightly. And the octogenarian conceded he might end up ‘absolutely exhausted’ by the end of the run.

He and Mathias have both taken stabs at trimming the text; so the Windsor production will last a mere two-and-a-half hours, including an interval. (Mathias said he hoped they wouldn’t be set upon by Shakespeare purists and ‘sent to theatre prison’ for their filleting.)

In addition, McKellen will perform his Hamlet six times a week — ‘not the usual eight’.

Ian McKellen will take on the role of Hamlet 50 years after he first played the youthful Dane


The star (in The Lord Of The Rings, left, and the X-Men movies, right) admitted his mature Hamlet would be ‘a curiosity’

The star, a lion of the theatre and an idol to young audiences, thanks to his work in The Lord Of The Rings and X-Men movies, admitted his mature Hamlet would be ‘a curiosity’.

‘Some people will be interested,’ he said. ‘And some people absolutely not. But I hope they’re not put off by the fact that I’m a great deal older than the usual Hamlet. They’ll get the words, and they’ll be able to understand and relate to them.’

And then he laughed and said he saw it as an adventure. ‘Keeps you fit, doesn’t it? And how else do you know you’re alive?!’

Tickets go on sale today from 11am for TRW members; and on general sale (£25-£75) from 11am tomorrow. Contact theatreroyalwindsor.co.uk or call 01753 853888.

Downton guest list grows

Actor Dominic West has joined the roll call of star names lining up for the Downton Abbey film sequel, due to begin filming next month.

Script details are closely guarded, but I’ve been able to ascertain that West will play an aristocrat who arrives as a guest of Hugh Bonneville’s Lord Grantham and his family.

My attempts to establish whether or not his character gets up to any hanky-panky with the clan upstairs (or staff downstairs) came to nought.


Actor Dominic West (left) and Imelda Staunton (right) will star in the Downton Abbey film sequel

Certainly, though, if he does, it won’t involve Imelda Staunton — who’s also guest-starring, after her appearance in the 2019 film as Maud Bagshaw, the Queen’s lady-in-waiting.

A fling would be awkward. Staunton will be portraying our present monarch Elizabeth II in the fifth season of The Crown — which will also feature West as her son, Prince Charles. 

Staunton’s real-life spouse Jim Carter will be in the Downton 2 movie, too; playing Carson the butler.


Dominic West in Johnny English Reborn (left) and in the crime drama Appropriate Adult (right)

Script details are closely guarded, but I’ve been able to ascertain that West will play an aristocrat who arrives as a guest of Hugh Bonneville’s Lord Grantham and his family

This page has been keeping you updated on the Downton sequel ever since the first movie became a box office blockbuster two years ago. 

Last month I revealed that French acting legend Nathalie Baye will join the cast, to play an old friend of Maggie Smith’s priceless Dowager Countess of Grantham, Violet Crawley.

What a sight for sore eyes they’ll all be.

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