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Breakdown
MALE ROLES:
HAMLET
(late 20’s-late 30’s) Prince of Denmark, son of Gertrude and the late King Hamlet and nephew of Claudius, who has married Hamlet’s mother. Melancholy, bitter and cynical, full of hatred for Claudius’s scheming and disgust for Gertrude’s sexuality. A reflective young man, he is often indecisive and hesitant but at other times prone to rash and impulsive acts.
CLAUDIUS
(40-50) imposing, carnal, charismatic; a man of voracious appetites; with a genius for manipulating both the individuals and the public. Once the poker face crumbles (after The Mousetrap), he is even more dangerous. SAME ACTOR WILL ALSO PLAY:
THE GHOST: a warrior; unyielding and uncompromising father in life and more so in death. However, there has to be a moment in their brief scene together where he shows a genuine affection for his son.
POLONIUS
(55-65) The Lord Chamberlain of Claudius’s court and the father of Laertes and Ophelia. Humor born out of despair; at one point, he must have been an effective courtier; but he’s getting older, there’s a new order and he’s clinging, trying very hard to stay relevant, and to appear essential to the court. He manipulates every aspect of his children’s lives and treats them as extensions of his own ambitions. His contempt for Ophelia, in particular, is appalling.
HORATIO
(25-35) Hamlet’s close friend. Generous, loyal, thoughtful, unsullied, and uncorrupted to the very end; a dream friend. Seems to have the skill of disappearing (not calling attention to himself) in the public scenes, and perhaps survives for that very reason. Requires a generous actor, who has to truly be there for the actor playing Hamlet.
LAERTES
(25-35) Polonius’s son and Ophelia’s brother. Passionate and quick to action. In the beginning of the play he is intelligent, attractive, and forthright; the role model, the poster boy, that Hamlet clearly is not; he says and does the right, expected things. But all of this just fuels his later fury and explains his cloudy judgment at the end of the play, since toeing the line brings nothing but misery to him and his family
ROSENCRANTZ
(30-40) A courtier and former friend of Hamlet. Not nearly as harmless as in the Tom Stoppard play; the charm of the reunion with Hamlet wears off rather quickly; and the routine with Guildenstern seems like a sickly ploy; they are all to ready to serve as Claudius’s stage managers. ACTOR WILL ALSO PLAY THE FOLLOWING ROLES:
FRANCISCO: a terrified night watchman
PRIEST: severe, lacking in all compassion
GUILDENSTERN
(30-40) Like Rosencrantz, a courtier and former friend of Hamlet. The same description applies to Guildenstern. ACTOR WILL ALSO PLAY THE FOLLOWING ROLES:
MARCELLUS: Officer in the court. Devout, decent, poorly informed, ill-at-ease in the palace.
2ND GRAVEDIGGER: perhaps not the sharpest knife in the drawer, but sweetly good-natured about it.
THE LEADING PLAYER
(60+) he speaks the Hecuba speech in the old, heightened, yet genuinely moving style; he represents the dying traditions and standards that Hamlet associates with his father. ACTOR WILL ALSO PLAY THE FOLLOWING ROLES:
BERNARDO: Officer in the court. Devout, decent, loyal; clearly not privy to information
1ST GRAVEDIGGER: quick, sharp; wise and wizened; on the lookout for someone who can actually keep up with him.
FEMALE:
GERTRUDE
(45-55) Hamlet’s mother and Claudius’s wife. In the beginning of the play, a radiant beauty, desperate to believe that the new marriage and the new order will work, in the throws of passion that she never experienced with her stern first husband. She craves respect from her son, yet she squandered it by marrying Claudius (and knows it). By the end of the play, physically deteriorated, haunted, and broken. She knows what she is doing when she drinks the potion at the end.
OPHELIA
(20-30) Polonius’s daughter, Laertes’s sister, and Hamlet’s sometime love. Genuine, heartbreaking vulnerability and beauty; intelligent, sensitive, shy, literate, manipulated, stifled, broken; strong only in her later madness; a bonus would be a very high soprano (to sing some unearthly music in her last scene).
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