The Man Who Was Hamlet

Synopsis

The Man Who Was Hamlet tells the Tragical Comical Romantic and utterly scandalous History of Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, identified in the 20th century as the real ‘William Shakespeare’. Strikingly echoing the story and character of Hamlet, scandal and tragedy plagued the life of Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, courtier, swordsman, adventurer, playwright and poet. He killed a servant, abandoned his wife, got his mistress with child, travelled in Italy, was captured by pirates, fought the Armada, was imprisoned in The Tower of London, maimed in a duel and died virtually bankrupt. He was also hailed as the best of the secret Elizabethan court writers but his work stopped appearing under his own name after the invention of... ‘William Shake-speare’. So was de Vere the inspiration for Hamlet... or was he really the author? A monstrous adversary appears and the Shake-speare’s name will never sound the same again after THE MAN WHO WAS HAMLET tells his dramatic story.

Our Review:

13 August 2010

The true identity of the author of Hamlet has been something of a hot topic of late, what with publication of James Shapiro’s ‘Contested Will’ being one of the most recent and high-profile forays into the myth surrounding the ever-elusive William Shakespeare. George Dillon’s latest theatrical exploration capitalises on this myth: his one-man show looks into the life of Edward de Vere, Earl of Oxford and possible contender for the true author of the Bard’s works – or at the very least, the inspiration for the character of Hamlet.

I’m more than a little baffled by Dillon’s decision to create a play around such conspiracy theory. Given the academia surrounding claims favouring de Vere, it seems impolitic to side with such a theory – however entertaining such an imagined story might be. I concede that Dillon’s performance is compelling enough to sustain the 90-minute show, despite being hilariously hammy ...

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