by
Christine Hogan
Sidney
Morning Herald
December 1979
Derek Jacobi has played Hamlet for the Chinese, the Poles, and Japanese
and the Greeks. Now, at the tail
end of a massive tour which made the Old Vic Company the first Western drama
troupe into China since 1949, among other things, Jacobi is obviously tired.
A small, boyish figure, he settled into
the lounge of his Adelaide hotel, betraying little trace of his origins in
London’s East End, and much more of the polish of Cambridge, where he look a
degree in drama.
With his
beard, he looks like Hamlet in mufti. His
mellifluous cadences are unmistakable.
Jacobi first
played this role, which he considers the “test piece for actors who aspire to
be classical actors,” when he was still a schoolboy.
“I must have played it 30 times then,” he said.
“But you can’t count those.”
He said that
the focus had shifted in his performance to Hamlet’s assumed madness.
“To the people about him, Hamlet was obviously a complete nutter,” he
said. “I have taken more trouble
presenting that mock madness which in two or three moments of emotional and
mental aberration borders on real insanity.
“The actor
can be tempted to overlook the terms of reference given to Hamlet by the other
characters. They talk about him as
turbulent, dangerous, and about the ‘madness in which he rages’.
“Hamlet is
almost a failure-proof role. It’s so long, you’ve got to get some of the
scenes right His speeches are like
spoken arias, and I have to make them sound poetic and like ordinary speech.”
Jacobi is
perhaps best known in Australia for his appearance as I, Claudius in the
television series (being repeated on the ABC on Wednesday nights).
He has played Burgess in the spy drama Philby, Burgess and McLean
(repeated on the ABC two weeks ago) and Richard II in the BBC Shakespeare
series.
He belongs
with a company of players which includes the theatrical knights Michael Redgrave,
John Gielgud and Olivier, Alan Bates, Paul Scofield and Peter O’Toole (to whom
he played Laertes), and could become the best-known Hamlet of all.
But it is
Scofield’s Hamlet that Jacobi, when pressed, will admit to liking most.
“But then I worship at Scofield’s shrine,” he said.
“He is a magnificent actor.”
He went on: “Not only does the actor playing Hamlet have to struggle
with the role, but he has to fight the ghosts of all the other actors who have
played the role. The comparisons
are inevitable.”
The Old Vic
Company (which includes Julian Glover, who toured Australia earlier this year
with Jacobi, Timothy West and Isla Blair presenting English Eccentrics) returns
to London on December 17.
Only Jacobi and Brenda Bruce, who was in Australia with him several years
ago touring The Hollow Crown, are assured of work.
Miss Bruce will do a radio play, and Jacobi will play his first leading
role in a feature film. Franz Weiss
will direct the film, called Charlotte.
“It will
probably end up as one of those Continental films which is never seen,” said
Jacobi. He has never made a film in America, as so many previous
Hamlets have. “That’s probably
because I haven’t been, and I wouldn’t want to,” he said. Though I must admit I am drawn to it financially somewhat . .
.”
“There is
avarice in my make-up. I would like
to be rich. The only wealthy actors
are in movies. And for some actors,
it only takes a couple of films to be rich.
“If
someone offered me the role as the new Superman I’d take the money and run.”
After the
film, Jacobi faces the prospect of joining 80 percent of the actors in England
who are unemployed.
He said:
“I don’t like turning down work, but I was offered a role playing
Somerset Maughan. I had to age from
25 to 90 and Maughan had a stutter. I
could see myself playing aging, stuttering men like Claudius forever.”
It is only
recently that Jacobi has been able to watch himself playing the role of the
Roman emperor.
“One night
in Denmark the play was rained off and we went back to the hotel,” he said.
“There on the television in the lounge was the penultimate episode of
I, Claudius.
“I couldn’t have watched an earlier
episode, but I was so hidden by rubber make-up that I was unrecognizable.
Some actors can learn by watching themselves, but watching myself renders
me speechless.
Jacobi is doing a increasing number of
films. He made one recently for
Otto Preminger, in which Robert Morley killed him two-thirds of the way through
the picture. He still has some
theatrical ambitions left, apart from living through the roles.
He would like to play Richard II on stage and “I would like to have a
go at Iago in the next couple of years.
He sees
himself in danger of being type-cast: “People
seem to see me as a toga-or-tights gentleman.
They forget I have to eat and never offer me roles like Z Cars or Cop
Shop.”