The Arts: Theatre - A Prince among Menaces ; Recent Hamlets Have Been Intimate Domestic Dramas. Steven Pimlott Thinks It's Time to Put the Brutal Realpolitik Back in, He Tells Paul Taylor

Taylor, Paul, The Independent (London, England)

The director Steven Pimlott's association with Hamlet began early. At the tender age of 12, he gave what he wryly describes as a "definitive" Gertrude in the school play. ("In the middle of all my own Oedipal confusions, the chance to act out a mother was rather liberating. I genuinely felt I had an empathy with that role... ") His Hamlet on that occasion was the future television historian Michael Wood. From playing the hero's mum, Pimlott now moves on to acting as Hamlet's midwife. His new production, with Samuel West in the title part, opens tonight on the main stage at Stratford.

The approach he has taken to the tragedy builds, Pimlott tells me, on the work he and …

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Publication information: Article title: The Arts: Theatre - A Prince among Menaces ; Recent Hamlets Have Been Intimate Domestic Dramas. Steven Pimlott Thinks It's Time to Put the Brutal Realpolitik Back in, He Tells Paul Taylor. Contributors: Taylor, Paul - Author. Newspaper title: The Independent (London, England). Publication date: May 2, 2001. Page number: 10. © 2009 The Independent - London. Provided by ProQuest LLC. All Rights Reserved.

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