Jude Law as "Hamlet' on Broadway

Through the years and the many Hamlets I've seen, I've come to appreciate the soul of that masterpiece"“ namely, the seven soliloquies uttered by Shakespeare's conflicted hero during his three and a half hours of "traffic" on the stage. Stripping away the many characters, scenes and intricate plot, these seven speeches reveal in exquisite poetry and clarity what it means to be a man"“ in Shakespeare's time and, indeed, in whatever time this masterpiece is performed.

All the more reason, then, to recommend the film star Jude Law's compelling interpretation of the indecisive Dane, now playing on Broadway in a Donmar Warehouse production from London.

"There's no definitive Hamlet," Law told the New York Times during previews, "because you don't play Hamlet, Hamlet plays you." Indeed that observation has been borne out in the recent Princes of Denmark over the past two decades, each distinctive in its own way, each highlighting an aspect of the complex Dane.

Many men, many moods

Ralph Fiennes's lean, leonine Hamlet stalked the Broadway stage in 1995, followed by Kenneth Branagh's epic, heroic Hamlet on film (which he also directed, in 1996). No less than four memorable Hamlets arrived at the millennium"“ Liev Schreiber's thoughtful Hamlet at the Public, Simon Russell Beale's amiable Hamlet at London's Royal National Theatre, Mark Rylance's mad, night-shirted Hamlet at London's Old Globe, and Ethan Hawke's slacker Hamlet (on film, directed by Michael Almeyreda).

Next came Campbell Scott's intelligent, playful Hamlet (on film in 2001), bringing out considerable humor in the role. Recently, New York audiences have Michael Stuhlbarg's idiosyncratic interpretation in 2008 (the Public Theatre's Shakespeare in the Park) and, earlier in 2009, Christian Camargo's inspired one at Theatre for a New Audience, which critic Charles Isherwood called "virtually perfect."

What drives this play to be produced over and over? "You have to look at these 400-year-old plays as if they're new," Jude Law's director, Michael Grandage, told the Times. "…You should never do the play for people who already know it very well."

A T-shirted beacon of light

Clearly, Law bears his director's thoughts in mind and has brought his Hamlet to the audience with a sense of relish and urgency, as if we're meeting the troubled Prince for the very first time. Dressed in drab jeans and a long-sleeved T-shirt, he offers an electrifying performance that contrasts sharply with the surrounding dark landscape, the black-and-grey set and costumes, and the severe stone walls of Elsinore Castle towering above him. As the tragic story unfolds, we welcome each soliloquy as a beacon of light in a world of encroaching darkness.

"Suit the actions to the words, and the words to the action," Hamlet instructs his players; and this Hamlet, as Shakespeare puts it, "recks his own rede" (that is, follows his own advice). Alone during those seven brief flashes of clarity, Law takes command, striding downstage and talking directly to the audience, taking us into his confidence, captivating us with his intensity and, yes, entertaining us, too, with the versatility of his interpretation.

Lone foghorn

With trembling voice, his overwrought first soliloquy, "O that this too too solid flesh would melt," sounds out loud and clear, like the lone foghorn that penetrates the darkness throughout this production. Deliberate, determined— this is a deeply emotional Hamlet who wears his heart on his sleeve, holding nothing back.

Law's Hamlet is agile, too"“ whether taunting Polonius, teasing Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, cavorting with the players, or assaulting Ophelia.

By his own admission, Law's performances vary, but both times I saw the production he knelt during the second soliloquy, "O all you host of heavens," overcome by his encounter with his father's ghost"“ again, projecting the intensity of his emotional response with bold, extreme physical choices. During the third soliloquy ("O what a rogue and peasant slave"), his "What an ass am I," accompanied by a desperate clutching of the head, drew hearty laughs from the audience, which delighted in his self-effacing and mockery.

A gentle "'To be or not'

Much has been written about Law's "To be or not to be," the immortal fourth soliloquy. In a striking interpretation, he delivers it with spirituality and reverence, as gently as the soft white snow falling overhead throughout the speech.

In the following (fifth) soliloquy ("'Tis now the very witching time of night"), Law delivers the chilling "Now could I drink hot blood" with such violent conviction that, during the sixth soliloquy ("Now might I do it pat, now he is a-praying"), knife in hand, he convinces us that we're seeing a new version of the play and that Hamlet will indeed act at that very moment, avenging his father's murder by killing Claudius, his uncle. The excitement generated by these two soliloquies makes the seventh and final one ("How all occasions do inform against me") all the more moving, as we see a Hamlet devastated by the failure of his purpose.

Star power

"Hamlet is a quest for the most perfect we can make ourselves," said the British actor Steven Berkoff. Some critics have dismissed Law's charismatic performance as a by-product of "star power." To which I would reply: So much the better for us. That power has served both the play and the audience well.

Law's achievement is to bring out all the colors and complexities of what it means to be a man today"“ all his potential, all his promise of greatness, as well as his weaknesses and shortcomings "“ with skill, bravado, deeply felt emotion, physical grace and humor. "What a piece of work is a man, how noble in reason, how infinite in faculties." Indeed.