Words to the wise Shakespeare in the Ruins' new leader heeds Polonius's timeless advice By: Randall King Posted: 7:00 PM CDT Wednesday, May. 22, 2019

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This article was published 22/05/2019 (2300 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

“This above all: to thine own self be true. And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man.”

— Polonius’s advice to his son Laertes in Hamlet

The character of Polonius is a bit of a fool in the greater context of William Shakespeare’s tragedy Hamlet. But ironically, his advice to his son Laertes is pretty solid. Indeed, “to thine own self be true” may be an operating principle to the Shakespeare in the Ruins production, the first show of newly minted artistic director Rodrigo Beilfuss, who takes over the position from outgoing AD Michelle Boulet, saying her farewells after a 12-year tenure.

Beilfuss, 36, also directs the production, although that assignment came about prior to being offered the job of artistic director. Since 2016, the Brazil-born Beilfuss was a company member at the Stratford Festival. Late last year, he heard SiR was soliciting pitches for the current production of Hamlet. Having performed the lead role himself in 2015 in a much-praised multilingual local production, Beilfuss came to the project with a trove of ideas.

“I love the play so much, so I thought I’d give it a shot,” he says. “I put together a few ideas about the play and my experience of the play and told them if they liked it, I would happily direct for them.

So SiR chose his pitch. And a few months later, he landed the artistic director’s job as well.

“These things kind of happened at the same time, so I just went along with it,” he says. “It is a bit intense, but I love the play so much and I would hate to miss the opportunity.”

Beilfuss’s Hamlet is set in contemporary times, with firearms instead of rapiers. But the main feature of Beilfuss’s pitch was casting a woman in the role of the Melancholy Dane.

“I basically said I would love to have to explore the play with a woman in the part because the character is so full of contradictions, so full of humour and profound tragedy as well,” Beilfuss says. “The character is a very restless spirit and I thought that would be interesting to have this idea of a woman gender-occupying the prince.

“There’s a kind of lack of connection between how she sees herself and how the world around her sees her.”

The interpretation is in keeping with SiR’s recent penchant for gender-flipping, including last season’s all-female Timon of Athens and the 2016 show Richard III with Debbie Patterson in the title role. In fact, the role has been played by women dating back to the 1700s, Beilfuss says, with performances including Sarah Bernhardt in the late 1890s, and more contemporary actresses, including Diane Venora, Ruth Negga, Christine Horne, and Maxine Peake all pondering “to be, or not to be.”

For this show, the role went to Virden-born Winnipeg actress Heather Russell-Smith, who played Juliet in SiR’s 2017 production of Romeo and Juliet.

‘I basically said I would love to have to explore the play with a woman in the part because the character is so full of contradictions, so full of humour and profound tragedy as well’

Bear in mind, this is a role that has pushed many actors to the edge. In 1989, Daniel Day-Lewis famously walked off the stage in mid-production. (Decades earlier, Nicol Williamson did the same thing.) The Canadian TV comedy Slings & Arrows is structured around an actor (Paul Gross) who gained notoriety after having an onstage nervous breakdown midway through Hamlet.

Russell-Smith seems unlikely to follow in that particular path.

“Going into it, there’s some fear for sure,” she says. “But I’m kind of surprised at how much fun I’m having.

“It’s just such a juicy role to dive into,” she says. “I get to do some fighting, which is awesome. I get to feel some really deep feelings.”

Beilfuss says that, as in Polonius’s advice (or rather, “Polonia” as played by Melanie Whyte), the role requires being true to oneself, and accessing personal pain.

“There are so many essays and books out there about the play and in the end, you really cannot hide where you are at in your life while you play that role,” Beilfuss says. “That’s the punishing part of it. When I was taking on the role, I had gone through personal loss. My wife had a miscarriage and that anger, that loss that happened during rehearsal, I couldn’t hide from that.

“Also, it really makes the actor feel naked, because you are spending so much time on stage, you can’t really bond with your fellow actors offstage. There’s no time for a nice game of cards or chilling out backstage, so you really feel lonely.

“At some point, you find you just play yourself,” he says. “It makes you feel very naked and very vulnerable and I’m sure it’s been very similar for Heather.”

“Rod has very much said to approach it as myself,” Russell-White says. “I’m just trying to approach it with an open heart and be grateful to be here and to just go on the journey.”

randall.king@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @FreepKing

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Randall King
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In a way, Randall King was born into the entertainment beat.

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