In a daring but original move, Academy Award-nominated actress Ruth Negga will take on the role of Hamlet at the Gate Theatre this autumn. Described by director Yael Farber as “the Hamlet for our times”, Negga is set to plunge Shakespeare’s troubled and complex prince deep into the 21st century.
When speaking to The University Times, Negga had just completed her first week of rehearsals. The actress is well aware of how mighty a task this is. “You can’t do Hamlet without digging deep, really committing”, she says. “I mean you can’t do a half-arsed Hamlet! It wouldn’t wash. What would be the point of a play of huge extremes – from the get-go, it’s pitched quite high. The stakes are super high – right until the very end when the stage is heaving with corpses?”
This is Negga’s debut in the Gate and, according to her, the theatre is brimming with fresh energy and life. “It’s really exciting to be there under Yael and Selina”, she says, referring to the Gate’s newly appointed Creative Director, Selina Cartmell. “It’s great to see [Selina] at the helm of the Gate, ‘womaning’ it. It’s brilliant. I had very little experience of the Gate beforehand, and I could feel a vibrancy there that I thought was very exciting.”
Last year, the Gate was thrust into controversy after allegations of sexual misconduct were made against the previous creative director. Since then, the theatre has become central to the Irish #MeToo movement. It’s fitting, then, that the upcoming production will be spearheaded by cutting-edge women such as Farber, Negga and the Tony award-winning Susan Hilferty, designer of the 2003 musical Wicked.
“It feels like there’s been a tectonic shift”, says Negga. “None of these women are safe with their art. I think in fact theatre needs that. If things stay static, they sort of crumble and decay and I think the best thing is to keep something moving. Keep it moving forward. And you know, it’s about time.”
Speaking about Farber – the South African director celebrated for her production of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible – Negga says she is “incredible” and has “extraordinary reach”. Farber is known for conducting an intensive rehearsal room, and Negga speaks openly about these demands. “She expects everything from you, but she also gives everything”, Negga explains. “There’s a very equal exchange of energy.”
“Yael is a very collaborative director with her actors, as in she listens,” says Negga. This empathic quality makes Farber just right for handling the rich and intricate characters of the Shakespearean universe. “She has a deep sort of sixth sense of understanding people. She can tell what you need to turn up the volume up in yourself, that will sort of coalesce with your character.”
“I mean at the end of the day, she’s the one that draws it all together to create this cohesive whole of what she sees in her brain. It’s not a dictatorship, and it’s far away from being told where to stand and where to speak as humanly possible”, says Negga. “She has a wealthspring of creative courage and I think that’s what you need to be a true artist.”
In the world of theatre, a woman playing Hamlet is still a novel endeavour. While the likes of Sarah Bernhardt, Frances de la Tour and Maxine Peake have portrayed Hamlet in the past, gender-blind casting for the world of Elsinore isn’t as common as you might hope. The approaches of women who have taken up the role have varied enormously. Some chose to play him as a man, some as a woman and some as neither, letting ambiguities flow. About her own take on the character, Negga says: “My idea is to play Hamlet, the person. Yael is very adamant that I’m a woman playing Hamlet, and we call him ‘he’. He is a man in our production. So it’s about navigating our way through that.”
While this will be Negga’s first time to play the eponymous lead, the upcoming production is by no means her first Hamlet. Negga appeared as Ophelia in Nicholas Hytner’s acclaimed National Theatre production in 2010 alongside Rory Kinnear in the titular role. She reminisces fondly about the experience: “[Kinnear] is extraordinary. His ability of language. He makes Shakespeare sound like he wrote it, and that’s super fucking hard”. Upon hearing that she is the first actress to have ever portrayed both Ophelia and Hamlet in major productions, Negga laughs, “Let’s wait till we get to opening night”.
While perhaps best known for starring in Breakfast on Pluto, Love/Hate and E4’s Misfits, it is Negga’s role as Mildred Loving in the 2016 film Loving that garnered her international recognition and an array of major award nominations. “I’m very proud of that film [Loving]”, she says. “I’d want every piece of work to be as brilliant and as happy as I was with that. But you can’t guarantee it.” When asked how it felt to have “Academy Award nominee” in front of her name, Negga is gleeful. “It’s amazing. It’s thrilling. It’s a really sort of unforced smile, a childlike smile of glee. And it’s not from a sort of ‘hey look at me’. It’s kind of like ‘that’s amazing!’”, she says. “It’s kind of a genuine source of thrill. I mean, why wouldn’t it be?”
Negga’s performance in Loving and the nominations that followed have launched her into Hollywood’s tropopause, the A-list. Her decision to return to the Irish stage, at the peak of her career, could be viewed as risky. Speaking of the pressure placed on artists to constantly “one-up” themselves, Negga says: “It’s just not the way it goes”. She points out that, even with an array of awards under her belt, “you don’t get automatically offered the best part”.
In terms of defining success, Negga is adamant to break down popular perceptions. “Life is not a linear, upwardly, mobile sort of journey. It’s kind of jagged, and so are careers. I think once you’ve come to terms with that, it’s less scary to think ‘I’ve got to do that again!’. You can’t maintain that, not many people can. That kind of pressure, it’s inhuman.”
Separating self-esteem from career is a challenge for many artists today. It’s a topic that has sparked fervent discussion among actors in recent years, with the likes of Denise Gough and Noma Dumezweni speaking openly about the dangers of basing self-esteem on work that is so transient by nature. Negga takes a different approach, advanced from the field of acting itself: “One thing that makes humans content or happy to be alive is being useful. And one of the ways you’re useful is work and contributing to society and contributing to your own sense of worth.”
Herself a Trinity graduate, Negga studied acting here in the early 2000s. When asked about what influenced her most during her time at Trinity, she takes a moment to think. “I really think it was the quality of our teachers”, she says. “Their investment in us, their time, their energy, their belief in us. I mean not always. Sometimes, we were a bit crap”, she laughs. Reflecting on her training, she notes the open and nurturing environment that Trinity provided for her. “It was very tough, but the sense that it was a safe atmosphere and therefore you could be unsafe.”
But while Negga notes that training can get you “a foot in the door somewhere”, she also warns against forgetting about luck. When asked about the role of luck, she responds modestly: “Oh my god, luck plays a huge part in it! It plays a part in every job.” She may have a point, but one gets the sense that Negga is underplaying her own role somewhat. “It’s a curious journey”, she says. “Who knows what will happen? That’s partly the exciting thing.”
