Written and performed by Dickie Beau, Re-Member Me explores Hamlet and some of the illustrious actors who’ve played Shakespeare’s coveted role.
Equal parts camp and deeply reflective, the production threads together Beau’s interview recordings with the likes of Sir Ian McKellen, Sir Richard Eyre, Sean Mathias, and others with archival performance tracks of some of the great Hamlet’s of the last century (Sir John Gielgud, Sir Laurence Olivier, etc.).
Directed and co-devised by Jan-willem van den Bosch with lighting design by Marty Langthorne, Dickie Beau is a performer of extreme precision. In the wrong hands, a lip-syncing take on all of this material could fall flat. But instead, because of his virtuosic and pitch-perfect embodiment of each of the figures, the audience relaxes into the mixed media format of the show and can enjoy these ghosts on an evening that explores the reverence, regard, and lineage of this great part.
At just over an hour, this solo show never loses steam and momentum. Mannequins and garments scatter the stage, representing, in a way, a graveyard of men who’ve come and gone before. As we delve deeply into the life and performance of Ian Charleson, the great Scottish actor who died of AIDS shortly after taking over the part of Hamlet for Daniel Day-Lewis at the National in 1989. Heartbreaking, humorous, and one-of-a-kind, Re-Member Me pays tribute to the forgotten. It should not be missed.
Now Playing at the Hampstead Theatre thru 24 Jun 2023.
Review by Matthew Pierce Photo by Tristram Kenton