» Stage: George Dillon Interview
Award-winning performer George Dillon is part of a stunning season of Edinburgh previews at The Nightingale Theatre with The Man Who Was Hamlet writes Andrew Kay
Who really wrote Hamlet? Award-winning performer George Dillon returns to The Nightingale with his new play, The Man Who Was Hamlet, which tells the comical, tragical, romantic and utterly scandalous history of Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, the leading alternative candidate for the authorship of the works of William Shakespeare.
Dillon proposes that, “The fairy-tale story of the man from Stratford – an unschooled glove-maker’s son who left his wife to find wealth and fame as a playwright in London – is widely believed… but there is actually very little evidence for any of it.”
But who was Edward de Vere, the man Dillon suggest is the real bard? “Well a brilliant but disgraceful aristocrat whose life and character strikingly echo Shakespeare’s most famous character. Edward de Vere was a courtier, swordsman, adventurer and poet, who was hailed as the best of the secret court writers, especially for his comedies. But no plays have survived bearing de Vere’s name and his poetry suddenly stopped after the first invention of ‘William Shake-speare’.” So was de Vere the inspiration and role model for Hamlet… or was he really the author? In Dillon’s seventh solo show, directed by Denise Evans with music by Charlotte Glasson, the dying Dane’s last words summon the ghost of Edward de Vere to tell his own story, restore his wounded name and triumph over time.
Since Stunning the Punters in 1990, George Dillon has created several compelling one man shows which have toured extensively in the UK and abroad. This year will be his fourteenth appearance on the Edinburgh Fringe and The Nightingale dates are a chance to see the new work in advance of that. He won a Herald ‘Angel’ Award in 2000 for his performance in Steven Berkoff’s Graft: Tales Of An Actor, and his last two Edinburgh shows were each nominated for The Stage’s Best Actor Award (Graft in 2000 and The Gospel of Matthew in 2003).
The Man Who Was Hamlet, The Nightingale Theatre, Thursday 29 – Wednesday 30 July, 7.30pm, £8.50/7.50. Tickets available from 01273 709709 or at www.brightonticketshop.com.
