SOURCE: Maher, Mary Z. “David Warner: The Rogue and Peasant Slave.” In Modern Hamlets and Their Soliloquies, pp. 41-62. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1992.

In the following essay, Maher gives an account of a 1965-1966 Royal Shakespeare Company production of Hamlet that was directed by Peter Hall with David Warner in the lead role. This anti-establishment staging likened the politics of Elsinore to those of mid-twentieth-century Britain, the critic reports, and Warner's direct communication of Hamlet's soliloquies was an essential part of his and Hall's intent to involve the numerous young members of the audience in the play and help them understand it.

When David Warner was performing Hamlet at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre one evening, a member of the audience actually entered into the play. It was near the end of the second act, just after Hamlet dismisses Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. With a sigh of relief...