Page "Hamlet" Paragraph 111

Notable stagings in London and New York include Barrymore's 1925 production at the Haymarket ; it influenced subsequent performances by John Gielgud and Laurence Olivier.

Gielgud played the central role many times: his 1936 New York production ran for 136 performances, leading to the accolade that he was " the finest interpreter of the role since Barrymore ".

Although " posterity has treated Maurice Evans less kindly ", throughout the 1930s and 1940s he was regarded by many as the leading interpreter of Shakespeare in the United States and in the 1938 / 9 season he presented Broadway's first uncut Hamlet, running four and a half hours.

Olivier's 1937 performance at the Old Vic Theatre was popular with audiences but not with critics, with James Agate writing in a famous review in The Sunday Times, " Mr. Olivier does not speak poetry badly.

He does not speak it at all .".

In 1937 Tyrone Guthrie directed the play at Elsinore, Denmark with Laurence Olivier as Hamlet and Vivien Leigh as Ophelia.