Gertrude, watching Hamlet duel, says, "He's fat and scant o' breath." Directors often cut this line, for obvious reasons; commentators explain that Hamlet is sweating ("fat") from the unaccustomed exertion. In Simon Russell Beale, for once, the play had an actor on whom the adjective could sit, unashamed, in both senses. Beale, seen here on a brief visit by England's Royal National Theatre, is slightly thick of speech as well as of body, a cherubic, cartoonlike figure whom you might more naturally expect to see playing a bureaucrat, not a prince. But since he's also a first-rate actor, his persona didn't stop him from making a strong emotional connection to the role, and giving a substantial performance that grew steadily more moving—a phenomenon so rare in English Shakespeare acting that some of my less experienced colleagues called it... More >>>