Daring Doubles

Writing on Facebook last month by way of tribute to Barbara Jefford reminded me of the occasional practice (as in the instance I recalled) of the same actor in “Hamlet” playing the part of Claudius the usurper, and the Ghost of the previous King. This means portraying both a murderer (fratricide, regicide) and his victim. Denis Quilley did it for the National Theatre, Brewster Mason also doubled the parts with the Royal Shakespeare Company, and there have been others.

I tried to think of comparable cases. I was in “Richard III” when one of the murderers played one of the Princes — but that was only a suggestion of self-slaughter, as the murderers we see are despatching the Duke of Clarence, not the two boys.

It used to be a frequent ‘double’ for the actor who was Thomas Mowbray in the early scenes of “Richard II” to come back as the contentious Bishop of Carlisle, and thus get to announce his previous character’s death.

Again in “Richard III” — with flashbacks to the previous play “Henry VI” — Anne-Marie Piazza spiritedly took the parts of King Henry’s doomed young son Edward and then Prince Edward’s widow, the Lady Anne, in Iris Theatre Company’s first-rate production.

Also announcing his ‘own’ death — or nearly — was that impressive young player, mostly now seen in West End musicals, Nic Greenshields. In “King Lear” the Duke of Cornwall and a rebellious servant have a mutually deadly struggle, the servingman killed outright, and the noble succumbing to his wounds offstage. A messenger announces “Oh, my good lord, the Duke of Cornwall’s dead, slain by his servant, going to put out the other eye of Gloucester.” A speech which I confess causes me a bit of a disrespectful snigger, not that I find blinding anyone funny, of course.

Well, Nic at this time was a very boyish-looking six foot six or thereabouts, and these two aspects made him as distinctive as any supporting performer can be. He was required to fight Murray Shelmerdine’s finely brutal Duke, die, and subsequently return with the message. I have never known a cast — quite amicably — contest the casting to the director’s face, other than on this occasion. “Nic is unmistakable! Please don’t expect the audience not to recognise him as the dead servant!” The point was well made, and the messenger’s speech was re-allotted.

Apart from these ‘terminal’ cases, Julius Caesar has often been played by the same actor who will be his successor, great-nephew and adopted son, Octavius (later the Emperor Augustus). And Richard Ainley once played the Siwards, father and son, in “Macbeth”. That was in radio; it had to be.

Then there’s the pre-birth factor. The Juliet of “Measure for Measure” gets inappropriately pregnant, which starts off a lot of the action. Late in the play, another lady, Mariana, listens to a young boy singing. In the production I was in, a couple from the audience overheard someone saying “What a shame for that little boy to have to hang around all evening till so late, for one song.” The couple were very amused, because the ‘boy’ was the actress playing Juliet, minus her pregnancy bump. The couple were her parents.