Tony Award-nominated Eddie Izzard will bring her acclaimed solo performance of William Shakespeare's "Hamlet" to San Francisco. Following acclaimed runs in New York, Chicago, and London, the production, adapted by her brother Mark Izzard and directed by Selina Cadell, will play from April 1 through April 20 at A.C.T.'s Strand Theater.
In a recent phone interview with the Bay Area Reporter, Izzard, 63, discussed coming out as trans and genderfluid, adding a new first name, and memorizing the "thirteen-and-a-half-thousand" words in this solo adaptation of Shakespeare's masterpiece.
A fluid identity
For the record, Izzard came out as transgender in 1985 and gender fluid in 2019, chose to exclusively use she/her pronouns in 2020, and added Suzy to her name in 2023.
"I came out as transgender 40 years ago, but the language was very different then," she said. "When I came out, they used the words 'TV' and 'TS' for transvestite or transexual. These words were from the Latin, and hadn't been updated since the bloody Romans left in 400 A.D. Using 'TV' made it sound like you were a television, so it was all very confusing."
Izzard admits that the difference between being transgender and genderfluid may be confusing to cisgender people. "Some people do not feel that they are genderfluid if they're transgender, and some people do, so yes, there is a difference. I just know I didn't choose being trans. I fancy women and if it's genetics or whatever it is, it's built into me, so I express myself as a trans woman."
Having become famous as comedian and actor Eddie Izzard, she's kept that name professionally, despite going by the name Suzy in her personal life since 2023.
"Eddie is sort of my brand name at the moment, but some people call me Suzy-Eddie like Jean-Marie. I'm trying to make it easy so that no one can trip up and feel like they said it wrong. No one can say it wrong unless they call me Arthur or Sabrina."
Izzard starred as a cis male con man in the FX series "The Riches," and recently played a trans role in the Netflix series "Kaos." She's most interested in playing both cis male and trans roles moving forward, but said, "The roles I'm most drawn to are just good ones, really."
The play's the thing
In this solo production, Izzard not only tackles the Mount Everest of acting roles as Hamlet, she plays most of the other characters as well.
"I've got two female roles, about five really interesting male roles, and some other supporting characters," she explained.
She identifies with some of the characters more than others.
"I can understand Claudius," she said. "I do identify with Hamlet. I can understand Ophelia as well, but Gertrude less so. I would hate to be Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. They must've sensed that they were brought in to be spies. I would've been ill that week and not been able to do it somehow.
"Part of me is Fortinbras, the fiery bastard Norwegian who wants to get his country back," she says. "I'm not like Hamlet in the indecision thing. I'm much more of a 'go at it' person than Hamlet is. At the end of Act One, his father says, 'Avenge me' and he says, 'Absolutely.' Then he takes four more acts to it, and he doesn't even choose to do it at the end.
"But he's not a hero," says Izzard. "My director was saying he's an antihero and I said, 'I don't think he's an antihero, I think he's an accidental hero.' We just think of him as heroic since there's a sword fight at the end.
"The biggest challenge is to get the thirteen-and-a-half-thousand words in your head before you can really get all the arcs of the characters," she admitted. "I don't ever ask for a line. I don't have anyone on book, so if I lose my way, I'm on my own. This is something I decided to do because it just forces me to be inside the play and just live it."
'Eddie Izzard Hamlet' at A.C.T.'s Strand Theater, 1127 Market St. $78-$127. April 1-20. www.act-sf.org
www.eddieizzardhamlet.com
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