Kundura Sinema’s “The First Diva of Cinema” selection will feature the films of Asta Nielsen, and taking her unique 1921 “Hamlet” performance as our starting point, we wanted to remember the actresses who have played Hamlet on screen and on stage.

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The gender of Hamlet, Shakespeare’s universal character, has in fact been a subject of debate for centuries. His “unmanly grief” was considered “effeminate” by Victorian critics.

Although women playing Hamlet, beginning in the mid-18th century, initially caused a shock, these “unconventional interpretations” came to be accepted over time. As one critic put it, “Rather than imitating masculinity, women universalize the character,” and so perhaps remind us that, regardless of gender, ‘everyone is a Hamlet.’

THE FIRST ‘FEMALE HAMLET’: FANNY FURNIVAL

The first actress in history to play Hamlet was Fanny Furnival, who took on the role at the Smock Alley Theatre in Dublin in 1741.

In 1775, at just 17, Sarah Siddons played Hamlet nine times in provincial productions, and she continued to play the role throughout her career.

In 1820, Sarah Bartley became the first female Hamlet in America, in a production at the Park Theatre in New York.

One of the celebrated Hamlets of the 19th century was Charlotte Cushman, who played Hamlet in New York and Boston in 1851.

When Nellie Holbrook played Hamlet in New York in 1880, The New York Mirror was scathing, declaring, “This is decidedly a masculine character, and no matter how talented the actress, it is not fit to be played by a woman.”

The French actress and theater director Sarah Bernhardt played Hamlet on stage in Paris and London in 1899. Playing Hamlet in the two-minute short film “Le duel d’Hamlet” in 1900, Bernhardt became the first actress to portray the Prince of Denmark on the silver screen.

“I cannot see Hamlet as a man. The things he says, his impulses, his actions all indicate to me that he was a woman.” Sarah Bernhardt

HAMLET FROM ‘DIE ASTA’

The Danish actress Asta Nielsen, cinema’s first international star, also played Hamlet on the silver screen. The 1921 German silent film “Hamlet” was a major box-office success and won praise from critics.

TÜRKİYE’S ‘FEMALE HAMLETS’

In Türkiye, Ayla Algan brought Hamlet to life on the theater stage between 1962 and 1965. In 1976, Metin Erksan directed the film “Angel of Vengeance / Female Hamlet”, in which Fatma Girik played Hamlet.

FROM THE ’70s TO THE ’90s

Frances de la Tour played Hamlet in 1979 in a production at the Half Moon Theatre in London. The renowned British critic Michael Billington described the performance as “Abrasive, mettlesome, masculine and fiery.”

In 1982, the American actress Diane Venora drew the portrait of “a lithe, dark, athletic and aggressive Hamlet” in Joseph Papp’s production of “Hamlet”.

Ruth Mitchell, a well-known Broadway actress and director, played Hamlet in 1992 in the all-female production “The Roaring Girls Hamlet”, staged at the Warehouse Theatre in Croydon.

THE 2000s AND 2010s

The German actress Angela Winkler played Hamlet at the Edinburgh Festival in 2000. The Guardian’s Michael Billington praised the performance, writing, “She does not adopt a superficial masculinity; instead she draws Hamlet’s emotions into her own personality,” and remarked that “women are better equipped to convey the emotional depths of Shakespeare’s troubled hero.”

In 2014, the Dutch actress Abke Haring played the Prince of Denmark in “Hamlet vs Hamlet”, a production by Guy Cassiers, one of Europe’s most important theater directors.

The British actress Maxine Peake won rave reviews for her Hamlet at Manchester’s Royal Exchange Theatre in 2014. The critic Susannah Clapp wrote, “She is an almost pre-sexual, cool, stripling prince who glides along without a hint of girlishness.”

The Olivier Award-winning British actress Michelle Terry played Hamlet in 2018 at Shakespeare’s Globe, where she was also artistic director.

In 2018, in a production directed by Yaël Farber at the Dublin Theatre Festival, Hamlet was played by the Oscar-nominated American actress Ruth Negga.

The British actress Tessa Parr played Hamlet at the Leeds Playhouse in 2019. This adaptation, in which Hamlet was allowed to be fully female, did not receive particularly good reviews from critics.

THE LATEST ‘FEMALE HAMLET’ (FOR NOW)

For now, the most recent actress to play Hamlet on stage is Cush Jumbo. Also known for the series “The Good Wife”, the actress took the lead role in the Young Vic Theatre’s production of Hamlet in London in 2020.