Two Hamlets – one a stripped-back solo show by Suzy Eddie Izzard and the other a lavish ballet by Leo Mujic – are happening in Brisbane simultaneously. We brought their makers together to compare notes on reimagining a classic.
On the same day England took on Croatia in the World Cup, a far friendlier clash was taking place at the Thomas Dixon Centre, the splendid West End facility of the Queensland Ballet.
British actor and comedy superstar Suzy Eddie Izzard met Croatian ballet maker Leo Mujic to talk about Hamlet. Both are presenting non-traditional versions of Shakespeare’s most famous play in Brisbane in June.
The story of the overthinking prince of Denmark and his hesitation in taking revenge against the uncle who has slain his father is one that is endlessly retold.
Izzard is performing it solo, taking on all the characters, while Mujic is directing the Queensland Ballet in a wordless interpretation with music by Tchaikovsky and Saint-Saens.
Mujic was taking a break from rehearsing his ballet, first staged with the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb in 2023 to awards and acclaim. Izzard patched in from Sydney, where her Opera House season has been a sellout.
This masthead was present for what was not so much a duel with a poisoned sword as a sharing of advice on stagecraft, language and one of culture’s greatest touchstones.
Brevity being the soul of wit, the conversation has been edited for length.
Izzard: Leo, doing [Hamlet as a] ballet is beautiful, because sometimes Shakespeare can be too loquacious – there’s a five-hour version of this thing.
Mujic: There’s values of the words and there’s the values of music and movement. What I’m interested in is why one work, which is more than 400 years old, survived until today and inspired different types of artists.
Dent: Leo, did you read the play in English, Croatian or another language?
Mujic: I did read it in French, which is my easier language to understand. The real Shakespearean English for me, it’s very hard to read.
Izzard: You should know for English speakers, it’s also very difficult for us to read! Because some of the words are lost out of language. Bodkins are just not used, you know. Most people go, what is a bodkin?
Mujic: I have to be aware of the weaknesses of the ballet, and what non-verbal theatre is actually the best at. Hamlet’s thoughts are represented in my ballet through the huge number of dancers who are following him, punishing him, lifting him, encouraging him.
I try to go for character development of the movement itself, even when he’s twitching. As the ballet progresses, he needs to become more aware, more paranoid, more aggressive, so the movement actually easily accommodates that.
Izzard: Some people have said that it’s actually easier to watch my production of Hamlet [rather than a full cast] because you really get to concentrate on the words. You’re not seeing another character and their costume, but you can follow the words – as long as I’m very crisp with the architecture.
I call it the architecture of how I move and how I snap between different characters who are at different places in their arcs. It’s like playing chess against yourself.
Mujic: We are having 50 dancers on the stage, and what you do is 50 turned into one! I want to ask, are you super exhausted after the show?
Izzard: No, not really, because I’m living on pure oxygen out there. That’s when I’m purely alive.
I was seven when I [first] saw a play. My mother died two years before, and I saw a play and I thought “I need this.” I think I’ve substituted the audience’s affection for my mother’s affection.
So, I’m mentally exhausted, physically exhausted, but I’m fine. I don’t go out clubbing after.
Dent: What is urgent about doing Hamlet in 2026?
Izzard: Hamlet is a classic story of a family tearing itself apart, a country tearing itself apart, a bombastic king. Some people are saying “no kings” right now.
Mujic: We’re not living in a time of Hamlet. We’re living in a time of Richard III, because Hamlet is “to be or not to be”, and Richard III is “to be at any price”. Hamlet is bringing us back to the vulnerability and questioning.
Dent: Which of the supporting characters is the most fun to stage?
Izzard: We thought, there are only two women’s parts, let’s make them really resonate. And as a trans woman playing male and female characters, I wanted to give them honour and respect and agency, particularly for Ophelia, who is so underwritten.
Mujic: I had opportunity to give Ophelia more space. I can give myself a beautiful scene of the drowning of Ophelia, where the big group of people are just carrying her through the space.
Dent: How do you decide what to cut?
Mujic: Hamlet cannot have 10,000 conversations with Ophelia. I can give him two: one is a love duet, and the other is the breaking-up duet where he breaks her heart.
Izzard: Some people feel that the five-hour version is right, but I do not believe people stood for five hours and watched it. You have to make the story work, serve the audience, make it visceral.
Mujic: It’s a two-hour ballet with a break. I always make the first act longer, and then the break, and the shorter second act.
Izzard: That’s exactly what we do. You have a drink and relax a bit, go to the loo, you come back, and then you’re driving towards the end, you flag there’s going to be a sword fight, and we’re off to the races and I’m fighting against myself.
Mujic: Which is actually what Hamlet does: fights against himself!
Izzard: Yes, yes, absolutely, he does.
Mujic: Thank you for this beautiful exchange.
Izzard: And as the French say, “merde!”
Mujic: What the English say is “break a leg”.
Eddie Izzard performs Shakespeare’s Hamlet at the Brisbane Powerhouse, June 24-27. Queensland Ballet performs Leon Mujic’s Hamlet, June 19-July 18, Talbot Theatre, Thomas Dixon Centre.
