McKellen's Hamlet

Ok, how have I been on the net most of my life and never seen this? Sir Ian McKellen's theatrical scrapbook is online, complete with photos, original touring dates, and words from Sir Ian himself. Just.....wow. 1972.

On the first night of Hamlet at the Nottingham Playhouse last week, Robert Chetwyn, the director, went into the lavatory and heard his production being dismissed as "damned teenage twaddle". Ian McKellen, who is 30 and plays Hamlet, was pleased to be thought of as a teenager. After the third performance about 100 young people stood shouting and clapping their approval and this pleased Mr. McKellen even more. "It looks as if we have a controversial Hamlet, he said. "Now we will have to be ready for the national critics not liking it".