Josh Hartnett
September 15, 2008
American actor Josh Hartnett made his name in such movies as the Virgin Suicides, Black Hawk Down and Pearl Harbor. But Hartnett has left Hollywood behind for now to make his London West End debut in the stage version of Rain Man, based the Oscar-winning 1988 film starring Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman. Hartnett plays Cruise’s role of car dealer Charlie Babbitt. But before the curtain goes up on Rain Man, Harnett took some time to make a surprise guest appearance in The Factory’s production of Hamlet at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre.
According to The Independent, “He still managed to make an unannounced cameo in a midnight performance of Hamlet at Shakespeare’s Globe last weekend with the super-cool company The Factory, who stage their pop-up plays all over London. “It was a goof”, he breaks into his first smile. “They ripped out a page of the book and said ‘here you’re going to do this’. It looks like more fun to be a part of than anything you can imagine on stage.”
Many web sites incorrectly reported that Ewan McGregor would be performing in the play. McGregor had made a previous guest appearance in one of The Factory’s previous performances of Hamlet, but the theatre company kept Hartnett’s participation a secret until the night of the play.
For the past year, The Factory’s experimental version of Hamlet has become a cult favorite in London. The company has performed the play every Sunday at secret locations throughout the city. Performance sites are revealed on the Internet only days before the production.
Every character in the play can be performed from a selection of different actors each night, as each performer has learned numerous parts. The audience decides which actors will play each role. As a result, cast members don’t know which character they will be playing until just before the show begins.
There is no set and there are no designated props. The actors adapt their performances to the site The Factory has picked for that evening. If the company has chosen a theatre, the actors will use whatever set is already on stage. For the Globe performance, the actors used the set for The Merry Wives of Windsor. The only props used are items brought by audience members to the show.
The Factory is planning to take Hamlet to Budapest this November and New York in 2009.
Josh Hartnett can be seen in Rain Man at the Apollo Theatre in London from Friday 19 September till Saturday 20 December.
Web Resources:
The Independent - Josh Harnett: ‘I’m not so hot on the hottie tag’
The Factory Hamlet website
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