I've clearly been lurking on this board for some time....

[MissFitton]

...because I struggled getting past the first line in this article on Maxine Peake today in the Guardian which references her 'transgender Hamlet'. I saw this production and read a lot about it a the time (it was excellent btw). This is the first ref to it being trans that I've seen.

So, thank you for making me aware of the nonsense going on. Keep having the discussion on these boards, I'm sure there are a lot of other lurkers who have had their eyes opened by the brilliant FWR posters and who aren't just going blindly on with things...

First time I've heard of the production described this way....sure it was always just 'gender blind casting' before?

Like you I was a lurker for a fair time but then just got to the point where I wanted to show the level of support out there. From discussions with friends and family there are many who arent exposed to the issues raised in the boards but once you have the opportunity to talk things through are hugely supportive.

YY to gender blind casting. Describing it as a 'transgender Hamlet' retrospectively attributes something to it that simply wasn't there.

It made me cross and I have MN to thank for that!

I saw Peake's Hamlet and thought she was simply an actor playing a part and quite well at that (though the whole piece dragged a bit for me).

A few weeks later, the friend who'd come down from Scotland to see it with us texted to alert me that Peake was going to be interviewed about it on the radio, so we tuned in. Asked about being a woman playing the part of a man, she replied "I played it trans..."

I've said ever since - I had no idea that was what I was meant to read into the performance and, frankly, hearing that dismayed me quite a bit.

I'll repeat my point - Peake was good as a woman playing a young man. There was no point at all in claiming she was playing it "trans".

Ah, well that's quite disappointing then that she described it as such because, as you say, she played it well as a young woman playing a young man and there was no need. After all, originally young men played young women quite effectively - Shakespeare can stand up to this!

So is she playing a man who thinks he’s a woman or a woman who thinks she is a man?

Why do none of the other characters comment on their transgender status since this would have important implications regarding inheritance?

And why aren’t the TRAs all over a non-trans actor playing a trans like they did over Scarlet Johansson?

For heaven's sake what on earth does playing it trans mean. As far as I was concerned it was a female actress playing a male role, I'm going off Maxine.
What about the all female Julius Caesar were they all trans too.

I will say this bluntly. When it comes to showbiz they will come out with all kinds of self-serving shit.

Look at what showbiz people other than Peake will do. They'll cover up for paedophiles or, when their appalling behaviour comes to light, will support the paedophiles, if they're part of the showbiz world, rather than the victims.

I loved Maxine Peale until this huge letdown.
Not her performance, obviously - she's still a fab actor - but her negation of femaleness.
Meh.

Oh for god's sake. In Shakespeare's time, every female role was played by a male, as women were forbidden from acting. Were they all fucking trans?

I too have loved Maxine for a long time. She has taken chances with her roles and always seemed so nicely Northern, down to earth and honest.
This just smacks of bandwaggoning, I wonder if she's been asked to say this but as it was not in any of the press or descriptions at the time, does seem odd.
See, this is why I don't like listening to or reading actors' & actresses' opinions and proclamations.
I mean, we don't want to know what bus drivers' and accountants' views are on things, so why these people who are just doing their jobs? Why should they be seen as more insightful?
I don't like knowing that someone's work
I admire is a total nobhead! It often happens.

To be fair to her in the linked article it's The Guardian who refer to the performance as 'transgender Hamlet' rather than her. Like other posters I like Maxine Peake so I'd like to hear her take on it.

"I played it trans..."

I don't know anything about this particular performance of Hamlet, but there's a certain honesty to this statement. Trans is, after all, a performance.

I think probably the use of transgender here isn’t in the stunning and brave special gender essence-y kind of way. I think they are just using it as shorthand for a woman playing a male role. Lazy writing and a writer who isn’t as immersed in the topic as others and doesn’t realise the weight of the word.

surely it was played en travesti and it would be a travesty to suggest this was anything to do with transgender identity

Maxine Peake trans?

It would be funny if she now gets jumped all over for "appropriation" and "transface". I'd laugh, anyway.

Yup, I'm surprised there's no tantrums about how a trans actor is the only person that could have played it trans. Jenner springs to mind but perhaps for the ghost part instead.

Honestly it is ridiculous.
In Shakespeare's time all parts were played by men anyway. Doesn't mean those characters were trans.
It is as if people have taken leave of their senses.

I enjoyed reading this interview so much that I hadn't even noticed the 'transgender ' reference in the first line. No idea what she means by 'played it trans'. I'm such a huge fan of hers, and shes such a bullshit-free zone about most things. Will be so disappointed if shes going for woke cookies

I read interviews with her that said she approached it as a woman, and said that some of the lines felt better coming from a woman. Also, I definitely read a review that said it was "a feminised production"
There's a huge swing towards gender- blind casting in Shakespeare theatre productions currently, and it's really interesting looking at those traditionally male characters played by women.
Though, that said I think the pronouns were male and she played him as a prince. Gillian Bevan, however, player a female "Polonia" which sits really well with a women playing Hamlet.

I definitely didn't get a trans vibe from it - just 'Maxine Peake is playing Hamlet' 🤔

Shakespeare even included a lot of women pretending to be men in order to hide as part of the plot in some of his plays ffs. It's a common plot ploy form the era and in theatre. One could argue feminist as they proved they were as worthy as the men.

It's just recognised as pretending which is what acting is.

Also, I definitely read a review that said it was "a feminised production"

Yy like Matthew Bourne's swan lake.

(Masculinised obviously!)