Prodigy

My son gets to play his first Shakespearean role at the age of negative one month, this coming November. There aren't many lines in the role of Hamlet's unborn brother, but I feel as though it's more of a physical part, anyway. And you know what they say, no small parts, only small actors. In this case a small actor, all of whose parts are also quite small.

I must admit I'm a little torn about playing Claudius to M's Gertrude while she's in her third trimester. I love being onstage with her, and it's likely to be a really excellent production, but I can think of better ways to nest than a sure-to-be-grueling rehearsal process for one of the most challenging tragedies ever written. At least it's not Macbeth. And then there's the metadramatic aspect. Playing a would-be father to a hostile young man who refuses to play the role of a son, who idealizes the absent father that I can never be will either be a wonderful way for me to play through some of my own anxieties about fatherhood, or it will just fuck with my head.

Pregnant Gertrude. If you think about it long enough, it kind of works, and brings lots of interesting issues in the play to the fore. And if nothing else, it'll really give certain lines punch: "Gertrude, do not drink!" springs to mind as an example.