By SARAH LYALL


ELSINORE, Denmark - There could be no more apt and atmospheric place to play Hamlet than at Kronborg Castle, built here in the 16th century at the edge of the sound separating Denmark from Sweden. Laurence Olivier did it and so, over the years, did Richard Burton, John Gielgud and Kenneth Branagh.

Their ghosts, as much as the fictional ghost of the murdered king, seemed to whisper in the background the other night when the latest Hamlet, the British actor Jude Law, performed in the castle courtyard. The presence of the real-life, perfectly sane crown prince of Denmark, Frederik, in the audience on opening night added another layer to the aura of otherworldliness.

The burden and expectation of all this symbolism and history could haunt an actor. But Mr. Law, 36, has weathered these and other potential slings and arrows with a practiced ease. He has just finished a 12-week run in London. The six performances in Elsinore, called Helsingor in Denmark, were a pause before the production moves to Broadway for three months starting this month.

Mr. Law appears unfazed by any burdens. He says the only way to shake off memories of great performances past is to accept that the play has no Platonic ideal. “Of course there are times when you think, ‘I’m putting myself up there with these fine actors,’” he said in an interview. “But there is no definitive ‘Hamlet,’ because you don’t play Hamlet, Hamlet plays you. You come out in him, which is why every production is different.”

Mr. Law, whose Hamlet is less a brooding Dane than an angry, hyperkinetic one, came to the role as part of a yearlong residency at Wyndhams Theater in London’s West End by the small, not-forprofit Donmar Warehouse company.

The goal was to attract new audiences, particularly young ones. In the case of “Hamlet,” it paid off. Every seat was sold, in many cases to teenagers drawn by the lure of Mr. Law.

The director of “Hamlet,” Michael Grandage, who is also the Donmar’s artistic director, noted that Mr. Law’s theater credits included “’Tis Pity She’s a Whore” and “Dr. Faustus,” so “there’s no sense of someone waking up in the morning and saying, ‘I want to do a bit of stage today.’ There’s a legitimacy about having this particular movie star return to the stage, because people here knew that he was a theater actor who at some point became a movie star.”

And though one of their favorite sports is sneering at the theatrical efforts of Hollywood celebrities, London theater critics mostly admired and occasionally even swooned over Mr. Law’s Hamlet. In Variety, David Benedict wrote that he was “riveting” and “thrillingly vital.”

Hamlet’s soliloquies are among the first hurdles any actor in the role must surmount. They include some of Shakespeare’s most powerful speeches but are so familiar they can sound formulaic to the point of banality.

“When you’re faced with ‘To be or not to be,’ in the first rehearsal,” Mr. Law said, “there’s a sense of ‘Oh, God, I’m stepping into the world’s greatest cliche.’ But without sounding like a naff old actor, I’m Hamlet, and what a great way to question life and death.”

He added: “The reason they’re so famous is because they’re beautifully written and incredibly powerful pieces of dialogue. Never underestimate the power of these lines. Our language is littered with words and phrases from this play, and we use them because we have not, in 400 years, found a better way of putting things.”

The production’s aesthetic is understated, so the words can speak for themselves. “You have to look at these 400-year-old plays as if they’re new,” Mr. Grandage said. “It’s not about the legacy, but about the very difficult task of producing the play for a new era.”


Jude Law, a movie star with theater roots, is in a new production of “Hamlet” coming to Broadway from London.