Headline role

Acting class: Laurence Olivier as Hamlet in the classic 1948 film

To act, or not to act: that is the question. It is a choice as old as Hamlet itself. William Shakespeare’s depiction of the hesitant Danish prince has a lasting appeal, in part because his dilemma is such a ­human one. Who has not wavered on the brink of a life-changing decision?

During the course of five acts, Hamlet asks whether he has the necessary decisiveness to take action. At the end of his most famous soliloquy – “To be, or not to be” (Act III scene I) – Hamlet seems to have convinced himself that thought is the enemy of bold deeds: