The card advertises “Matinees, Wallack’s Theatre, Tuesday April 28 and Friday May 1.” The “Notes of Current Plays” in the New York Times, April 29, 1903, says “Edmund Russell’s Hamlet is Quite Harmless.” In an unenthusiastic review, the anonymous “correspondent” dismisses Russell’s performance with this comment: “Here is an instance of a man who, though he may know much, can act little or not at all.” Most attention is paid to the reaction of the ladies in the front row
Edmund Russell in “Hamlet”
The card advertises “Matinees, Wallack’s Theatre, Tuesday April 28 and Friday May 1.” The “Notes of Current Plays” in the New York Times, April 29, 1903, says “Edmund Russell’s Hamlet is Quite Harmless.” In an unenthusiastic review, the anonymous “correspondent” dismisses Russell’s performance with this comment: “Here is an instance of a man who, though he may know much, can act little or not at all.” Most attention is paid to the reaction of the ladies in the front row who were disconcerted by the “fact that Hamlet’s unmentionables were ripping down the seam”; the rip was perhaps intentional, taking note of Ophelia’s remark that Hamlet came to her closet “with his doublet all unbraced, No hat upon his head, his stockings fouled, Ungartered and down gyved to his ankle.” The production closed after the two performances in1903.
The publisher and the photographer are not identified.
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