SOURCE: Maher, Mary Z. “John Gielgud: The Glass of Fashion.” In Modern Hamlets and Their Soliloquies, pp. 1-18. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1992.
In the following essay, Maher describes in detail John Gielgud's delivery of Hamlet's seven soliloquies in a 1936-1937 production staged in New York and London. In a narrative supplemented by comments from the actor himself, she relates the effects of varying tempos, speech breaks, gestures, lighting, and stage business on Gielgud's performance of these speeches, stressing that he spoke them as if they were communications with himself rather than with the audience.
