By Joanna Orland
For Chariots of Fire actor Ian Charleson, to play the role of Hamlet had been a lifelong ambition. After actor Daniel Day-Lewis walks off stage during his run as Hamlet at London’s National Theatre, Charleson is offered the part. As the role of a lifetime is finally his to play, he must also confront his AIDS diagnosis and push through the devastating illness in order to realize his dream.
Elsinore is the real-life story of Charleson (Andrew Scott) as he strives to survive for as long as possible in order to play Hamlet at the National Theatre. He commands the stage in the role that both gives him life and accelerates his death. It is the story of the end of Charleson’s life, but not the end of his living – he chooses quality over quantity as the film explores the power of art and what gives life meaning.
‘Elsinore’ Explores Familiar Territory, With a Different Angle
There have been many stories, real and fictional, told of the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s. Elsinore hits all of the familiar beats and awards-bait tropes, but it offers something different, and more hopeful, in its message. Rather than merely being a film about AIDS and the suffering it has wrought across an entire generation of queer men, Elsinore is about what makes life worth living in the first place.
Elsinore is as much an ode to art as it is to the artists who live for and through their work. For this specific story, it’s the theatre and performance that stir passion in Ian Charleson and his community. The National Theatre itself acts as a stand-in “Elsinore”, a towering monument that represents the power that art has to heal, unite, and give meaning.
For Charleson, it is his craft that keeps him going, and his greatest masterpiece is yet to come. Rather than medically fight for his life or try experimental, life-extending, brutal treatments, he chooses to fully live the life he has left — for him, that means performing. Hamlet is one of the most intense roles an actor can take on in his career, and for him to do it in the state he was in required an immense amount of will and perseverance.
To be or not to be — Charleson chooses to be, living his short life to the fullest rather than numbly heading toward his death. Elsinore portrays all he went through to ensure he could give one final performance, to which he gives his literal all.
Andrew Scott Goes Deeper With a Performance Within a Performance
Andrew Scott as Ian Charleson gives it his all in Elsinore. The layers and depth he delves into are peerless as he not only masterfully embodies Charleson, but also takes on the role of Hamlet himself, this time through the mindset of Charleson. It’s unlike any other performance Scott has given before, and singular in what it achieves.
There is an intensity, vigour, and vulnerability in how Scott approaches his dual roles as Ian Charleson and Charleson’s Hamlet. Scott had extensive experience playing Hamlet on the London stage himself, having stepped into the role for 150 performances. To play Ian Charleson’s Hamlet, however, he unlearned all of the soliloquies he’d learned as himself, and relearned them with Charleson’s mindset, gaining new insight into the text and an understanding of how Charleson would interpret it.
You’d think this would be merely an actor’s exercise to help him prepare for a role, but it goes beyond exercise to being fully realized on screen. The layers of the performance radiate through Scott as he delivers every Shakespearean line, channeled through Charleson, and turns it into something altogether new and wondrous. Both Charleson and Hamlet confront death in a visceral way.
Heartbreaking and profound, Andrew Scott delivers an extraordinary performance in Elsinore — not just his finest, but possibly one of the greatest ever committed to screen. His own passion for theatre, for Hamlet, for performance, and for Ian Charleson’s story emanates from his soul as he bares it to the camera. He doesn’t just do right by Charleson’s legacy, but his interpretation is in itself a testament to the purpose of art and life.
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Elsinore
Directed by Simon Stone
Starring Andrew Scott, Olivia Colman, Billie Piper, Luke Thompson, David Dawson, Joe Locke, Monica Dolan, Juliet Stevenson, and Johnny Flynn
Reviewed at TIFF 2026
