The biographical film, “Elsinore,” is a touching portrayal of one man’s struggle against a fatal illness and his last chance to portray Hamlet on the National Theatre stage in London. The film stars Irish actor Andrew Scott who was nominated for an Olivier Award for his portrayal of Hamlet in 2017 (a performance that was later made into a 2018 TV movie).
If you’re in California, you might think “Elsinore” refers to a body of water. In a circular way, it does. Lake Elsinore in Riverside County was named for the Danish city, Helsingør, which in English becomes “Elsinore.” Elsinore is the name of a castle featured in William Shakespeare’s play, “The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark.”
There is another Elsinore, namely a Honda CR250M, which was also known as Elsinore in North America and was named after the off-road race in Lake Elsinore that was one of the locations for the 1971 Oscar-nominated documentary on motorcycle racing “On Any Sunday.” Both will be referenced in this film.
The film begins with another actor portraying Hamlet, who, mid-performance, walks off stage during the scene where Hamlet confronts the apparition of his dead father and is assigned his fatal mission: vengeance (Act 1, Scene 5). That actor is revealed as Daniel Day-Lewis. This really happened and provided the real-life event opportunity for his understudy, Jeremy Northam, to step in and finish the night. Yet, it left the production looking for a new Hamlet.
That man will be Ian Charleson (1949-1990), who in the autumn of 1989, had already co-starred in the 1981 Oscar-winning “Chariots of Fire” and the 1982 Oscar-winning “Gandhi.” Yet now, 40, he had recently been in a 1987 Italian horror film, “Opera.” He wasn’t getting opportunities in major British or US films.
Charleson had done well as a stage actor. He had portrayed Sky Masterson in the 1982 National Theatre production of “Guys and Dolls” (Olivier Theatre) opposite Bob Hoskins’ Nathan Detroit. He had been nominated for an Olivier Award (Actor of the Year in a New Play) for the two-person drama, “Fool for Love,” in 1984.
More importantly, for this film, he had performed in the 1980 BBC Television Shakespeare film, “Hamlet,” as Fortinbras opposite Derek Jacobi’s and he had previously portrayed Hamlet in a Cambridge Theatre Company touring production in the 1974-1975 season.
Unfortunately, by 1986, Charleson had been diagnosed with HIV. This was a year after Larry Kramer’s autobiographical play about the beginning of the AIDS crisis was first performed (22 April 1985, off-Broadway). The same year, Rock Hudson (1925-1985) announced that he had AIDS via his French publicist Yanou Collart (25 July 1985). Hudson died on 2 October 1985.
Yet “Elsinore” makes it clear early on that Charleson is keenly aware of his health problems. He is shown examining himself for the telltale signs of AIDS: Kaposi sarcoma lesions. He has a friend, Georgie (Luke Thompson) who is dealing fast from AIDS. And just as he has agreed to become Hamlet for the National Theatre production, a small KS lesion appears on his face. Initially, only the director Richard Eyre (Johnny Flynn) knows although others will discern this affliction and others might suspect but be too polite to openly question.
His new doctor Margaret Johnson (Olivia Colman) is not too polite. She questions Charleson’s ambition to portray Hamlet. Charleson wants one more chance at glory and he’s supported by his friend and casting director Patsy Pollock (Billie Piper) with her daughter Alice (Sadie Soverall). Others, such as openly gay director Derek Jarman (Louise Healy) argue that he should come out of the closet.
If you’ve seen portions of Andrew Scott’s performance as Hamlet which are available online, or if you’ve seen him on “Sherlock” as the villainous Moriarty, you’ll know that Scott can deliver and under direction of Simon Stone, Scott is devastatingly tragic. Swiss-born Stone has directed “Hamlet” and he’s directed many classics on the stage in London, Paris, Munich and even Los Angeles. Writer Stephen Beresford has written work produced by the National Theatre (“The Last of the Haussmann,” 2012) as well as LGBTQ-themed works (the 2014 historical comedy “Pride”). The film is based on an idea by Ethan Silverman. Stone and Beresford’s familiarity with theatrical productions and the culture of stage productions generally and the National Theatre specifically give us a sense of intimate details and we are taken through the grueling work toward an opening as well as the end of life struggles.
For those who weren’t alive in the 1980s, Rock Hudson had not revealed he had AIDS to actress Linda Evans when he was on the TV drama “Dynasty,” and kissed her during one scene which was first aired in February 1985. This production of “Hamlet,” didn’t require the transmission of saliva, yet there was a hysteria about HIV/AIDS at the time. In August of 1985, Ryan White (1971-1990) was barred from attending middle school in Indiana. In 1987, a federal judge ruled that a Florida school could not ban three HIV-positive brothers, Ricky (1977-1992), Robert (1978-2000) and Randy Ray (1979-2023) at the beginning of August. The boys were hemophiliacs who contracted HIV via blood transfusion. By the end of August, their house was burned down (28 August 1987).
For myself, I was in England at the end of 1989 after spending most of the year in Japan. In Japan, HIV/AIDS was considered an American disease. When I was in England, I heard some say that HIV/AIDS was an “African disease.” In 2017, some people still consider it an “African disease.” When I returned to the US, in 1990, HIV/AIDS was largely considered a “Gay disease” and it had once been called GRID or Gay-Related Immune Disease. And it was, by 1989, considered a “gay plague” in the UK as well.
By 1990, the year when Charleson died, Liberace had died (4 February 1987) and pop artist Keith Haring had died (16 February 1990). The AIDS quilt had been created (February 1987). A year later, Earvin “Magic” Johnson announced he was HIV-positive (7 November 1991) and Queen frontman Freddie Mercury died of AIDS (24 November 1991). In 1992, the only Black man to win a singles titles at Wimbledon, the US Open and the Australian Open, Arthur Ashe, announced he was HIV-positive. Ashe died the following year (6 February 1993), just a few days after Soviet ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev (3 February 1993). In December of that year, the film “Philadelphia,” opened with Tom Hanks in his Oscar-winning role as a gay man with AIDS and Denzel Washington as his lawyer. By then, there are been several HIV/AIDS-related legal actions. History.com has a US-centric AIDS Crisis Timeline. Charleson is not mentioned.
“Elsinore” is a touching tribute to Charleson, to the glory of the theater and its ability to move audiences and provide a showcase for talent that sometimes movies don’t make room for. “Elsinore” had its world premiere at Telluride (4 September 2026) and is scheduled to be released on 20 November 2026. It was one of the special screenings at AFI Fest 2026.