Somebody recently came up to Christopher Thornton after seeing his performance of Hamlet at the Lillian Theatre and asked, "Is playing Hamlet in a wheelchair hard?" To which he replied, "Playing Hamlet is hard. I've got the wheelchair down."
His standout performance in this currently running production proves that, well, actually he's got both down.
"I don't think the play ends up being what people expect it to be," said Thornton, an actor who is paralyzed from the waist down. "They think, Oh, wheelchair Hamlet. How unusual.' They think it's going to be a whole different take on the play."
It's not; the company takes a very traditional approach to the play, almost to a fault. Thornton's nuanced performance is what brings most scenes alive. While director Joanne Linville's blocking does not draw deliberate attention to the chair, having Hamlet on wheels does have some intriguing effects, adding speed and fluidity that intensifies some moments, as a stormy Hamlet can come sailing down the double ramps in anger, or coolly back away from another character more naturally than an actor on foot.
Thornton admits that the role presents certain physical challenges, such as maneuvering on steep ramps, and simply keeping his energy level up. In order to master the climactic duel, he worked extensively with a fencing coach and had to develop his trunk muscles to counterbalance the weight of the sword.
"The sword puts a lot of weight on your body," said Thornton, "and when you're only moving the upper half, you can kind of be top heavy, like a Weeble. People don't really realize how much you use your trunk muscles, but when they're limited, it's a whole different ballgame."
But, as do most actors, Thornton found the most difficult thing about Hamlet to be the language. "You really have to own it," said Thornton. "The first time you approach it, you have to get over the fame of the part. You think, How am I going to get onstage and do these lines that everybody knows?" Yet for nearly a month he has, carving out a memorable performance of lines that in lesser hands (or mouths) can feel all too familiar.
Performing onstage following his 1992 rock-climbing accident was not immediately so natural for Thornton. Prior to the accident, he had been in L.A. for a few years, working in film and television and at the Stella Adler Theatre.
"I didn't want to be onstage in a wheelchair. I lost the use of my diaphragm for a while, so my voice was really high-pitched and I had problems projecting, but my friends wouldn't take no for an answer." After a six-month recovery period, Thornton was back onstage for a sold-out run of Waiting for Godot at the World Theatre (now the Hudson Guild), followed by roles in Small Days and I'm a Professional!
While Thornton has also done television work on NBC's Players and recently on CBS' Family Law, theatre has proved the more challenging form in which to work. It is a disturbing but well established fact that most casting directors for film and television are not open to hiring actors with disabilities for parts that are not expressly written for a disabled actor, and about the issue of being disabled.
"In the theatre, I've been able to do quite a few plays where it had nothing to do with a wheelchair," said Thornton. "I just got cast in them, and we made it work. With television, every time I've gone out to read, the character is always either reliving the accident or still in the hospital."
In Thornton's experience, parts for actors in wheelchairs come out in the breakdowns about five or six times a year. Actors with disabilities often get wind of these auditions through a service called Media Access, a casting liaison for union and non-union actors with disabilities that is a co-partnership of the California State Employment Development Department and the California Governor's Committee for Employment of Disabled Persons. Said Thornton, "As glad as I am about the parts are out there, that these drama shows are dealing with these issues, there seems to be this idea that if you're in a wheelchair that that's what your life revolves around. But you deal with the same problems as everyone else-your bills aren't paid, your relationship's falling apart, you lost your job. You just happen to be doing it from a chair."
As yet, despite the efforts of his personal manager, Thornton has never been auditioned for a non-wheelchair-actor-specific role. He does not, however, recommend surprising a casting director at an audition with a disability. Said Thornton, "If you send a headshot in which doesn't show your wheelchair and don't mention it on your resum , and then show up, they're just sort of stuck. They audition you because they don't want to say no. I wouldn't put people on the spot like that."
His advice to other actors with disabilities is to just stay visible.
"Like any actor, if you can create an opportunity for yourself, it's a great thing," said Thornton. "It is so hard to get work, disability or no, and of course, a disability only makes it that much harder." As he finishes his work on Hamlet, and prepares to return to working on a feature film he has written, it appears Thornton has taken his own words to heart.
"Hamlet" will continue at the Lillian Theatre through Feb. 20 (see review, page 19).