Much lauded comedian Eddie Izzard is bringing her one-person version of Shakespeare's Hamlet to San Francisco in April, and Dame Judi Dench has reportedly called the performance "spectacular."

Izzard, 62, who has gone primarily by she/her pronouns for several years after identifying as both genderfluid and trans, first performed this solo Hamlet in London last year, following a sold-out off-Broadway run in New York. The shortened adaptation of Shakespeare's longest tragedy was done by Izzard's older brother, Mark Izzard, and it includes some modernized "translation" of Shakespeare's text — something that some critics have cringed at.

But Izzard portrays 23 characters in the play over the course of two and a half hours, and the performance won her an Outer Critics Circle Award nomination for Outstanding Solo Performance in 2024, as well as a nomination for the Drama League’s Distinguished Performance Award.

After a six-week run in London and a subsequent run in Chicago, Izzard brings to he piece to ACT's Strand Theater from April 1 to April 13, 2025. It is directed by English stage and screen veteran Selina Cadell.

"I have always gravitated towards playing complex and challenging characters and Hamlet is the ultimate," Izzard says. "This is a production for everyone, a timeless drama with an accidental hero. Selina, Mark, and I want audiences to see and hear an accessible, touching, scary, and dramatic Hamlet."

This is actually Izzard's second solo show, after her one-person version of Dickens's Great Expectations played in New York in 2022. And these feats of endurance are something of an obsession for the tireless Izzard, who has also gotten heavily into marathon running in the last several years. As Vulture noted after the opening of Hamlet last year, Izzard ran 27 marathons in 27 days in 2016, crossing South Africa in tribute to Nelson Mandela, and then in 2020, she ran 29 marathons in 29 days to raise money for charity.

Izzard has a Tony nomination under her belt for a 2003 Roundabout Theater production of A Day in the Death of Joe Egg. And Izzard received two Emmy Awards for her 1999 comedy special Dressed to Kill.

Tickets for Hamlet, which will be strictly limited to a two-week run, are on sale here.