After the sudden death of his father and the shocking marriage of his mother to his father’s brother, a young man drops out of college and returns to live with his mother and uncle in the country estate that he is now heir to. It is mid-20th century Ireland and gossip, superstition and rigid moral values hold sway. Unhinged by grief and rage, Hamlet struggles to keep a grip on his mental health. A paranormal event plunges him into further turmoil when what appears to be the ghost of his father tells him he must commit murder. With no one to turn to, Hamlet’s behaviour grows increasingly disturbing, causing particular alarm to his uncle, Claudius…
We love Shakespeare. And we want students to love him too! We know it is unrealistic to expect a modern generation of school goers to sit through four hours of Elizabethan verse. Though this is a traditional staging of the play, our text has been considerably abridged. The ‘boring’ bits are gone, the superfluous characters stripped away. We focus on the gripping family drama at the heart of the play, using a range of storytelling techniques to cut to the chase, always mindful of the power and richness of Shakespeare’s language. At under two hours, this production moves through the story at a very fast pace, while remaining absolutely faithful to the essential elements of the play.
28 сен 2023
