Directed by Adrienne Major

Brattleboro, June 24-27
Turners Falls,  July 2 & 3
Charlestown, N.H., July 9 & 10

Simply put, Hamlet is a play about a college student.  A youth on the threshold of manhood endowed with striking intelligence, low-burning anger, antic humor and a streak of viciousness.   But even more—he’s in line for the throne of Denmark.  At the death his beloved father, he is kept both from his inheritance and from his return to college by the collusions of his mother, with whom his relationship is…complicated, and his uncle, whom he loathes.  During the course of the play Hamlet works through his grief, nourishes his anger, and, in a series of lightning decisions, moves to determine whether or not he should be the judge and jury of his Uncle’s treachery.  This production seeks to emphasize both Hamlet’s inherent intelligence and his sense of justice in not attempting immediate and retributive revenge without meaningful evidence.

Hamlet has been around for upwards of 400 years in almost continual production in almost any language and country that you care to mention.  Any attempt at newness of vision must be a lost cause.  In the end, Hamlet is a play about stories trying to be told that, before they can be formed, end in silence.  If there is a lesson from Hamlet for today, it is that thought matters, that care matters, and the more that we can educate ourselves and our young people to think carefully about actions, the less we’ll end up hurting each other.  The stories of everyone on the stage are human stories, valanced, beautiful, unique and for every character, tragic.  What we hope to do is to tell these very human stories with honesty and truth, and invite our audiences to participate in both their pleasures and their pain.

A note about Manga and its influence on this production of Hamlet.  Manga comes to us from Japan, and is the still or graphic novel version of Anime.  Its lines are clean and sparse, its style bridges the future/past divide and playfully incorporates elements of fantasy with ideas from science fiction.  Director Adrienne Major says, “Using Manga as my inspiration for the design elements of this production has allowed my costume designers to create fanciful, not-quite period costumes that move the play out of a set time and into an any time.  It also allowed me to use both iPhones and letters, e-readers and books, guns and swords, and to allow the audience the absolute suspension of disbelief that accompanies a good fantasy.  Furthermore, in keeping with the action hero trope, Manga places the emphasis on the visuality and the action of the play while maintaining the integrity of its marvelous language."