Hamlet – July 2011

Written by: William Shakespeare
Directed by: Lesley Bates
Dates: July 18th – 23rd 2011
Venue: Studio Theatre

The death of a king and his widow’s hasty remarriage leaves a son in mourning and a court in celebration. Hamlet’s return to Elsinore is mired in grief and hedged round with suspicion, betrayal, treachery and a ghost crying for vengeance. Mounting pressure threatens to tip a mind teetering on the brink over the edge into the maelstrom of madness and murder that waits.

Swords clash, spectres loom and a sad lady drowns as Studio tackles Shakespeare’s greatest tragedy for the
first time in a version pared to the bone and racing headlong to its
bloody end.

“This year’s summer Shakespeare is staged with the blessing of the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Studio’s production of Hamlet has been accepted as part of the RSC’s innovative OpenStages Project, designed to narrow the gap between professional and amateur theatre.

Studio will be one of almost 300 amateur drama companies to stage a Shakespeare or Shakespeare-themed production in the next 18 months as part of the project.

Participating companies can brand their productions with the OpenStages logo and will be invited to take part in skills workshops for performers and non-performers at professional theatres around the country.

We have two dates in June at the Nuffield and will be sending three actors – Stewart Taylor (Hamlet), Alistair Faulkner (Polonius) and Cathryn Bell (Ophelia) – to one and Lesley Bates (director), Colin Hayman (stage manager) and Theo Ross (wardrobe for Hamlet and co-director for next year’s Shakespeare) to the other.

Other benefits include the possibility of a gig at the World Shakespeare Festival in Stratford next year…….

In the meantime, rehearsals have begun – mainly at the Cloisters while RolePlay occupies the auditorium, although Hamlet and Laertes have been getting to grips with the finer points (no pun intended) of swordplay in Studio’s car park.

We have a small ensemble cast, who are already throwing themselves into their roles (for some more than others as half the cast are doubling or trebling parts) with enthusiasm.”

Lesley Bates

Cast List