HAMLET
By WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
Directed by ERIC TUCKER
THE STORY.
A prince comes home for his father’s funeral and finds his mother married to his uncle, his uncle sitting on the throne, and his father’s ghost waiting with one very specific request:
Revenge.
Hamlet wants the truth. Unfortunately, the truth keeps changing depending on who’s telling it.
So he starts digging. He lies. He spies. He stages a play to catch a murderer. He destroys the woman he loves. And the deeper he goes, the harder it becomes to tell whether Hamlet is exposing the madness around him—or becoming part of it.
Everyone is watching everyone. Everyone has something to hide. And almost no one makes it out alive.
Bedlam takes Shakespeare’s most famous tragedy and strips away everything you thought you knew about it: four actors, more than twenty characters, virtually nothing between the audience and the play.
A ghost says murder.
A son wants proof.
And by the time he gets it, it may already be too late.
THE WORD.
“An engaging, highly physical
production of Shakespeare’s
complex masterpiece that feels
as raw and incestuous as
the state of Denmark itself
Tucker keeps everyone
thrillingly off-balance, and that
includes the audience.”
TIME OUT
“MASTERFUL. “One of the richest, most entertaining
theatrical experiences you may have this season.”
THEATREMANIA
“No troupe in New York these days rides the
storytelling momentum of theater more resourcefully
or enthusiastically than Bedlam.”
NEW YORK TIMES
“Bedlam Theatre Company works genuine miracles.”
NEW YORK MAGAZINE
“An experience so intense and concentrated that you’ll feel
as though you were part of the action.”
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
“The verbal and intellectual equivalent of a Cirque du
Soleil act.”
THE BOSTON GLOBE
“Productions by the reliably inventive New York theater
company Bedlam have the tendency to jolt you awake to
the possibilities of theater.”
WBUR
THE NEW YORK TIMES — TOP TEN
TIME OUT NEW YORK — CRITIC'S PICK
BACKSTAGE — CRITIC'S PICK
PEOPLE.
2013 — Access Theater, New York City
Eric Tucker — Hamlet
Andrus Nichols — Gertrude/Ophelia/others
Edmund Lewis — Polonius/Horatio/others
Tom O'Keefe — Claudius/Laertes/others.
2013–14 — Lynn Redgrave Theatre, New York City
Transferred commercially Off-Broadway to the Lynn Redgrave Theatre at 45 Bleecker. Hamlet began previews November 15, 2013, opened November 19, and closed March 9, 2014 with the same cast.
2017 — McCarter Theatre Center, Princeton, New Jersey
The original quartet reunited: Tucker, Nichols, Lewis and O'Keefe, again performing Hamlet and Saint Joan in repertory.
2018 — National Tour
Aubie Merrylees — Hamlet
Dria Brown — Gertrude/Ophelia/others
Kahlil Garcia — ensemble
Sam Massaro — ensemble.
For a list of cities, see our Saint Joan page.
2019 — Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Montgomery
Bedlam rebuilt Hamlet again with another four-person configuration, running September 5–October 6, 2019:
Andy Rindlisbach — Hamlet
Dria Brown — Gertrude/Ophelia/others
Mike Labbadia — Claudius/Rosencrantz/others
Edmund Lewis — Polonius/Horatio/others
Directed by Eric Tucker.