The cold of February brings one of Shakespeare’s most well-known tragedies, Hamlet, to haunt the stage of the New Vic Theatre. Ensemble Theatre Company presents a new realization of the play, directed by Margaret Shigeko Starbuck, that envisions a modern royal family in a bleak, contemporary Denmark buried in snow.
Ensemble’s version of this story of family, betrayal, revenge, and political intrigue, appropriate for any time period, is set in the current era due to what Will Block, who is playing the titular character, calls “contemporary resonance.” He continues, “It’s about a world power tottering on the brink of obsolescence, and young people being handed that and looking at it and going, what the …?” Hamlet, he says, is the voice of that anxiety.
An exciting aspect of this Hamlet production is an all-new reconstruction of the text. “We’ve cut the text significantly,” says Starbuck. “We’ve also inserted some scenes and text from what’s often called the “bad quarto,” which is a version of the text that was in existence during Shakespeare’s lifetime, but what is thought to be a pirated version, so is not the version we regularly read … (also) rarely performed.”
Another stylistic choice for the production is the infiltration of the fourth wall and the stage action bleeding into the house, more effectively involving the audience in the story happening around them. “Historically, Shakespeare wasn’t performed with a fourth wall,” says Starbuck. “There was lots of audience interaction. In keeping with that spirit, soliloquies will be more of a dialogue with the audience.” Block agrees: “‘To be or not to be’ is a very different thing if it’s someone talking to themselves or someone looking into your eyes, asking you a direct question.”
For a uniquely structured “remix” of a Shakespearian classic, see Ensemble’s Hamlet, running February 6–23 at the New Vic. etcsb.org
