Patrick Ball Will Lead HAMLET at The Mark Taper Forum

Center Theatre Group presents the premiere of a new, Hitchcockian noir take on Hamlet by William Shakespeare, from director Robert O'Hara. The production will run May 28 to July 6, 2025 (press opening June 4) at the Mark Taper Forum, as the sixth offering of Center Theatre Group's One CTG. One LA. Season, from Artistic Director Snehal Desai, Managing Director/CEO Meghan Pressman, and Producing Director Douglas C. Baker. 

The cast includes Patrick Ball (Frank Langdon on The Pitt on Max) as Hamlet; James T. Alfred as Head Attendant; Joe Chrest (Ted Wheeler on Stranger Things Netflix) as Detective Fortinbras; Fidel Gomez as Gravedigger; Ty Molbak (film Babylon dir. Damien Chazelle) as Laertes, Rosencrantz; Ramiz Monsef (Letters of Suresh by Rajiv Joseph at Off-Broadway Second Stage; Archduke at the Mark Taper Forum; Vicuña at the Kirk Douglas Theatre) as Polonius; Coral Peña (For All Mankind on Apple TV+, Our Dear Dead Drug Lord at Kirk Douglas Theatre) as Ophelia; Jakeem Powell (Rustin, Gimme a Break, This American Wife) as Horatio; Ariel Shafir (Ivan on Only Murders in the Building Hulu) as Claudius; Jaime Lincoln Smith as First Player, Attendant; Gina Torres (911 Lonestar, Tommy Vega / FOX, Jessica Pearson on Suits USA Network) as Gertrude; and Daniel Zuhlke (Lucifer dir. Sam Hill Netflix; The Deuce HBO,The Affair dir. Jeffrey Reiner Showtime) as Guildenstern. 

"I'm delighted to announce the cast that will bring Robert O'Hara's brilliant reimagining of Hamlet to life," said CTG Artistic Director Snehal Desai. "With Patrick Ball, who is shining in the hit series The Pitt, Coral Peña, who CTG audiences will remember from Our Dear Dead Drug Lord two seasons ago, as Ophelia, and the extraordinary Gina Torres as Gertrude, Robert has assembled an exceptional ensemble. It's been fifty years since we have presented this classic play at CTG and this sultry production will infuse the Taper with sharp-laced wit, blood, and ghostly intrigue, offering a Hamlet like nothing you've ever experienced. I can't wait for audiences to see it."

The legendary story begins: “So … once more… tell me about this Ghost.”  But Ghosts are tricky things. Especially in a world of madness, murder and mayhem.  A rich entitled Prince goes on a ferocious rampage that will lead to a massacre in the living room.  Is he a tragic hero as we've often been told? Or a royal blooded serial killer?  

It's been a half a century since Hamlet was done at the Taper. O'Hara, the Tony-nominated visionary who directed the landmark box office hit Slave Play—the most Tony-nominated play in Broadway history—returns to Center Theatre Group to one of the most famous tales ever told.  He previously directed Slave Play in its world premiere at New York Theater Workshop. 

O'Hara's directing credits include the world premiere musical Bella by Kirsten Childs at Playwrights Horizons, Macbeth at Denver Center for Performing Arts, world premieres of Nikkole Salter and Danai Gurira's In The Continuum, Gurira's Eclipsed at the Kirk Douglas Theatre, Tarell McCraney's The Brother/Sister Plays (Part 2), Colman Domingo's Wild with Happy, as well as his own plays, Mankind, Bootycandy, and Insurrection: Holding History.

In this new adaptation we will step into a Shakespearean noir through a forensic investigation of the ultimate crimes of passion.  O'Hara said, “I'm terribly excited to be closing out Snehal Desai's first season with Hamlet. I'm diving deep into my love of Alfred Hitchcock, David Lynch, Salvador Dali and Perry Mason to tell this story.  I like my Shakespeare tragedies lean, brisk and intense.  There will be blood.” 

The creative team of Hamlet includes Dramaturg and Associate Director Nicholas Polonio; Set Designer Clint Ramos; Costume Designer Dede Ayite; Lighting Designer Lap Chi Chu; Projection Designer Yee Eun Nam; Sound Designer and Composer Original Music Lindsay Jones; and Hair, Wig & Makeup Design by J. Jared Janas.