Hamlet Speak at Chain Theatre

"Hamlet Speak" is a new adaptation and shorter cut (world premiere) of Shakespeare's well-known tragedy that includes predominately the original text, punctuated with contemporary monologues for Hamlet and Ophelia. It was developed in workshops this year at Castle Amphitheater in Provo, UT, a thousand-seat, Greek-style open air stone amphitheater in the mountains of the Beehive State. The text of "Hamlet," adapted by Kathy Curtiss, has passages of contemporary writing added to give a modern perspective to issues that relate the classic play to our time. Costuming borrows from Renaissance dress, but adds recognizable detail from the 21st century in the trendy attire of the young characters. Hamlet, at age 30, is the equivalent of a modern college graduate student, seeking wisdom and truth about humane and right behavior as he prepares to be Denmark’s next king. He is surrounded by other identity-seeking college students: Laertes, Rosencrantz & Guildenstern, and Horatio. His election as King of Denmark is overridden by fear-mongering that the King’s brother, Claudius, has created in order to claim the throne. The ensuing atmosphere of panic and political confusion is all too familiar in our time. The adaptation chastises rash behavior when impatience prevails over conscience (Polonius’s rash slaughter) and affirms the potential for right judgment and pure motives in Hamlet, a man of conscience who is Shakespeare's quintessential Renaissance Man.