The Prince of Denmark reemerges in a 1990s Southern trailer park in the Nevada Shakespeare Festival’s production of Hamlet, opening May 8.
Matthew Morgan, NSF’s artistic director for five years, is staging his own adaptation of the world’s most famous play. He promises both Bardaholics and Shakespeare newbies will enjoy the trimmed-down, accessible version.
Like a tiny kingdom, he says, “the trailer park is (the characters’) whole world. They will fight for what they have. Every moment of their lives is life and death.” Music and line dancing will liven up the proceedings. In one provocative twist, the play’s section in which pirates kidnap Hamlet — only recounted in the original script — will be staged in full swashbuckle. “People will sit up in their seats,” Morgan says.
Since a full-length staging of Hamlet would run more than four hours, as it did in Kenneth Branagh’s 1996 two-part filmed version, and given NSF’s commitment to two-and-half-hour shows, cuts were necessary. Morgan says he prides himself on being able to “take a scalpel” to the script while retaining its essence.
One character feeling the knife will be notoriously long-winded Polonius. Hamlet himself describes Ophelia’s father as a “foolish prating knave.” And some of the more obscure poetry and references, difficult for most nonscholars to understand, will be absent as well, as Morgan is committed to making Shakespeare enjoyable for the “community we’re in.”
He says his day job as a comedian and clown, trained with Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, informs his love of physical theatricality. This will be allowed full rein by the production’s venue, the Cornerstone Park Circus Tent in Henderson.
The original Globe Theatre in Shakespeare’s time was, in some ways, more like a circus tent than a modern theater, with boisterous “groundlings” standing outdoors in front of the stage, eating and making rude comments. This Hamlet will provide a taste of those times — presumably without the rude comments.
Hamlet, May 8-11, 14-17, nevadashakespearefestival.com
