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Rights to perform are available by contacting the author (me!) and I may waive the performance fee for the first few theatre companies. Just contact me for details.
Everyone knows Hamlet, right? No, unfortunately that's not true, and less and less so, since too many people are afraid that Shakespeare is no longer "reachable". My goal is to bring Shakespeare alive for modern times, without losing everything that does work. Everyone SHOULD know Hamlet!
Things that are different in my version:
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I've reduced the cast considerably,in ways that don't really change the story. For example, one Gravedigger instead of a Gravedigger and his Assistant. One Sailor instead of a group of Sailors. A Messenger instead of Messengers. In Shakespeare's time there were large groups of actors, many of whom were thrilled to be on stage even without a line. But in today's world, no theatre wants to pay for such actors, and honestly it's more fun for one actor to have multiple lines than to split those lines up among a number of actors.
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I've not dared to shorten or otherwise change Hamlet's famous soliloquies. I have, however, changed much of the script to shorten and "clean up" the dialogue. Old, antiquated references that are too dated have been removed, as have passages where Shakespeare waxed too poetic to serve the plot.
Email me for a free sample of the text!
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