Sum­mer Shake­speare’s Ham­let has been a show I’ve been look­ing for­ward to for a very long time, and I can def­i­nite­ly say that it did­n’t let me down. Direct­ed by David O’Don­nell, and star­ring Ste­vie Han­cox-Monk as a female Ham­let, the show brought Ham­let back to life for me in a very good way.

Ham­let is a fan­tas­tic play but it often gets bogged down in the sheer tragedy of the sto­ry — which is all well and good, but not for three straight hours. In this iter­a­tion, O’Don­nell leans into some of the com­e­dy of the text, bring­ing out sheer humor in moments where you would­n’t quite expect it. A scene in par­tic­u­lar that I loved was the scene with the gravedig­ger (played in this instance by the excel­lent Jane Paul) — “Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him…” and so forth — which took place part­ly with­in the stage itself (set designed by Lucas Neal). This scene deals with death and loss in a very unique way — it’s the moment where Ham­let dis­cov­ers Ophe­lia is dead, after all — but it still man­ages to hold that com­e­dy and tragedy on a knife’s edge, with­out ever swing­ing over into sheer depres­sion or inap­pro­pri­ate com­ic relief.

Han­cox-Monk’s per­for­mance as Ham­let is excel­lent — bring­ing a very vis­cer­al ener­gy to a well-hewn char­ac­ter. It’s very rare that we get to see mad women — or at least, mad women who aren’t fridged in favor of mas­cu­line nar­ra­tives — and it was a plea­sure to watch. She cap­ti­vates the audi­ence, play­ing Ham­let with a wel­come self-aware­ness, and gives one hell of a fem­i­nine badassery to a char­ac­ter we know so well.

And I’ve got­ta say, it’s about god­damn time.

The addi­tion of a mixed-gen­der cast was a fan­tas­tic choice on the part of the pro­duc­tion team. Char­ac­ters such as Polo­nius, who I’ve often found to be dod­dery and far too talk­a­tive for his own good, were com­plete­ly revi­tal­ized by the cross-gen­der cast­ing — in this case, Polo­nius (played by Ivana Paleze­vic) becomes a hilar­i­ous char­ac­ter with a very real thread of moth­er­ly fear under­neath. Her per­for­mance feels true to life and real and I thor­ough­ly enjoyed it.

Jen­ny Nimon (Ophe­lia) is a shin­ing star, bring­ing a cer­tain strength to a char­ac­ter that we more often see as waspish and belea­guered. Singing songs of rose­mary, and lost love, her pas­sion and argu­men­ta­tive­ness (and believe me, that’s a good thing) is very wel­come, and very missed when it’s gone.

Dra­maturg and Assis­tant Direc­tor Lori Leigh brings a wealth of knowl­edge to the table, adding in a deep­er knowl­edge of fem­i­nism and queer Shake­speare to the per­for­mance and the show’s world on a whole. Her fan­tas­tic ‘behind the scenes’ dra­matur­gi­cal blog is here, and I urge you to check it out.

Ham­let in the Dell feels revi­tal­ized and fresh — with some very real moments that ben­e­fit a slight­ly-wok­er, more unique­ly 2019 audi­ence. Even if you aren’t such a fan of Shake­speare, I guar­an­tee there’ll be parts you’ll enjoy.

“Frailty, thy name is women.” — It’s sure as hell not.

 

Ham­let is run­ning at The Dell from today until the 2nd of March 2019. Tick­ets are avail­able through Eventfin­da. It runs at approx­i­mate­ly three hours includ­ing an inter­val. The show has an inside venue in the case of inclement weath­er, the loca­tion of which will be announced here five hours before every show. Buy your tick­ets today!