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!