HAMLET Comes to Tennessee Shakespeare Company in April

 Tennessee Shakespeare Company will bring William Shakespeare’s Hamlet to the Tabor Stage April 4-21.

Directed by Stephanie Shine (TSC’s The Importance of Being Earnest, Emily Dickinson: I Dwell in Possibility, Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley, It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play), Hamlet is generously sponsored by Pat and Ernest Kelly and the Sims Family Charitable Trust. 

Audiences will enter the recently-restored art deco ramparts of Denmark’s ancient Elsinore Castle, complete with grand piano, as they are transported to the European Jazz Age of the 1920s, a period of wealth and glee between the Wars. 

But the country’s King Hamlet has recently died.  His child, the young Hamlet, returns home and is thrust into the harsh reality that his uncle, Claudius, has seized the throne and married his mother, Gertrude.

Haunted by the ghost of the King and directed to exact mortal revenge, Hamlet must consider whether to take action – feigning madness in a sublime examination of family, friends, loves, and human ethics. 

While jazz fills the court with feelings of freedom, the virtuosic Hamlet delves into the romantic and emotional world of Chopin at the piano, highlighting the arguments between the rational/emotional, actionable/peaceful, forgivable/vengeful.

The play’s first line of “Who’s there?” remains incisively modern: Who are we, why are we here, and what must we do now?

“I am eager for audiences to meet Hamlet anew,” says Shine. “Like Romeo and Juliet, we often feel like we know the story of Hamlet, but when we take Hamlet at his words, we realize that his is a hero’s journey. We walk with Hamlet through his mourning, his decision-making, his action, and ultimately arrive with him at his peace.

“Hamlet is Shakespeare’s love story to humanity. It holds up what humans are and what amazing, beautiful potential humans have. This story is such a celebration of humanity. We need to hear humanity is capable of amazing things.”

The cast returns Eliza Pagelle (Stella in Streetcar Named Desire) to the Tabor Stage in the title role, Cheleen Sugar-Duckworth as Ophelia, Michael Khanlarian as Polonius, and Nicolas Dureaux Picou as Claudius and the Ghost, as well as welcoming TSC newcomer Francia DiMase as Gertrude. The ensemble includes Marquis Dijon Archuleta, Carleigh Boyle, Elijah Eliakim Hernandez, Irene Keeney, Kristina Hinako, Lauren Gunn, Logan McCarty, Hadley Evans Nash, and Allison Teegarden.

The design team includes Jeremy Allen Fisher (Lighting), Melanie Mulder (Props), Roger Hanna (Scenic), Joe Johnson (Sound Designer), and Austin Blake Conlee (Costumes). The production stage manager is Jasmine Simmers (A Streetcar Named Desire), and the assistant stage manager is Hallie Phillips.

Hamlet’s discounted ($22 tickets) Preview performance is Thursday, April 4 at 7:30 pm. Opening night is Friday, April 5 at 7:30 pm, with the price of tickets includes a post-show reception with the actors. Subsequent performances are on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays at 7:30 pm, and on Sundays at 3:00 pm through April 21. There is no performance on April 20 (TSC’s Children’s Literacy Gala).

Thursday performances on April 4, 11, and 18 are Free Will Kids’ Nights when up to four children 17 years and younger may attend for FREE when accompanied by at least one, full-price-paying Adult Guardian.

 

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