HAMLET is Shakespeare’s most famous play, and also his most modern. The twisty plot, the undercover hero pretending to be mad, the explorations of duty and revenge, love and sex, friendship and betrayal, are the very fabric of our modern entertainment media. Indeed, we might recognize HAMLET as the prototype for every Crime Scene Investigation program, whether set in the Navy, New York, Miami, Las Vegas or (as in this case) Denmark. Where is the evidence that proves that a crime took place? What can we know? What can we not know? These are dramatic questions that Shakespeare asks of us.

But unlike our familiar television programs (whose purpose, after all, is to sell toothpaste and bathroom tissue), HAMLET leads us deeper into human experience - Shakespeare, writing more than 400 years ago, had no forensic technicians pouring over a victim’s remains with microscopes, cotton swabs and DNA sequencers for evidence of a murder. Shakespeare brings the victim back from the grave to finger his assailant. HAMLET is a ghost story, tacked on to a murder plot, with a chamber piece stuck right in the middle.

Ghosts are “trick-or-treat,” kids-in-costumes and Friday-night-at-the-movies for us, but for the citizens of Shakespeare’s day spirits were absolutely real. Some thought ghosts were the souls of the dead come back to earth as God’s punishment. Others believed that spirits came in two flavors: good or bad (nothing in between). Shakespeare uses everyone’s theory.

So how can we know the ghost’s true nature? That thing calling itself “dear old Dad” and ordering you to kill your uncle might not be what it claims to be - even though tender feelings for your dearly departed father invite you to think of it as “an honest ghost.”

Man’s knowledge is imperfect. Man, himself, is imperfect (a fact of which Hamlet is more than keenly aware). So how can we choose a right course of action? In an age when people were responsible for their own souls and justice was eternal, you did not want to make the wrong choice. It could have lasting consequences.

Shakespeare wrote for an audience who saw the Universe in terms of moral justice, not galaxies and quarks. If Claudius pushed Hamlet’s father off the Danish throne, God, inevitably, will push back - through Hamlet. As the Almighty’s appointed to rule on earth, a rightful king is rightfully concerned for the well being of his people. Claudius (though not a bad politician) is concerned for his own well being. He is the famous “something” that is rotten in Denmark.

A final note: Shakespeare set his play in a remote past - a time when the English paid tribute to Denmark (in money, not warm feelings) to keep the Viking raiders off England’s northern coasts. Our production moves the period to the early 19th century, the Napoleonic era, when national borders and centuries of European tradition were swept aside by war. We draw on the instability of this world. We use its Romantic energies to put the play in fresh context, and to compliment the flow of the action.

-- William Keeler, Dramaturge

Playing April 26 - May 20, 2007
Call (805) 667-2900 NOW for tickets!
Or click here to reserve online

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April 26 - May 20, 2007
Call (805) 667-2900 NOW for tickets!
Or click here to reserve online

In Rubicon Theatre's upcoming production of HAMLET we hear Joseph Fuqua, James O'Neil, Stephanie Zimbalist, her father Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. and a company of powerful Shakespearean actors utter phrases that sound familiar. Everyone knows, "To be or not to be...." Yet that is just the beginning.

HAMLET is the source for "Neither a borrower nor a lender be," "To thine own self be true," "O, woe is me," "What a piece of work is a man!" and that infamous line "something is rotten in the state of Denmark." Therapists often quote "There is nothing good or bad, but thinking makes it so," and numerous actors cite the great playwright in support of their craft: "The play's the thing!" If someone denies recognizing any of these, one could say "The lady doth protest too much."

HAMLET was first performed around 1600. Since then, it has proven to be one of the English language's most enduring stories. Rubicon's production is a thrilling roller-coaster ride -- filled with murder, madness and mayhem. Call now for tickets!

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The plot and characters in HAMLET have been the inspiration for many other modern stories. Disney's The Lion King includes themes adapted from HAMLET. The 1970s musical Hair has a subplot featuring a hippy Hamlet, and delivers direct references and quotations from Shakespeare's version.

Additionally, television programs such as "South Park," "Gilligan's Island," "Monty Python's Flying Circus," "Frasier" and "The Simpsons" have featured plots that revolved around HAMLET. And the Klingon Hamlet (full title: The Tragedy of Khamlet, Son of the Emperor of Qo'nos) was a project to translate HAMLET into Klingon for the television series "Star Trek."

References to the play in contemporary media are far too lengthy to list as the play has literally infused itself into our cultural lexicon. On Rubicon Theatre's stage, HAMLET continues to speak the language of yesterday and today.

HAMLET plays April 26th - May 20th
Three of our last four shows have been sell-outs. Don't risk missing your chance to discover why HAMLET is oft referred to as "the greatest play ever written."

Call (805) 667-2900 NOW for tickets!
Or click here to Reserve Online

Hamlet at the Rubicon Theatre.

The Enigma of Hamlet Lives On

Thursday, May 3, 2007

By Bojana Hill

Hamlet has been performed many times since Shakespeare wrote his famous tragedy in 1600. Now the Rubicon Theatre joins the ranks of companies that have produced the world’s most famous play with a stellar production directed by Jenny Sullivan, and with Joseph Fuqua as Hamlet.

Joseph Fuqua turns in a masterful performance  as Hamlet in the Rubicon Theatre’s current production of Shakespeare’s greatest tragedy. Hamlet is here shown with Ophelia, who is  played by Alison Brie.

Instead of the original medieval historical setting, this production unfolds in an early-19th-century setting. Exquisite period costumes reflect the grandeur of the Danish royal court in the era of the Napoleonic wars. At the center of the stage, tall panels adorned with chess figures accentuate the craftiness of Claudius and the play’s theme of moral corruption. The staging of the ghost of Hamlet’s father is handled practically, with a metallic voice suggesting something modern from outer space. During his appearance, thunderous sounds fill the intimate theatre space, leaving a feeling of awe in its wake that continues throughout the production. Joseph Fuqua is superb in the complex role of Hamlet. Initially stone-faced as a grief-stricken son, he pounces on Claudius and his mother with sarcastic puns that reveal his anger. Hamlet accuses Gertrude of being common, and he reviles his uncle Claudius, who has not only remarried his mother in haste, but has also usurped Hamlet’s right to the Danish crown. In Fuqua’s interpretation, Hamlet is a witty, absurd hero whose ability to see through false appearances and pretenses receives more emphasis than his melancholy indecision. This production’s finest scenes include Hamlet’s lucid mockeries of the sycophants Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, and the quick repartee he makes with a bewildered Polonius (Rudolph Willrich). In the nunnery scene, Hamlet rages at Ophelia (Alison Brie), who is equally lost in a vortex of lies and treachery. Brie delivers a deeply moving performance as Ophelia, an innocent girl “divided against self and her own judgment.” The second act is a tour de force. Efrem Zimbalist Jr. plays the dignified Player King with great pathos, and Remi Sandri expresses Laertes’ hot tempered, vengeful spirit precisely.

James O’Neill’s nuanced portrayal of Claudius presents a villain with a remorseful, penitent side. Leonard Kelly Young (also the Ghost) evidently cherishes the role of the gravedigger in a lighter, comedic scene. The quick pace observed in the soliloquies and dialogues ensures the audience’s complete absorption in this three-hour modern performance of a drama that continues to stir our minds and hearts now, some 400 years after its composition.