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Heartwood Regional Theater Co.’s upcoming production of “Hamlet” has all the ingredients found in great entertainment: ghosts, swordplay, romance, betrayal, madness, and revenge. It also has philosophy, poetry, and the catharsis of tragedy.

All of these elements collide in a play widely considered to be one of the greatest ever written. It has been performed countless times over the course of four centuries. It has been interpreted, reinterpreted, modernized, and lionized. Hundreds of pages of scholarly articles have been written dissecting every line. Hamlet is a play that transcends its time. Heartwood’s version explores why.

“Most people will come into the show knowing the story,” said Honora Boothby, who plays Ophelia. She sees the production as an opportunity for the audience to re-engage with a cultural touchstone, to consider how the play manages to reflect experiences and emotions that remain relevant, even in a more modern world.

Griff Braley, executive director of the Heartwood Regional Theater Co., has a more than passing familiarity with William Shakespeare. He’s already produced “Macbeth,” “Romeo and Juliet” and “The Tempest” and he taught “Hamlet” for years at Wiscasset Middle High School. He has seen the play performed in any number of iterations on both stage and screen.

Finding someone to play the lead role was a daunting task, Braley said. More than 300 actors applied for the part, but he needed an actor who had played the role before, who had proven he could handle learning and expressing 40% of the words in the entire text. He found one in Thomas Daniels, who took on Hamlet in 2019 for the Camden Shakespeare Festival.

“These iconic characters — they’re really tough because everybody’s got their opinions,” Braley said. “You just have to find your own way and I think he’s very confident and very, very smart.”

Braley and Daniels both wanted to push past the scholarship around “Hamlet,” which Braley called extensive and intimidating, to focus on what made the play stand the test of time and relevance: the relationships between its characters and the beautiful language.

Braley considers Kenneth Branagh’s 1996 feature film, which covers the complete text of the play with a four-hour runtime, to be one of the gold standards, but given the constraints of time, space, and budget, he turned to the 2009 Royal Shakespeare Co.’s stage performance with David Tennant in the lead role as a model.

“I kind of leaned on that idea that we could be in this small space and do this epic piece,” Braley said.

That small space, the stage at the Parker B. Poe Theater, gives the actors an intimacy with the audience that helps them convey the meaning behind Shakespeare’s words.

Language, Braley said, is one of the challenges to navigate. Shakespeare often subverted the definitions of common words, even invented words when nothing in the English lexicon suited his purpose.

“There’s this whole etymological kind of hide-and-seek game you have to play with Shakespeare where what he’s saying is not what we understand it to mean,” Braley said. “That’s where the actors come in. Their expressiveness, both facial and physical, help the audience come to grips with the meaning … I believe that you should be able to shut off the voices and watch the play and understand everything that’s happening.”

The cast has risen to that challenge in multiple ways. The expression of tension, of internal strife, comes out in a clenched hand, a twist of the head, in the way every gesture is conceived and presented.

Scenes between Hamlet and the queen, his mother, played by Nanette Hennig Fraser, are fraught with Hamlet’s conflicting emotions and the queen’s confusion and dismay. For Daniels that mother-son relationship is the most crucial relationship in the play.

“The only thing that’s going to ground you in some sort of truth is taking in and responding with your scene partner,” Daniels said. “It sounds very easy when you say it but it’s so hard to do.”

The two actors more than succeed. The chemistry between them becomes, at times, electric as Hamlet attempts to redeem her from the crimes he believes she has committed.

As the doomed Ophelia, Boothby captures the fracturing of her character’s mind without compromising Ophelia’s intellect. Her Ophelia is more than a frail flower. She is in many ways the most tragic character — her father murdered, her brother absent, and her beloved behaving cruelly and irrationally toward her. She is completely alone, and it shows.

Hamlet at least has Horatio, played by Nick Miaoulisone, as an unfailing friend to confide in, to rely on and, in the end, to trust his legacy to. Horatio is a character of few words, but Daniels said he and Miaoulisone sought out every opportunity to demonstrate the depth of affection between the two friends, such as an arm across a shoulder, a glance of shared understanding, or a hard and heartfelt hug.

“That’s a deep, deep love right there,” Daniels said.

The physicality of the play is another highlight, particularly the swordplay, choreographed by Stephen Shore and masterfully executed in scenes between Daniels and Raymond Huth as Laertes, the play’s other vengeance-seeking son. The last act leads to a finale that will have audience members on the edge of their seats as the fate of every character plays out and the stage is strewn with bodies.

Understanding Shakespeare’s intentions around “Hamlet” can be tricky. According to Braley, the playwright never published an authorized text of the play — all of the known versions, or quartos, were published later, pulled from the memories of actors who played the roles and Shakespeare’s handwritten pages.

Braley cut nearly half the text basing his take on a 2009 Arden edition of the second quarto. He removed most of the political context regarding the invasion of Denmark to focus on the relationships.

“I don’t think a modern audience that’s not scholarly or doesn’t have a pre-knowledge misses anything,” Braley said. “It’s a layer that’s almost incomprehensible to the modern world. I mean who knows the politics between Denmark and Norway in whatever imaginary year it is in Shakespeare’s mind?

“I think it refocuses the play onto the inner workings of the relationships … the part that I think makes the play lasting — just this brilliant mind that Shakespeare created in Hamlet,” Braley said. “There’s more in Hamlet than any human being could actually contain.”

Tickets for “Hamlet” at the Parker B. Poe Theater are available for performances at 7:30 p.m. July 28-29 and Aug. 2-5. Tickets are $30 for adults and $5 for students through college. To make a reservation, call 563-1373 or email at [email protected]. For more information, go to heartwoodtheater.org.

The Parker B. Poe Theater is on the Lincoln Academy campus at 81 Academy Hill Road in Newcastle.

Joan Marcus

If there was ever a question as to whether you, as a theatergoer, need to see yet another production of “Hamlet,” considering Kenny Leon’s masterful staging of the play at the Delacorte, the answer is a resounding yes.

This beautiful, intelligent, and exciting production demonstrates the best of contemporary interpretations of Shakespeare, allowing it to celebrate the play and resonate with a modern audience. Leon doesn’t need to bend the bard to fit his concept, but rather trusts the language — and the audience — to feel the timelessness of the tale in the context of our world.

In the staging, Leon has transferred Elsinore to a semi-dystopian Atlanta rife with political strife, though he allows that to simmer ominously under the surface while the familial revenge tragedy plays itself out.

From the moment one walks into the theater, it’s clear that something is rotten. Beowulf Borrit’s set depicts a house sinking into the ground before our eyes. A tattered Stacey Abrams banner is in the front yard. Fans of Shakespeare in the Park may recognize that house and banner from the 2019, pre-pandemic production of “Much Ado About Nothing,” also designed by Borrit and directed by Leon, where Messina was transferred to Atlanta. Here, that same house, then in fine shape, stood as the backdrop to a tale of love and optimism. That was before the 2020 election and the rise of the darker undercurrents that have proven poisonous in our culture. The bright glow of youthful love that production promised has been snuffed out by now prevalent political posturing and deceit. Against this backdrop, more expressionistic now than realistic, Hamlet’s depression, rage, and urge to action is immediate and galvanizing from the first moments of the play.

For all the intelligence of the production, this is still Shakespeare’s “Hamlet,” and it is the language that drives the play. It’s clear that Leon and his extraordinary cast have invested in the text to the point that it is familiar yet with nuances that make one hear it fresh. Ato Blankson-Wood in the title role is powerful and vulnerable, a Hamlet whose soliloquies acquire a level of pure, fallible humanity that is instantly relatable. He consistently seems to be asking whether he is the only one who sees the amorality and corruption around him and at the same time conveying an innocence that ultimately drives his tragedy. It is a performance of great confidence and complexity that lets Blankson-Wood take his place among the most intriguing Hamlets or our time — and another reason why this production should be seen.

Leon has an original take on Ophelia as well. Often portrayed as delicate and fragile, Solea Pfeiffer portrays her initially as a strong and confident woman. Yes, she’s still in love with Hamlet and severely damaged by his cruel — and in this case borderline violent — rejection of her, but her ultimate madness is more a psychotic break apparently brought on by PTSD, and her suicide is all the more heartbreaking because of it.

Emotional unrest stalks the halls of Elsinore. Claudius seized the crown when he murdered Hamlet’s father (Hamlet’s impetus for revenge), but it sits uneasily on his head, and in his masterful performance in the role, John Douglas Thompson becomes increasingly unhinged as he tries to command events spinning out of control. Lorraine Toussaint is remarkable as Gertrude. Caught between her new husband and her son, it’s clear that Gertrude’s marriage to Claudius was politically expedient, and the force of her denial of the grim reality of her situation makes her oddly sympathetic.

The rest of the characters are at the mercy of this dysfunction. Daniel Pearce as Polonius is eager to attach himself to power for his safety and advancement, though it leads to his death. Mitchell Winter and Brandon Gill as Hamlet’s friends Rosencranz and Guildenstern, respectively, get caught up in the intrigue, and their willingness to betray Hamlet for their own advantage ultimately leads to their deaths.

Leon keeps the tension high — and the audience on the edges of their seats — throughout. It’s relieved intermittently by wonderful hip-hop music by Jason Michael Webb, and Greg Hildreth as the Gravedigger, whose comic scene with Hamlet is a bit of lightness before the play descends into its final tragedies that come fast and furious, leaving the stage littered with bodies, as per usual with “Hamlet.” Leon has cut Fortinbras at the end, who in the original arrives, surveys the corpses, and gives a speech about the senselessness and evil laid out at his feet. It’s a smart move, and one that keeps the unease and tension high, even as the cast gets their well-earned standing ovation.

“Hamlet” | The Delacorte at Central Park | Weds-Sun. 8 p.m., weather permitting through July 30 | Free | 2 hours, 45 mins, 1 intermission | Ticketing information avialable at publictheater.org.

Real Estate

My husband and I quit our jobs and bought a 500-year-old hamlet in the French countryside. Here's how we transformed it into a successful rental business and our dream home.

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This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Liz Murphy, a 45-year-old owner of Lac de Maison, a 17th-century French hamlet and holiday rental. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now. Have an account? .

My husband, Dave, and I traded our detached house in Manchester for a 17th-century village in the French countryside in pursuit of a better quality of life.

We both had 9-to-5 jobs in copywriting and marketing, and life had become a mad rush of food, baths, and bedtime.

When COVID hit, we were both furloughed. It allowed us to reflect on our lives, and we realized how much time we'd missed with our kids, Charlotte and Tom, then 6 and 9.

On a whim in August 2020, we began looking at gîte businesses — vacation-rental homes in France — that were available to purchase. We dreamed about escaping to the French countryside.

We'd need a property with at least two gîtes to rent and two additional houses: one for our family and one for my mom, Helen, and her husband, Terry.

By September we'd found 10 locations that met our requirements. Luckily, COVID-19 travel restrictions had lifted that month, so we flew to France and visited several sites.

As soon as we pulled up the drive of Lac de Maison, a three-acre farmstead in the peaceful countryside of the Poitou-Charentes region, we knew it was the one.

The 500-year-old hamlet comprised an owner's home and three operational gîtes, with other derelict buildings on the site that could be renovated into additional gîtes. It also had a beautiful garden with chickens and goats.

We canceled the rest of our viewings and made an offer that day. We split the cost of the hamlet with my mom and her husband, who were joining us. The hamlet cost 430,000 euros in total. We paid 215,000 euros.

We financed the purchase by selling our house in England. Any profits beyond the price of the property went toward renovations.

Though we finalized the property purchase on December 15, 2020, we didn't begin physically moving to France until January 2021.

During that time, Brexit happened, changing all the rules and turning our move into a flurry of passports and spreadsheets.

The move cost us around 6,000 euros. But by the beginning of 2021, all six of us were in France.

We renovated 2 buildings while running the business

Our family moved into the biggest gîte, while Mom and Terry took the old owner's home.

Two weeks in, Mom and Terry realized that space wasn't suited to their purposes. And though we hadn't budgeted for it initially, they decided to pay for a renovation.

What started as a new bathroom became a complete overhaul, down to the bricks. Mom and Terry returned to the UK for about eight months while we completed the work.

We saved money by doing any labor we could — plaster, floor, roofs — an experience with a learning curve.

We'd purchased the property knowing the previous owners had a couple of bookings for spring and five or six for the summer, including the gîte we were living in. So when Mom and Terry left, we moved into their house.

We stayed in that house until the construction was so extensive that we had to move into a camper on the property that spring.

At the same time, we began hosting guests — the first experience either Dave or I had in hospitality.

The learning curve was steep, but since we both love people and had been on holiday before, we knew the kind of experience we wanted to deliver.

By advertising where French people look for their holidays, we generated enough bookings to stay afloat. We also decided to remain open in the winter, when the property had previously not been open.

All this was in preparation for renovating an old ruined barn into a four-bedroom gîte and taking over one of the existing gîtes as our home.

In January 2022, we braced ourselves for a loss of income as we took the large gîte off the market, moved into it, and began construction on the ruin.

This shell of a building had been empty for over 100 years — no rooms, no electricity, and no water.

Like with Mom and Terry's house, we did as much of the work as possible. We kept the original floors, and over nearly 10 months we turned everything around them into a new third gîte.

While we exceeded our 80,000 euro budget, it's been worth the investment. Today all three gîtes are fully occupied seven days a week from May through the beginning of September and every weekend the rest of the year.

We're done renovating for now, but we continue to make minor tweaks to our residence, transforming it from a rental cottage into our home.

Life in the countryside is wonderful

This old farmstead is so different from our neighborhood in the UK. Our nearest neighbors are a quarter-mile, not a doorstep, away.

A bigger village is just a bit down the road where the kids go to school. There's also a movie theater, a library, and a café.

The kids have been in a French school since day one. For the first six months they despised us, the school — the whole enterprise. Two and a half years later, they're both thriving and fluent.

Dave and I were lucky to meet the wife of our builder, a lovely English-French lady who helped us navigate the French bureaucracy — what I found to be the most challenging part of this entire process.

For example, you must fill out forms to reregister your child for the same school, with the same teacher, every year, even if nothing changes. I think it's just because the French like paperwork.

The B-and-B business allows us to live comfortably

We didn't move to France to make money. We know we'll never be able to make as much here as we did with our big jobs in the city.

But life is just better here. We can be there as our kids and my mom and Terry grow older. This business allows us to put family first.

We essentially traded the value of our house in Manchester for Lac de Maison, and in the countryside your money goes so much further. We don't have to buy eggs — we've got them on-site.

We knew that for the first two years we'd break even. This year we can save the money we're making in the summer to keep our income steady during the slower but still occupied winter months.

With no more construction planned, we'll hopefully start to reap the rewards of the money we've plowed into the business next year.

We've had our ups and downs, but it's been 100% worth it. Moving to France is the best decision we've ever made.

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Photos by Ralph Freso / Slideshow

When you can hear the clashing of the swords echo and are struck by the house lights reflecting off the neck of the blade, you know you're in for a play filled with tragedy and drama.

And, in this case, a Shakespeare classic.

"Hamlet" opens the academic year with a set that transforms the Ethington Theatre stage to reflect the cold and dark isolation of Denmark. The set designers and lighting technicians set the eerie atmosphere through a cold moonlit hue of blue cast onto a dark, simple set — which contrasts to the complexities of the characters.

The curtain opens to reveal a world that is completely shattered. The set displays a series of multilevel ramps that are tilted and crevices that symbolize the cracks in the earth, foreshadowing other themes in the play.

Typically, the stage for a Grand Canyon University play includes props and intricate detail. Set designer Bill Symington took a twist that deviates from the extravagant displays. His vision for the set is still complex — but in a different way, opening the floor for the audience to devise its own perspectives of “Hamlet.”

“The set design is completely black, which in theatre we normally do opposite. We wanted to strip it down to bare bones of human emotions and people’s behavior and create a sense of drama and energy in the purest way,” said Symington. “We want the audience to question why the set is off-balance and tilted. We don’t necessarily need the audience to know our motivations or what the theme is, but we for sure want them to feel something.”

Another twist: Maddie Burgess plays Horatio, Hamlet’s best friend, who in the play is written as a male.

“What I found interesting is that being a woman changes the relationship between Horatio and Hamlet as platonic best friends,” she said. “I like the feminine care that Horatio has for Hamlet and ability to empathize, which is not necessarily written into the original character as a male.”

In his 40th year in show business and third rotation of “Hamlet,” director Claude Pensis wants the audience experience to be dependent on many factors: the cast, energy and the experiences we endure throughout life.

“Time changes your perspective and informs your understanding. How I felt about 'Hamlet' when I was 20 is very different than when I was in my 40s and when I’m in my 60s,” Pensis said.

The 421-year-old play remains a timeless story. While the script stays the same, the actors' and director’s unique perspective are what promises diversity. GCU’s theatre students defy time and the repetitiveness of “Hamlet” with each performance.

“We’re not in the business to imitate the past," Symington said. "Otherwise, what would be the point of doing plays over again? Each year we are given a new group of students, a new cast, and every director is going to have a different perspective and approach.”

Along the walls of Pensis’ office was a diagram mapping out the 2½-hour-plus production. Alongside the preparations that started in the summer was researching the pivotal driving force of the play — grief.

“For us, the major emphasis is dealing with grief, but a specific type of grief that is so overwhelming that it is seemingly impossible to get past," Pensis said. "If we are dealing with grief, we are largely dealing with mental health. Every university in the world deals with that or has programs of that sort.”

Embodying the level of grief and the complexities that come with playing Hamlet is difficult. Senior theatre major Dexter Tuten worked hard on the role, first by comparing different editions of the script.

“I needed to understand why it was written one way and not another way," he said. "There were lots of words to define — not just to define but really soak in the meaning them. It’s not just about knowing what you’re saying. It has to be as if the words came from you.”

For Dawson Woolridge, putting on the costume strengthened his posture and demeanor in his role as Claudius, King of Denmark.

“Seeing yourself in costume is a big juxtaposition to how you view your everyday self and your character. Our director (Pensis) told us the word ‘vicious’ is a great way to describe the king, and I couldn’t see that until I put on the whole ensemble for the first time. The costumes have only brought out the best in all of us as actors.”

The costume designs are not confined by the restraints of what typically was worn in the 1600s. A variety of leather, combat boots and suits are on display, with color theory reinforced within the design to create imagery. As Gertrude, queen of Denmark, Sophia Jestice wears deep red to symbolize anger. The psychology major couldn’t help but notice the innerworkings of her castmates.

“I love seeing everyone’s different view on everything," she said. "I don’t think one character is right, and I don’t think one character is wrong. I love seeing different perspectives of how everyone else feels onstage, and not just my own character. It has to do with listening and paying attention to how others view things.”

Call it a revenge-tragedy if you want, but it is so much more.

“It deals with a human condition that is universal. Everybody, regardless of who they are, deals with grief, remorse and mourning,” said Pensis. “I think that is what makes Hamlet incredibly human and one of the great things about Shakespeare — that he wrote about universal topics.”

There are so many interpretations, dissertations, theses and analyses written about Hamlet, and everyone has their own versions. As Hamlet said in Act 2, Scene 2, “The play’s the thing.”

****

IF YOU GO:

What: "Hamlet"

Where: Ethington Theatre

When: 7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays, Sept. 23-25 and Sept. 30- Oct 2

Reserve your ticket here.

Contact staff writer Lydia P. Robles at 602-639-7665 or [email protected].

****

Related content:

GCU News: Stage is set for another big theatre season

Alabama Shakespeare Festival welcomes visiting actors from New York's Bedlam Theatre, who are taking on many roles in two productions; 'Hamlet' opens Thursday, 'Saint Joan' opens Sept. 12

Four actors are creating two massive, but familiar, worlds on the Octagon Stage at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival, playing multiple roles in “Hamlet” and “Saint Joan.”

“It’s intense,” said Dria Brown, one of four members of New York’s Bedlam Theatre troupe in residence at ASF. She plays Gertrude, Ophelia and others in William Shakespere's “Hamlet," which opens Thursday and runs through Oct. 6.

Brown is also Joan in George Bernard Shaw's “Saint Joan,” which opens Sept. 12, and runs through Oct. 5.

“Both (‘Hamlet’ and ‘Saint Joan’) carry a lot of weight, and they both have a reputation about them," Brown said. "They both have very, very exciting and palpable storylines. They work very well in conversation with one another, I think.”

“We have to work a little bit harder because it’s just four of us,” said Mike Labbadia, who plays Cauchon, Poulengey and others in “Saint Joan,” and in “Hamlet” is Claudius, Rosencrantz and others.

He said both productions are engaging, exciting, and have a lot of energy. “The hope is that people will forget that they’re watching these classics and see something with a fresh eye, I think.”

Both productions are directed by Eric Tucker, and neither are short. “Hamlet” and “Saint Joan” both run 2 hours and 45 minutes, plus intermissions. Both are recommended for ages 12 and up.

That’s a lot of stage time for four actors to fill, and both productions offer a basically blank canvas for sets. It allows room for imagination as Brown, Labbadia, Edmund Lewis (Dauphin and John De Stogumber in “Saint Joan” and Pololius, Horatio and others in “Hamlet”) and Andy Rindlisbach (who has the title role in “Hamlet” and plays Dunois, Warwick, and others in “Saint Joan”) bring multiple characters to life at once.

“There’s nothing to hide behind,” Brown said. “There’s no sets. There’s no elaborate costumes. It’s the words and us.”

“The second scene in ‘Joan,’ for instance, is at the Dauphin’s royal court,” Labbadia said. That set consists of four chairs. “There’s a lot of us transforming into the different characters by just going up and sitting down. When Joan comes on, they use more of the stage, but it’s just four chairs.”

The four chairs also get used in “Hamlet,” in Act 2.

“The audience really is just as engaged as we are,” Brown said. “I think that level of attention also brings about accessibility.”

“It’s very interactive,” Labaddia said. “It’s not like other productions you may have seen.”

Brown praised the work of lighting designer Les Dickert. “He really adds magic to the shows,” Brown said. “The first scene in ‘Hamlet’ is completely in the dark with flashlights, which I think is the most fun that I’ve ever had.”

When they run together in rep, Brown said “Hamlet” will be like a marathon, while “Saint Joan” is more of a “walk in the park.” While both are heavy plays, but Brown said by the end of “Hamlet” it takes a moment to breathe again.

“‘Hamlet’ kind of knocks the wind out of you at the end. There’s so much death. It’s a tragedy,” she said. “‘Joan’ seems to be a play at the end where you feel charged to be a better person. To think about all the arguments we’ve been posing in the play and to choose a side. There’s a kind of lift at the end, although you’ve just witnessed someone being burned at the stake. The epilogue that Shaw writes really helps things come full circle.”

Labbadia said both plays have supporting characters with a hidden rage because Joan and Hamlet have stepped out of their places in society.

“My characters delude themselves with political arguments,” he said. “With the appearance of being for the people and the greater good, when really it’s just about the audacity of these people to step outside their places.”

One unique feature coinciding with “Hamlet” is ASF’s current production of “Buzz,” a story about Mary Ann “Buzz” Goodbody directing a unique production of “Hamlet” in the ‘70s.

Labaddia said “Buzz” is another way of looking at Shakespeare’s story, “which is fun and fresh and valid.”

For ASF guests making plans to see the performances, Brown suggested seeing “Hamlet,” then “Buzz,” then “Saint Joan.”

“I think people will see that there is not one way to do a play,” Brown said. “There’s not one way to do ‘Hamlet.’”

Brown said this is their first time performing at ASF. “I can’t wait to be invited back,” Brown said. “The people that work here are amazingly supportive and friendly. I’m originally from the South, so it’s nice to feel a little piece of home here.”

“It’s a world-class theater,” Labbadia said. “It’s an amazing, amazing theater.”

Brown said she and the guys have shared a lot of laughs at ASF getting ready for these productions.

“This will be the third cast that I’ve worked with as a member of Bedlam. I’m really finding a lot of joy in this group,” Brown said. “I think the audience will see four people having a really great time on stage. The relationships that we’ve forged on stage are very strong and supportive.”

Tickets to “Hamlet” and “Saint Joan” start at $26. To purchase, call 334-271-5353, visit the ASF Box Office (open Monday – Saturday, noon – 5 p.m.), or go online: ASF.net. Evening performances begin at 7 p.m.; matinees start at 2 p.m. on weekdays and Saturdays and at 3 p.m. on Sundays.