Hamlet

Following a hit UK run, Royal Shakespeare Company’s contemporary version of Hamlet, starring Paapa Essideu (King Lear) and directed by Simon Godwin, makes its North American premiere at the Kennedy Center Eisenhower Theater in Washington, D.C. Hamlet has the world at his feet. Young, wealthy and living a hedonistic life studying abroad — until word reaches him that his father has died. Returning home he finds his world is utterly changed, his certainties smashed and the place of his birth a foreign land. Struggling to understand his place in a new world order, he faces a stark choice: Submit, or rage against the injustice of his new reality. The percussive music of Jamiroquai’s Sola Akingbola further enhances this classic exploration of the human psyche of one of the most masterfully written roles in the history of dramatic literature.

Hamlet
by William Shakespeare
Directed by Simon Godwin
Produced by Royal Shakespeare Company