Alphabet Publishing

Description

Author Paul Leonard Murray, director of the Belgrade English Language Theater, has cut the play down to an hour or so and made the language more accessible. The rhyming couplets keep it light and drive the action forward. Clever and irreverent jokes will delight the reader and answer the question: Was Hamlet originally intended to be a comedy?

Hamlet is Shakespeare’s most famous play for a reason. King Hamlet dies and his son, Hamlet, is reeling from the death of his father. What’s worse, his mother, Gertrude, has recently gotten remarried. To his uncle, Claudius! When the king’s ghost informs Prince Hamlet that Claudius in fact murdered him to take the throne and his wife, Hamlet is placed in a difficult situation. Can he muster himself to take action? To murder his own uncle? As the king and queen bring friends to spy on the troubled prince, Hamlet questions everyone’s loyalty. He even spurns his lover, Ophelia and the chaos around him begins to resemble the turmoil within!

The book also includes: ideas for the playing style, a summary of the play, discussion of the history of the tragedy and key themes as well as why it persists. Everything you need is here to teach and put on the play, even if you’ve never done drama in class before!

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I love Paul Murray’s Hamlet. Like the original Bard himself he’s a true wordsmith, translating with humour for a modern audience. It’s pure Shakespeare, fun, clever and accessible. Shakespeare done how Shakespeare intended for the masses! — Matthew McNulty, Actor

In this fresh and lively adaptation of Hamlet, Paul Murray offers an ingenious re-imagining of the story told in one-fleeting-scene-after-another, packed with clever wordplay and wittily rhyming verse (often truly hilarious), and peopled by all the very recognizable characters who have embodied the story for over 400 years. Murray has crafted a piece that is playful and fun while never turning away from the drama that is at the heart of Shakespeare’s play. It is a unique work, delightfully theatrical, and well-suited for production both in the classroom and on stage — John Sipes, Professor Emeritus, University of Tennessee, Former Artistic Director, Illinois Shakespeare Festival