BRATTLEBORO — The greatest play ever written by the greatest writer in the English language is coming to southern Vermont.
That is how highly William Shakespeare's Hamlet is regarded by Ian Belknap, the stage director of this lavish world-class touring production.
On Thursday, Feb. 20, at the Latchis Theatre, two Tony-winning theater troupes, New York's The Acting Company and The Guthrie Theater from Minneapolis, team up to present two performances of this classic tragedy.
“I loved directing Hamlet,” says Belknap, who besides directing this production is also Artistic Director of The Acting Company. “It is a play with infinite possibilities, and if I could re-direct it tomorrow I would find new things to discover in the very rich play.”
As described on Wikipedia, “the enduring tale of treachery, revenge, incest, and moral corruption dramatizes the revenge Prince Hamlet exacts on his uncle Claudius for murdering his father, then succeeding to the throne and taking Hamlet's mother as his wife.”
On his website, filmmaker Jay Craven writes that “Prince Hamlet is set on a journey seeking personal meaning and coming to grips with his own mortality. It vividly portrays overwhelming grief and rage while exploring themes of danger, revenge and moral corruption.”
The play, he writes, “is among the most powerful and influential tragedies in English literature, one of Shakespeare's most popular works - and still among his most performed.”
Hamlet in Brattleboro will take place in the Elizabethan time period, the world in which the 1603 play came to life.
“Our reason for this was that there was a very long time since there was a full country tour of Hamlet, so we wanted a production that would serve Shakespeare's intentions best,” says Belknap.
“In this production, we have focused on the development of language and clarity of thought in a clean context and staging,” he adds. “If we do this, we believe we will make Shakespeare relevant to modern audiences who will find those contemporary meanings for themselves.”
Developing classical actors
The Acting Company, based in New York City, is dedicated to presenting classical works of theater.
“We were founded in in the early '70s by John Houseman and our current producing director, Margot Harley, along with members of the first graduating class of [the] Juilliard [School]'s Drama Division, although we are no longer affiliated with Juilliard but are a separate nonprofit,” says Belknap.
Belknap has previously directed the Acting Company's national tours of The Comedy of Errors and Of Mice and Men, and he has served as associate producer of five national tours for the Acting Company in association with the Guthrie Theater.
The Acting Company has been on the road and in schools since 1972, touring to 48 states and 10 foreign countries and earning a Tony Award for Excellence in Theater. Kevin Kline, Patti LuPone, and David Ogden Stiers are but a handful of performers who began their careers on tour with the company.
The troupe tours nine months of the year, from September until May, this year going to 35 cities and towns with 75 performances of classic theater.
“Our mission remains two-fold,” says Belknap. “The first component is the development of classical actors. All our actors are professionals, but many have only graduated from acting school two or three years before joining our touring company. We believe that touring helps actors hone their craft.
“The second part of our mission is to bring classical drama to areas that do not have easy access to theater. The Acting Company goes to places that may be hundreds of miles away from a regional performing arts center, where we make the magic of live performance available to thousands of people each year. In fact, 70 percent of our audiences have never before seen a play.”
The art of classical theater
Hamlet will be performed in Vermont in collaboration with another Tony-winning troupe, Minneapolis' Guthrie Theater.
Six years ago, the Acting Company began a fruitful association with this resident acting and education company, which describes itself as performing classics in rotating repertory with “the highest professional standards” as “a prototype for an important new kind of theater in contrast to the commercial environment of Broadway.”
Alumni from its education programs have become a major resource for recruiting annual members of the Acting Company, which each year ends its touring season play with 16 performances at the Guthrie in Minneapolis.
“Our company wants to get people excited about the art of classic theater, especially Shakespeare, who has remained central to all we do here,” Belknap says.
“I remember reading Shakespeare in school - and even then I knew I was going into theater - and I found myself so bored,” he recalls. “I had to remind myself that Shakespeare is not a book, not a novel, but a living piece of theater.”
“Shakespeare is meant to be heard and performed,” Belknap says. “That is what we hope to be bringing to Brattleboro.”
Hamlet is the final presentation of the first year of Kingdom County Productions' arts season in Windham County.
“Hamlet is one of the two the most ambitious and expensive presentations of our entire year,” says Craven, founder of Kingdom County Productions and a Marlboro College professor of film studies. It will cost $25,000 to produce the play here.
“But I am committed to bringing quality theater like this to southern Vermont,” Craven says. “We are working hard to make this successful. It has already proven successful in the Northeast Kingdom, where our big annual commitment to professional Shakespeare reaches more than 1,000 high school kids - and many adults.”
To encourage students on spring break and to introduce the region to the performing arts that Craven is bringing to the region, his company will offer a 35-percent discount on ticket prices for the evening shows.
Admission for the matinee on Thursday, Feb. 20 is free, thanks to support from the Thomas Thompson Trust and the Kingdom County Productions Windham County Fund.
Other sponsors include Chroma Technology, Brattleboro Subaru, Brattleboro Retreat, Brattleboro Savings & Loan, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Vermont, and more than 30 local families.