Directed by Vanessa Morosco
Adapted by Vanessa Morosco & Peter Simon Hilton
The workplace of producing Hamlet presents challenges for gender equity: less than 10% of the words are spoken by a female character and we committed to increasing that statistic. But Equity is not the same as equality, and HAMLET 50/50 is more than an equal division of lines, it responsibly adjusts the gender identification of certain characters always adhering to the structure of Elizabethan England and rebalances the power of the play by placing a woman at the helm of Denmark, inspired by Queen Elizabeth I and her court. As always, we consulted with leading academics in early modern English drama to ensure HAMLET 50/50 was authentically in the spirit of Shakespeare's work.
HAMLET 50/50 retains all Shakespeare's most famous lines - but perhaps spoken by someone new:
HAMLET: "O that this too too solid flesh..."
OPHELIA: "To thine own self be true..."
HAMLET: "Words, words, words..."
LADY HORATIO: "What a piece of work is a man..."
GERTRUDE: "How all occasions do inform..."
LADY HORATIO: "Speak the speech, I pray you..."
HAMLET: "I must be cruel only to be kind..."
LADY HORATIO: "Alas, poor Yorick..."
HAMLET: "The readiness is all."
OPHELIA: "To be or not to be..."
