HAMLET. A VERSION
by Boris Akunin
Red Lab, in association with Roust Theatre Company and executive producer Mark Mullen, presents Boris Akunin’s Hamlet. A Version. This world premiere by the celebrated Georgian-born writer and dissident of Putin’s Russia, internationally famous for the cycle of fictional detective novels The Adventures of Erast Fandorin, re-engineers Shakespeare’s classic tragedy in an ingeniously innovative vein.
Set in a crumbling hierarchical empire, Hamlet. A Version shifts the usual focus from the iconic philosophical title character to the intrigue, opportunism, and political scheming of a burgeoning police state. This starkly realized new world order, insidiously ushered in by murderous and destabilizing tactics, provides a whole new meaning to the phrase ‘something is rotten in the state of Denmark.’
From a curiously flat-footed Hamlet and a self-aggrandizing ‘Polonius the First’, to the questionable death of the old king and a torrid affair between Gertrude and Claudius, Boris Akunin’s Hamlet. A Version provides a radically prescient perspective on a contemporary political issue: how to eradicate the old to make way for the new. But who gets caught in the crossfire?
'Full of intrigue...lush and fantastical.' New York Times
'Probably the most intriguing version of Hamlet I have ever seen.' Times Square Chronicles

James Phillip Gates as CLAUDIUS

Alan Ross as POLONIUS, Michael Hammond as LAERTES

Matt Weiss as HAMLET

Joy Hermalyn as GERTRUDE, James Phillip Gates as CLAUDIUS

Mat Weiss as HAMLET, Khris Lewin as HORATIO

Michael Propster as GUILDENSTERN, Matt Weiss as HAMLET, Owen Scott as ROSENCRANTZ

Dumb Show: Khris Lewin, Michael Propster, Owen Scott

joy Hermalyn as GERTRUDE, Matt Weiss as HAMLET

Khris Lewin as HORATIO, Matt Weiss as HAMLET
All photos: JEREMY DANIEL
WHAT: HAMLET. A VERSION by Boris Akunin
WHERE: The Theater at St. Clement's, New York City
WHO: Producers: Roust Theatre Company, Red Lab, Mark Mullen, Direction, Production Design & Concept: Irina Gachechiladze, Compositions: Giya Kancheli, Translator: Ileana Alexandra Orlich, Costume Design: Heather Klar, Projections Designer: Michael Ivanishvili, Sound & Projections: Sam Kusnetz, Lighting: Isabella Byrd, Set: Cate McCrea, Fight Choreography: Jay Akin, General Manager: Adam Knight, Production Stage Manager: Stephanie Hollander, Stage Manager: Joey Ronga, Production Assistant: Nick Hubbard, Acting Company: Claire Brownell, Joy Hermalyn, James Phillip Gates, Michael Hammond, Khris Lewin, Michael Propster, Alan Ross, Owen Scott, Matt Weiss.