Hamlet

Written between 1599 and 1601. The play, set in Denmark, recounts how Prince Hamlet exacts revenge on his uncle Claudius, who has murdered Hamlet’s father, the King, and then taken the throne and married Gertrude, Hamlet’s mother. The play vividly charts the course of real and feigned madness – from overwhelming grief to seething rage – and explores themes of treachery, revenge, incest, and moral corruption.

Film Noir meets The Great American Songbook in this 40s inspired, streamlined re-telling of Hamlet. Set in a would-be glamourous period nightclub and framed by performances of classic jazz numbers, The Bridge’s production plays with the boundaries between art and life – as Hamlet, Claudius, Ophelia, Gertrude, Polonius and the rest struggle to convince the world of their own versions of reality. Lust, betrayal and madness seen through the prism of Noir motifs: the city and the night, the femme fatale, the bars of the cage.