Join Michael Shapiro, esteemed Shakespearean scholar for a presentation on Hamlet. Hamlet is the story of a young prince ordered by his father’s spirit to kill his father’s murderer, none other than his father’s own brother, now married to his widow.  In Shakespeare’s medieval source, filial vengeance is a heroic imperative.  In Shakespeare’s Renaissance version, it turns out not to be so simple a task.  Uncertain whether to trust his father’s spirit,  as well as friends, his girlfriend, or his mother, Hamlet pretends to be mad.  Moreover, unlike the other young men in the play who avenge their fathers’ deaths in the traditional heroic mode, Hamlet accuses himself of procrastinating and articulates his self-castigation and his philosophical meditations in a series of brilliant soliloquies. The zoom talk will be illustrated with clips from Kenneth Branagh’s 1996 film, available inexpensively from Amazon Prime Video.

You can rent Hamlet here:

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Hamlet-Kenneth-Branagh/dp/B000GT7XXW

Date: Tuesday, November 30, 2021

Time: 6:30 p.m. CST

Location: Zoom Video Conference

Cost: Free

Note On Local Production of Hamlet where Michael served as dramturg: A live production by the Invictus Theatre Company, for which I served as dramturg, will be running in Chicago through Nov. 21.  (For information, see www.invictustheatreco.com/tickets.)