Hamlet: A Nineties Take on the Classic Tragedy

Bonneville Theater Company’s production of Shakespeare’s greatest work sees a Hamlet set in an American evangelical charismatic Christian church in the 1990s during which was born a spiritual shift, including the rise of the mega-church, the “cool” pastor, the increasing popularity in Christian rock, and the revitalization of Youth Ministries. In Shakespeare’s England the masses struggled to find their spiritual identity in the wake of the great Reformation which establishment of the Church of England two generations prior. These very tensions are embedded in the play as Hamlet navigates personal dilemmas surrounding theological and spiritual unease. Bonneville Theater Company turns Shakespeare’s royal family into a church family. King Hamlet becomes Pastor Hamlet. Gertrude becomes a pastor’s wife. And Hamlet, a man who returns home from school to find his uncle leading the congregation his father once led.