Fans of Shakespeare have an opportunity to rejoice after the fate of the Virginia Shakespeare Festival in Williamsburg appeared uncertain. William and Mary’s Department of Theatre, Speech and Dance announced in October that operations would be suspended for three years, pending a reevaluation as a result of declining attendance.
But the Theatre for Humanity is helping revive it with a rendition of “Hamlet.” The New York City-based startup won’t officially launch until next year, but producing artistic director Beth Litwak saw a win-win opportunity before the big city debut. Her theatre will bear the costs and logistical hurdles of a Shakespeare production on the Phi Beta Kappa Hall stage.
She has ample experience with the Williamsburg festival, having performed in its production of “Julius Caesar” in 2015 and two productions last year. She also co-directs the Young Shakespeare summer camps. Now, she’s directing “Hamlet.”
“We’re grassroots theatre at its finest,” Litwak said. “We are theatre people doing it for the love of the story.”
The production will focus on the essence of the story, a “down and dirty,” modern version that eschews the need for elaborate costumes and sets.
“This is a very simplified, truncated, 90-minute ‘Hamlet,'” she said.
None of this is bad. The focus isn’t the spectacle of the undertaking.
“It allows the actors to be the focus and the story to be the focus,” she said.
The concept stemmed from discussions with her camp co-director and fellow performer, Amanda Forstrom.
They looked at “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged),” a play that covers most of the playwright’s works in its first act and his “Hamlet” in the second. They deemed Act 2 manageable given their limited resources and pitched it to the producing artistic director of the William and Mary program, Christopher Owens. With the help of a couple of backers, the show got the green light.
“If you were going to pick one play of Shakespeare’s, I think it’s one of the most powerful stories that he tells,” Litwak said.
That story, as it wrestles with eternal questions surrounding life and death, remains as relevant today as it was during Shakespeare’s era.
“The story itself is timeless,” Litwak said. “We can find the similarities between the story that he told and the story that we live out in our lives.”
She pondered whether the playwright knew how significant his writings would become or how little, in some ways, the world would have changed more than 400 years after his death.
“The thing about the culture that we live in is that history repeats itself,” Litwak said. “The important thing is the fact that the stories are being told.”
Birkenmeyer can be reached by phone at 757-790-3029.
Want to go?
“Hamlet” runs July 7-9 and July 14-16 at Phi Beta Kappa Hall’s Studio Theatre. Shows play at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Tickets are $20 for adults, $15 for students and children, available at the Phi Beta Kappa box office, online at wm.edu/boxoffice or by calling 221-2674.
