Hamlet is a new multi-lingual, English-language based theatrical reimagining of William Shakespeare’s ‘Hamlet’ created by an international company of diverse artists, theatre makers and educators collaborating to enlighten, inspire, educate, and entertain audiences across the world. Shakespeare’s play, is the single one in the Western tradition that encompasses the central questions of existence that applies to all humans across social, political, economic, educational, environmental, religious, and racial boundaries. By exploring Shakespeare’s greatest play with actors from many countries playing in English and their own languages in an exciting and innovative production where every actor plays Hamlet at some point in the story, we show that we are all Hamlet and it is a quintessential human play rooted in classical principles of examining the essential questions – ‘Who Am I? Why Do I Exist? What Must I Do?’
Writer
William Shakespeare was born on April 23, 1564, in Stratford-upon-Avon. Shakespeare is regarded as the foremost dramatist of the Western World. In his poems and plays, Shakespeare invented thousands of words, often combining or contorting Latin, French, and native roots. His impressive expansion of the English language, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, includes such words as: arch-villain, birthplace, bloodsucking, courtship, dewdrop, downstairs, fanged, heartsore, hunchbacked, leapfrog, misquote, pageantry, radiance, schoolboy, stillborn, watchdog, and zany. Shakespeare wrote more than thirty plays including the most performed plays in human history such as Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Macbeth among many others.
Director
Guy Roberts is the Founder and Artistic Director of Prague Shakespeare Company, the professional English language theatre of the Czech Republic, celebrating its 18th year in 2025. He has produced, directed and acted in over 300 productions and his work has been experienced and celebrated onstage in the United States, Czech Republic, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Hungary, Austria, Italy, Slovakia, Poland, Qatar, Egypt, and India and he and his productions have been honoured with multiple awards and over 100 US theatre award nominations, including many for Best Actor, Director and Production among others including the Tomas Garrigue Masaryk Medal of Honor from the Masaryk Democratic Movement in recognition for his work promoting arts and artistic freedom and the inaugural Sidney Berger Award from the Shakespeare Theatre Association in recognition of his dedication to the works of William Shakespeare.
Director’s Note
When we understand Hamlet, we understand ourself. When we understand ourself then we can begin to understand and empathize with others as well. It is no accident that it is one of the most popular plays around the world and every country finds something within the play that speaks to their national character and temperament. By exploring Hamlet through a multiplicity of views and artistic sensibilities with a multi-national and multi-lingual artistic company we seek to find the common experiences and humanity we all share across national boundaries and discover the truly human nature of the play and each other. Is Hamlet a hero? Perhaps—but the ambiguity of his heroic nature is what keeps him so fascinating. No hero—or villain—in history has embodied such a complexity of thought and emotion. In the end, Hamlet is an exciting and essential theatrical experience.
Group
The Prague Shakespeare Company presents professional theatre productions, workshops, classes, lectures, and other theatrical events of the highest quality, conducted primarily in English by a diverse multinational ensemble of professional theatre artists, with an emphasis on the plays of William Shakespeare. The Prague Shakespeare Company brings to Czech, European and international audience performances that are fresh, bold, imaginative, thought-provoking, and eminently accessible, connecting the truths of the past with the challenges and possibilities of today. PSC has appeared twice before in the Bharat Rang Mahotsav Festival in 2019 and 2020.