DC Metro Theater Arts: HAMLETTE

Being a teenager is never easy, especially if your mother has just married your uncle, who also happens to have murdered your father, and nobody can accept the fact that you’re a girl. Add in a visit from a vengeful ghost, and you have yourself an Elizabethan revenge play with a modern twist. Allison Williams re-imagines Shakespeare’s longest play into a half-hour farce. Presented by the Keegan Theatre as part of Play-Rah-Ka, a theatrical program geared toward families and emerging artists, this adaptation aims to help children identify with and understand Shakespeare—before high school takes all the fun out of it.

Hamlette is a family-friendly take on what has become one of the most frequently interpreted plays by the Bard. It has a little something for everyone, giving us an idea of the characters as they were originally imagined while connecting the stories to the present day.