Commonwealth Shakespeare Company will bring "Hamlet," William Shakespeare's most powerful tragedy, free to Boston audiences this summer on Boston Common. 

Presented by The Wang Center for the Performing Arts and directed by Wang Vice President for Artistic Programming and CSC Artistic Director Steven Maler, "Hamlet" will be performed Saturday, July 16, through Sunday, August 7.  This production is CSC's 10th annual "Free Shakespeare on the Common" offering. Last year's “Much Ado About Nothing” drew more than 85,000. 

Published in 1603, "Hamlet" is considered to be the most famous English-language play ever written.  Shakespeare's tragedy is filled with many of the most famous and oft-quoted words in the world...all uttered in a desperate struggle to understand man, his place in the universe and the nature and obligations of existence. 

Against a backdrop of a dysfunctional family dynasty's vicious domestic politics, a loyal son returns home for his father's funeral to discover his mother is engaged to his uncle.  An apparition convinces Hamlet his father has been murdered which throws his entire world into question.  The story of a young man thrust into a destiny he did not choose has mesmerized audiences for four centuries with its twists and turns of unrequited love, betrayal and duels to the death.

Director Steven Maler is the founding Artistic Director of Commonwealth Shakespeare Company and VP of Artistic Programming at The Wang Center for the Performing Arts.  He most recently directed readings in the American Voices: Drama, Dialogue, Downtown play reading series presented by The Wang Center for the Performing Arts and the Poduska Family Foundation.  

In addition to "Hamlet," CSC will bring its production of “Romeo and Juliet” to several Boston neighborhoods this summer in its third annual Tour of the Parks program.

-- OnStage Boston

03/01/05