{"id":51780,"date":"2026-05-12T15:38:35","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T07:38:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=51780"},"modified":"2026-05-12T15:38:35","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T07:38:35","slug":"how-hamlet-adaptations-are-having-a-moment-as-the-play-taps-into-current-existential-angst","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=51780","title":{"rendered":"How Hamlet adaptations are having a moment as the play taps into current existential angst"},"content":{"rendered":"


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He is on screen, onstage, on tour, online and in song. Hamlet<\/em> \u2013 William Shakespeare\u2019s masterpiece about a moody Danish prince \u2013 seems to be having a moment.<\/p>\n

A production by the UK\u2019s National Theatre has landed at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York starring Hiran Abeysekera. There is a movie version set in London\u2019s South Asian community starring Riz Ahmed. Anthony Hopkins, at 88, recently delighted fans on TikTok with part of Prince Hamlet\u2019s \u201cTo be, or not to be\u201d soliloquy.<\/p>\n

The movie Hamnet<\/em> \u2013 a fictionalised story of loss that inspired the creation of Hamlet<\/em> \u2013 earned star Jessie Buckley a best actress Oscar in March. Taylor Swift\u2019s \u201cThe Fate of Ophelia\u201d \u2013 Hamlet\u2019s ex \u2013 went to No 1 on the Billboard singles chart after its release in October. The Hong Kong International Shakespeare Festival in June will feature productions of Hamlet<\/em> in Tibetan and Romanian.<\/p>\n

Four hundred years on, Hamlet<\/em> \u2013 whose seemingly quite modern anti-hero endlessly mulls over what to do after his uncle murders his father and marries his mother \u2013 is still giving.<\/p>\n

Want even more? There is even a Hamnet<\/em> play, adapted from Maggie O\u2019Farrell\u2019s original novel, which the Royal Shakespeare Company is taking on a UK tour. A Canadian production, Hamlet, Sweet Prince<\/em>, uses a queer, contemporary lens. The Acting Company in New York will have a \u201cmodern-verse\u201d version led by a woman. The Peruvian theatre company Teatro La Plaza recently presented a version off-Broadway<\/span> starring eight Spanish-speaking actors with Down syndrome.<\/div>\n
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\"Riz<\/div>
Riz Ahmed (left) and Timothy Spall in a scene from the 2025 British movie Hamlet. Photo: AP<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Jeffrey R. Wilson, a Shakespeare scholar at Harvard University, says Hamlet<\/em> is perfect for our era in which the crush of bad news triggers constant, existential check-ins.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n


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He is on screen, onstage, on tour, online and in song. Hamlet \u2013 William Shakespeare\u2019s masterpiece about a moody Danish prince \u2013 seems to be…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":51781,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[19895,22509,11819,21023,22507,2767,2651,22508],"class_list":["post-51780","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bored-interesting","tag-adaptations","tag-angst","tag-current","tag-existential","tag-hamlet","tag-moment","tag-play","tag-taps","wpcat-33-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51780","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=51780"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51780\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/51781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=51780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=51780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=51780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}