Prince Hamlet has the world at his feet. Young, wealthy, and living a rather revelrous life studying abroad. Then word reaches him that his father is dead. Returning home he finds his world is utterly changed, his certainties smashed and his home a foreign land. Struggling to understand his place in a newly ordered world he faces a stark choice. Submit, or rage agains the injustice of his new reality. Shakespeare’s searing tragedy is as relevant today as when it was written; Hamlet confronts each of us with the mirror of our own morality in an imperfect world.

Directed by Jim Warren alongside Intimacy Director Jessica Morgan, Fight Choreographer Millie Omps, and Voice & Text Coach Bridget Rue Esterhuizen, with Technical Direction by David Byard, Dramaturgy by John S. Shirley, Costume Design by Jason A Young, and Hair and Make-Up Design by Samantha Huffman, the Mechanicals featured in this production include Samantha Huffman, Sinead Pechon, Seret Cole, Joshua Brooks, James Matthews, Calian Byard, Stephen Phillips, Jason A Young, Justin Grow, Niki DeWitt, and Sarah Young.

Founded by Celi Oliveto in the summer of 2014, The Rustic Mechanicals is the only troupe of actors in the state dedicated to touring the works of William Shakespeare and other classical playwrights.

The Mechanicals now tour five shows annually, including their summer West Virginia Shakespeare in the Park(s) outdoor tour and script-in-hand productions that we call, “a Play, a Pie, and a Pint,” focusing on making Shakespeare’s plays accessible to modern audiences by utilizing dynamic and extreme casting techniques paired with Shakespeare’s staging conditions.

Previous productions include A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Taming of the Shrew, Much Ado about Nothing, Macbeth, The Tempest, Twelfth Night, The Merchant of Venice, Romeo & Juliet, The Merry Wives of Windsor, King Lear, Richard III, The Comedy of Errors, Hamlet, Measure for Measure, As You Like It, Julius Caesar, Titus Andronicus, Love’s Labour’s Lost, Cymbeline, and the original works Timeless Romance and Toil & Trouble.