Hamlet at Park Avenue Armory

Hailed as “one of the most important forces in today’s theatre” (The Observer, UK), Robert Icke has drawn acclaim from critics and audiences alike for his intelligent and accessible productions that bring fresh, new perspectives to classical texts. The Olivier Award–winning director unleashes his visionary creativity at the Armory with the North American premiere of a radical new staging of Shakespeare’s classic.

This highly charged staging transforms the traditional family drama into a psychological thriller, transporting the action to our current surveillance society in which rolling media news feeds provide juicy updates of a life lived on screen while blurring the lines between public and private life. Alex Lawther (The Imitation Game, The Last Duel, The French Dispatch, Black Mirror) portrays the obsessive prince consumed by grief, brilliantly embodying his mental decay to boldly examine the devastating effects his anguish has not only on his own psyche, but on his family and country.

This production will play in repertory with ORESTEIA for the first time, allowing audiences to experience the throughlines and connections in these classic dramas—depicting two epic family sagas written over 2,000 years apart—performed by the same cast.

To be or not to be in the audience of Hamlet at Park Avenue Armory, that is no question. You won't want to miss Robert Icke's acclaimed reimagining of Shakespeare's most famous tragedy. Get Hamlet tickets on TodayTix.

Most people know the story of the Hamlet play from reading it in high school, seeing one of its many film adaptations, or seeing it on stage somewhere in the world; the show is one of the most revered literary works of all time. The titular Hamlet is the Prince of Denmark, and his uncle Claudius has just murdered his father to usurp the throne. Told by his father's ghost to avenge him, Hamlet devises a plan to appear to go mad and kill Claudius in the process.

However, as Hamlet progresses, it becomes clear that the prince is actually going mad with grief and conflicted emotions toward his revenge plan. Icke's bold reimagining of Shakespeare's play dives deeply into Hamlet's mental state and sets the action in a Scandi-noir surveillance state, adding an extra force behind Hamlet's paranoia and madness.

Get thee to the Armory this summer for Hamlet off Broadway. Get Hamlet tickets on TodayTix now.

What to Watch For

• To heighten the tension of the surveillance-state setting, this Hamlet production includes a steady news feed projected in the background, which shows real-time updates to the plot. You can see a similar theme on Broadway in Dear Evan Hansen, which projects social media footage throughout the show.
• Hamlet is playing in repertory with Oresteia, another Robert Icke-directed production, at the Park Avenue Armory. The cast is the same for both shows, which calls attention to the other similarities between them: Both are stories about family and revenge.
• The Armory production is one of three Hamlet shows running in spring/summer 2022. A Hamlet opera is at the Met from May 13 to June 9, and on Broadway, there's The Lion King, whose story is loosely inspired by Hamlet! That show has been running since 1997 and is still going strong.
• Hamlet is the most adapted Shakespeare play on screen, with more than 50 film adaptations since 1900.
• This Hamlet might look familiar! Alex Lawther plays the title prince, and he's been in movies and TV shows like The Imitation Game, The French Dispatch, and Black Mirror.