Hamlet
Swan Theatre
Saturday 21 July, 7.30pm
Hamlet performed by Studio Theatre as part of a two act performance with Phoenix Theatre
Tickets cost £5
Winner of the All England Theatre Festival's Open Stages Competition, Studio Theatre, perform Hamlet as the first act of the evening's performance.
This excerpt picks up the play at the point where Hamlet has returned from his studies in Wittenberg to bury his father only to find the court at Elsinore celebrating his mother's remarriage to his uncle Claudius. Meanwhile, his father's ghost stalks the battlements, urging Hamlet to revenge his 'most foul and bloody murder' by Claudius. Unsure whether the ghost can be trusted, Hamlet decides to feign madness and hatches a plan involving a group of travelling players to help him establish Claudius' guilt.
About Studio Theatre
Studio Theatre is an amateur drama company based in Salisbury, Wiltshire. It was founded in 1952 and celebrates its diamond anniversary this year.
It has been a member of the Little Theatre Guild since 1959 and was at one time the smallest of the little theatres with a tiny auditorium space created in a disused wine store.
In 2006, after years of fund-raising, the group opened its own 92-seat purpose-built theatre where it stages five or six productions each year.
The annual programme is an eclectic mix of classical drama, modern comedies, original plays, and at least one production by its thriving youth theatre.
Most years include a Shakespeare production, either indoors or out, but this is the first time in its history that Studio has staged Hamlet, which was performed in full last summer as part of the RSC Open Stages project.