A head of the rest

Hamlet is perhaps the most fascinating play ever written. It is also a complex and sometimes frustrating mix of different traditions, beliefs and source material. Prince Hamlet's own problems are those of the audience: What is the morally correct line of action? How should that moral end be achieved? What is the relationship between revenge and justice?

Any director who is temped to approach Hamlet must first deal with the weight of artistic and critical interpretation that sits heavily upon this most famous of all dramatic texts. The temptation is to add a little more weight, another interpretation that allows the audience to view the original text through the supposed brilliance of the modern director.

British TNT Theatre, one of the world's foremost touring companies presents William Shakespeare's classic powerful tragedy Hamlet in Beijing.

Founded in 1980 in Britain, TNT Theatre, has established itself as one of the most popular international touring theater companies in the world.

Last season alone the company produced seven productions in almost 30 countries worldwide, ranging from Shakespeare classics such as Romeo and Juliet to their own new play Hitler Killed My Canary, from works by contemporary artists such as Paul Auster's Moon Palace to the classic seasonal show: Dickens'Christmas Carols. Since 1993 the company has been in collaboration with the American Drama Group Europe.

The artistic director of TNT is Paul Stebbings, whose work has won many awards at, for example, the Munich Biennale, the Edinburgh Festival, the Tehran Festival and from the government of Singapore.

Aiming to integrate all the performing arts, TNT productions always include a specially commissioned score by a leading composer. The director always works with a choreographer and the ensemble actors are chosen for their ability to cross the disciplines of theatre, music and dance.

After the success of Macbeth and A Midsummer Night's Dream, director Stebbings, will continue the company's exploration of Shakespeare's major works in the spirit and style that reflect Shakespeare's own time and theatrical resources.

The company has been performing Shakespeare's works almost continuously since the summer of 2000. Almost one thousand performances have taken place in over 30 countries on three continents.

Chen Nan

From March 28-30. 7:30pm. At Capital Theater

Ticket: 80-580 yuan

6551-6930 6551-6906

(China Daily 03/29/2008 page6)