Hamlet and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead slated Feb. 4-5
Every time you see a play that has been around for decades, there is an opportunity to see something new. The Cultural Affairs Committee is bringing both classics from The Acting Company, Hamlet and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, to Young Auditorium in early February. Hamlet will be performed on Tuesday, February 4 at 7:30 p.m. and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead will light up the stage on Wednesday, February 5 at 7:30 p.m.
Ticket prices range from $19.50 to $29.50, or take advantage of the two-show special and see both performances for $39. Ticket prices for University of Wisconsin-Whitewater students with a valid student ID card are $14.25, or students can see both shows for $19.50. The Young Auditorium is located at 930 West Main St. in Whitewater.
Hamlet to hit stage
This year is the first production of Hamlet in The Acting Company’s 40-year history. The play dramatizes the revenge Prince Hamlet exacts for his father’s murder, setting him on a journey seeking his personal mortality. It vividly portrays overwhelming grief and rage while exploring themes of danger, revenge and moral corruption.
Hamlet is among Shakespeare’s most powerful and influential tragedies in English literature, one of his most popular works during his lifetime, and still ranks among his most-performed plays.
Many believe that Hamlet is the best of Shakespeare’s work, the perfect play – and certainly one of his most well-known and oft-quoted plays. Ian Belknap, The Acting Company’s Artistic Director, brings this masterpiece to life having previously directed The Acting Company’s The Comedy of Errors and John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men.
Hamlet hangs around
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead centers on the misadventures and musings of two minor characters – childhood friends of the Prince – from William Shakespeare’s Hamlet.
The play, a tragicomedy, was written by Czech-born British playwright, Tom Stoppard in 1967 and is structured as the inverse of Hamlet; the title characters are the leads, not supporting players, and Hamlet himself has only a small part. The duo appears on stage in this play when they are off-stage in Shakespeare’s play, with the exception of a few short scenes in which the dramatic events of both plays coincide.
Focusing on free will versus determinism, the search for value and the impossibility of certainty, the play has a love for cleverness and language, treating it as a confounding system fraught with ambiguity to engage and delight the audience.
The Acting Company
Founded by John Houseman and Margot Harley in 1972, The Acting Company has toured to 48 states and 10 foreign countries earning a TONY for Excellence in Theater, Obies, Audelcos and Los Angeles Critics Circle Awards. Kevin Kline, Rainn Wilson, Patti LuPone, Cristin Milioti, Frances Conroy, Jeffrey Wright, Harriet Harris, David Ogden Stiers, Keith David, Hamish Linklater and Jesse L. Martin are but a handful of performers who began their careers on tour with The Acting Company.
For more information about the shows or to purchase tickets, visit www.uww.edu/YoungAuditorium. Tickets can also be reserved in person or by calling the Greenhill Center Box Office at (262) 472-2222. The box office is located in the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater College of Arts and Communication building, adjacent to the Young Auditorium.
The Young Auditorium serves as a presenting organization for the performing arts and as an educational and cultural center enriching the lives of regional communities, offering a full season of world-class performing arts presentations. The theater is a state-of-the-art venue, with 1,300 seats and a 44 square foot stage that hosts dozens of dance, music, theater, comedy and University of Wisconsin-Whitewater events each year.
In addition to the main theater, the Young Auditorium also houses the Fern Young Terrace and Kachel Center, where special events and celebrations are never in short supply. To learn more, visit www.uww.edu/YoungAuditorium or follow us at www.Facebook.com/Young.Aud.
