Hamlet, The First Quarto

Capitol Hill Arts Workshop
545 7th Street, SE Washington

The so-called “bad quarto,” or first printing of Hamlet has mystified scholars for hundreds of years. It's half as long and far less poetic than the “normal” Hamlet, with garbled-seeming text and a different plot sequence. It may be a touring script or an early draft that was never meant for printing. One theory maintains that it is a pirated version of Hamlet. The brevity and—admittedly—peculiar language of this version jar both actors and audience from the comfort of the play they know so well, which means it's the perfect opportunity to reconsider what Hamlet is.

Thru - May 23, 2015

Hamlet, The First Quarto Reviews

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DCTheatreScene - Highly Recommended

Taffety Punk’s Hamlet, the First Quarto is the Bard’s masterwork as you’ve never seen it before. At least probably. The Punks’ new production grows from their experimental Bootleg series (which is a treat; held every year at the Folger Theatre), where they performed the first quarto of Hamlet (hence Q1), sometimes called the “bad quarto,” with only 24 hours of rehearsal time. So if you were one of around 200 very fortunate theatergoers, you might have caught this text before. But where the Bad Quarto Bootleg was a manic and jocular Fringe-esque romp, this Hamlet Q1 takes the text seriously, making beautiful moments that turn this time-honored tragedy into an emotional roller-coaster of immediacy.

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- Alan Katz

Hamlet, The First Quarto at Capitol Hill Arts Workshop