Black Theatre Live, a partnership between Tara Arts, Derby Theatre, Queen's Hall Arts (Hexham), the Lighthouse (Poole), Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds, Theatre Royal Margate, Stratford Circus Arts Centre (London) and Key Theatre (Peterborough), which aims to bring high quality performances from culturally diverse perspectives to venues across the country, is bringing Hamlet to Hexham’s Queen’s Hall on 4 and 5 October, part of a nine-venue national tour.
The production, which has an all-black cast and creative team, is an adaptation (with Shakespeare’s text) by Mark Norfolk, inaugural winner of the Roland Rees Bursary. It casts Hamlet as a studious young black man who's forced to face the realities of his social identity and rages against the injustice of his position as he returns to discover that the world he once knew has crumbled. Faced with the new king's change in regime and religion, and implored to defend what is left of his father's decaying legacy, Hamlet now faces the greatest moral challenge: to kill or not to kill.
Director Jeffery Kissoon, who has worked for the RSC, the National Theatre, Robert Lepage, Peter Hall and Peter Brook (including Brook's Hamlet), said, "in Hamlet we reflect on the black experience, anxieties, and sensibilities in a modern era. Shakespeare's wonderfully rich text explores a tormented humanity, asking the searching questions of life and death faced head-on by a young black Prince.
"'Remember me' is the theme of this production: by saying 'Remember me', the ghost of Hamlet's father is urging Hamlet to remember not just him, but his background, heritage and all those that came before him."
The cast of nine is led by Raphael Sowole as Hamlet and Abiona Omonua as Ophelia. Sowole’s recent work includes the Almeida's The Merchant of Venice and Cheek By Jowl's 'Tis A Pity She's A Whore at the Barbican, and Omonua’s include the Menier Chocolate Factory's The Colour Purple, Legally Blonde in the West End and Parade at Southwark Playhouse.