Hamlet in the Golden Vale (2018)

Hamlet in the Golden Vale: Directed by Dan Hasse, Taylor Myers. With Pat Dwyer, Beth Ann Hopkins, Jonathan Hopkins, Elise Kibler. A company of actors arrive at a castle deep in the Irish countryside and set into motion the story of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. The lives of the actors and their characters intertwine as Prince Hamlet confronts the ghost of his father and seeks revenge on the treacherous Claudius, his uncle and newly appointed king. Hamlet’s pursuit of vengeance scorches the lives of everyone inside the castle walls and lays bare the many contradictions and ambiguities of human existence. At the play’s end, seven days have passed and the actors emerge, leaving the castle and characters behind.

“Saw this at a theater in NYC at the Manhattan Film Festival, where it won Best Feature. Itu0026#39;s great. A van of actors arrive at a castle, where they immediately transform into an amazing production of Hamlet. So itu0026#39;s a play within a play within a movie. And it really works as a film. The actors speak Elizabethan English so clearly and without artifice that you barely notice itu0026#39;s not fully modern prose. Itu0026#39;s exciting as a murder/revenge film, with or without Shakespeareu0026#39;s prose. Run time is two hours, not four, so the text has been cut very intelligently but every word is the original text. The actors are first rate and thereu0026#39;s lots of doubling of roles, as Shakespeare had to do with his small company. The film also moves seamlessly between the actors and their roles (you see the actors on break between each act of the play). Bravo to the director and cinematographer.”