The Play's the Thing as Theater Returns to Sanders for the First Time in Years

Hamlet is back at Sanders Theatre with the Hyperion Theatre Company, the University's first and only Shakespearean company

For the first time in 46 years, Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, will later this month tread the venerable boards of Sanders Theatre in Memorial Hall. The return of the self-doubting Dane, though belated, is a much-heralded event.

The Hyperion Theatre Company, the University's first and only Shakespearean production company, will present Hamlet on Sept. 25 and 27. The student actors are co-directed by Kevin Coleman, director of education at Shakespeare & Company and Tom Jaeger, another member of the celebrated Lenox, Mass., theatrical company founded and directed by Tina Packer.

Established in 1995 by members of the Class of '99, Hyperion annually produces two Shakespearean plays indoors in the fall and a "Shakespeare in the Park" production on the steps of the Memorial Church during the annual ARTS FIRST Weekend. Hyperion President Sam Speedie '99 and several of the Company's founding members, in collaboration with Eric Engel, director of the Sanders Theatre/Memorial Hall Complex, are producing Hamlet.

Speedie commented on the new production of Shakespeare's most famous tragedy: "Hyperion's historic production of Hamlet with Shakespeare & Company is innovative on two levels. First, it enables talented amateur actors with a passion for Shakespearean performance to unlock the story of the play under painstaking professional leadership -- what is known as 'getting inside the text.' Secondly, this production revalidates the renovated Sanders Theatre -- with a proud theatrical legacy encompassing Marcel Marceau, Sir Johnston Forbes-Robertson, and Sir John Gielgud -- as a dramatic performance space."

Sanders Theatre, which today is used for lectures and concerts, has a storied theatrical tradition, indeed. The building's dramatic origins date back to 1895 when the English Department constructed the first Elizabethan stage in the United States in order to present Ben Jonson's The Silent Woman. In the early 1900s, many Shakespearean productions adorned Sanders' stage, including Sir Johnston Forbes-Robertson's farewell performance of Hamlet in 1904. After World War II, the Cambridge Drama Festival presented memorable productions at Sanders including St. Joan (starring the Irish actress Siobhan McKenna).

In addition, Sanders is intimately linked with a host of hallowed theatrical and literary personages: the first public reading of Dylan Thomas' Under Milkwood was presented there in 1956, and Robert Penn Warren's first play was premiered later in the same decade. Writers ranging from Norman Mailer to Anne Sexton have graced its podium, and Sanders was also the site of Sir John Gielgud's last American performance. Hyperion's production of Hamlet will be the first dramatic play to take place in the recently renovated space.

The Hyperion Theatre Company will present three performances of Hamlet -- Friday and Saturday, Sept. 25 and 26 at 8 p.m., and Sunday, Sept. 27 at 3 p.m. Tickets are $15 for general admission, $7.50 for students with I.D.'s, and $7.50 for senior citizens. Tickets are available at Sanders Theatre Box Office, Bostix at Harvard at the Holyoke Center, and through Boston Arts Mail.

For further information, please contact Sam Speedie at the Hyperion Theatre Company, 512-5624.