Nevada Theatre Co. brings ‘Hamlet’ to Summerlin park

Thursday, June 3, 2004 | 8:47 a.m.

What: "Hamlet."

When: 8 p.m. today, Friday and Saturday (Greenshows begin at 7:30 p.m.).

Where: Summerlin Centre Community Park, 1800 Town Center Drive (between Sahara Avenue and Charleston Boulevard).

Tickets: $14; $10 for Summerlin residents (with Summerlin ID cards); free for children under 5.

Information: (702) 791-4412.

Known for its edgy, off-color productions, the Nevada Theatre Company brings "Hamlet," the popular tale of revenge and deception, to Summerlin for its third annual Shakespeare Under the Stars.

Zander Schaus, who has appeared in seven other Nevada Theatre Company productions, plays the avenging Prince of Denmark in the company's presentation tonight through Saturday at Summerlin Centre Community Park.

In the production, Hamlet returns home from studying abroad. His father has died and his uncle has married Hamlet's mother. Suspicious that his uncle killed his father to become the king of Denmark, Hamlet begins avenging his father's death. Deception and a string of murders ensue.

Deanna Duplechain, the company's artistic director and founder, scaled down the four-hour production to present a more forthright "Hamlet."

"I'm treating it with a little bit of irreverence," Duplechain said. "I don't believe in doing any museum pieces on stage. I ended up casting all these people who normally do comedy."

Regarding her interpretation, she added, "It's about going away from the inactive, brooding Hamlet. 'Hamlet' has always been my least favorite of Shakespeare plays and I didn't know why. I sort of had a residual dislike for it. It was from having to watch the Laurence Olivier version, in which he says, 'This is a play about a man who could not make up his mind,' and people believed him because he was Laurence Olivier.

"Laurence Olivier's 'Hamlet' was deadly boring. But Richard Burton's 'Hamlet,' or other people's 'Hamlet,' it's much more lively."

This is NTC's third Shakespeare Under the Stars production, following "Romeo and Juliet" and "A Midsummer Night's Dream." NTC has also presented Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night."00