Hamlet

“To be, or not to be” — the Prince of Denmark must decide whether to avenge his murdered father after his ghost reveals that the killer is Hamlet’s own uncle, now king and married to his mother.

Torn between action and paralysis, Hamlet feigns madness while searching for proof of his uncle Claudius’s guilt. His tortured deliberation consumes everyone around him — Ophelia, the woman he loves, is driven to genuine madness; her father Polonius is killed by mistake; and Hamlet’s childhood friends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are sent to their deaths as pawns in a royal game. Shakespeare packed the play with some of the most quoted lines in the English language, but beneath the famous soliloquies lies a deeply human story about a young man overwhelmed by the corruption of the world he has inherited.

Shakespeare’s most celebrated tragedy is a profound exploration of grief, indecision, madness, and mortality. Written around 1600, it remains the most performed play in the world.