Courtesy of Elio Wentzel

The student production “Hamlet” premiered this past weekend in the Crescent Underground Theater, highlighting key moments of comedy in the classic Shakespearean tragedy. 

The show ran from Nov. 1 to Nov. 4 in the Crescent Underground. The production was made possible through funding from a Creative and Performing Arts grant from Morse College, as well as the Elizabethan Club. Sam Bezilla ’24 directed the 13-person cast, while producer Casey Tonnies ’24 helped with the overall process of putting on the production. Although the original telling of Hamlet is set around the 1300s, Bezilla’s vision set the production in the mid-to-late 19th century, and its costumes and set reflected an opulent household. 

At its core, Hamlet is labeled as a tragedy, but this production made sure to highlight moments of comic relief. Bezilla explained to the News that it was the actors who really brought out this humor.

“I am very lucky that a lot of the members of the cast actually have comedy experience. Leo Egger, who played Polonius, is in Fifth Humor, and Prentice, who played Laertes, is in the Purple Crayon and the Red Hot Poker, as is Meridian who played Horatio,” Bezilla said. “So I am lucky that they brought their expertise to the play because it’s naturally very funny material … It was about asking the question, ‘How can we make these characters true and real and believable as people but also ridiculous?’” 

Egger’s Polonius, a clueless but well-meaning father who wore a cartoonish waistcoat, kept the audience chuckling. In the scene of Laertes’s departure, where Polonius first interacted with his children, the exasperation the siblings displayed toward their father was among the many moments that emphasized his overbearing nature. 

However, the production still showcased the tragic element of the play.

The production featured Hamlet’s violence toward the play’s two female characters, Ophelia and Gertrude, played by Victoria Pekel ’25 and Mia Rolland ’24, respectively. In one scene, Hamlet, played by Phil Schneider ’24, violently grabs Ophelia. 

In the play’s first scene, Hamlet sarcastically responds to his mother’s questioning. But as his insanity builds with the play’s progression, he becomes increasingly aggressive and angry.

Bezilla most wanted to highlight the theme of underlying problems of a powerful family in the production, he added. 

“Hamlet can be interpreted a million different ways: there’s a political element to it, issues of surveillance, mental health, psychology, but we’re most interested in looking at Hamlet as a family drama, or, what happens when you take families that are wealthy and powerful, but have deep problems,” he said. 

According to Bezilla, the production particularly aimed to portray how people reacted to the shock of Hamlet’s father’s death and how it ultimately tore the kingdom — and its families — apart.

Some audience members found the play especially engaging and reported that on some nights it received a standing ovation. 

Tamara Bafi ’27 was particularly impressed by the “dynamic fight scenes, ethereal music, humorous moments and heartrending emotion,” which she said “paid homage to the legendary Shakespearean play.” 

Hamlet is Shakespeare’s longest play.