At Shakespeare ZA, we’re not big on the whole “Bard’s Birthday” thing, but 23 April seems an auspicious day on which to share with our readers/viewers some exciting news.

Fred Abrahamse and Marcel Meyer of Abrahamse and Meyer Productions (AMP) have decided to make their production of Hamlet available online for theatre lovers - and, especially, for Grade 12 learners who have the play as a set work - in response to the COVID-19 crisis.

They have even offered to let us bask in some reflected glory and consider this a contribution to our #lockdownshakespeare campaign!

You can watch the production on YouTube:

Abrahamse & Meyer Production in association with Artscape present The Tragedy of HAMLET Prince of Denmark, as performed by the crew, aboard the Red Dragon of...

You can also download the souvenir programme, which includes lots of useful information about the play.

But wait - there’s more!

In a stroke of good luck, Hamlet and Ophelia from ThinkTheatre’s touring production of the play happen to be locked down together - which means that in addition to the many wonderful monologues that have been performed for #lockdownshakespeare, we now also have a dialogue:

Cara Roberts as Ophelia and Bryan Hiles as Hamlet

Many thanks to Bryan Hiles and Cara Roberts for sharing this with us!

You can see more of Bryan and Cara - both in character and offering some insights into playing their parts - in our previous post, Behind the scenes of #lockdownshakespeare.