Who is going to be, or not to be, Hamlet? That was the question audiences were faced with during this purgatorial presentation of Shakespeare’s greatest tragedy.

Highly innovative, witty and engaging, this was an irreverent riff on Hamlet that did not so much update or deconstruct the play as explode it.

The first half of the production was staged as an audition where would-be Hamlets variously interpreted the lead, attempting to impress the director and the audience with their unique takes on the troubled prince. But could anyone escape playing the ‘Great’ Dane? Weren’t we all the main part?

In the second half the stage was a hall of mirrors and the play-within-a-play, enacted by a troupe of schoolboy actors, was Hamlet itself.

Visually breathtaking, The Rehearsal, Playing the Dane was the winner of Best Production and Best Set Design at the 2010 Irish Times Theatre Awards and was unanimously awarded the Critics Choice as Best Show in the Ulster Bank Dublin Theatre Festival 2010.

Interactive and audacious, this event was enjoyed by both Shakespeare aficionados and novices alike.