It is present day, and your typical Canadian punk, Jimmy “Spider” McKuen, stumbles upon an old (haunted) mansion. There he meets none other than the Prince of Denmark himself, Hamlet. Enthralled in the classic tale he is reminded of from his brief school days, he follows Hamlet, Ophelia, and the rest of Shakespeare’s characters so far as to start talking in iambic pentameter!
The Haunted House Hamlet is designed so that audience members can structure their own experience of viewing it. Nothing repeats and there are three simultaneous areas of action, so people must choose what to see. Some possibilities are:
- You can follow Shakespeare's Hamlet story;
- You can follow any character that interests you;
- You can stay in one location and see the hallway play, the crypt play or the upstairs play;
- Move about at random following your impulses as characters move around the house.
You can go anywhere in the house at any time. Audience members are free to open doors and walk into ongoing scenes. If the action moves to another location, they can move with it, or stay where they are. When scenes end, there are slight holds to allow audience members to enter and leave, but if they wish to stay in a room, the action is continuous!
