Event

Hamlet, The First Quarto

The so-called "bad quarto," or first printing of Hamlet has mystified scholars for hundreds of years. It's half as long and far less poetic than the "normal" Hamlet, with garbled-seeming text, a different plot sequence, and an additional scene between Horatio and Gertrude. Competing theories speculate that it may be a touring script or an early draft that was never meant for printing. One theory maintains that it is a pirated version of Hamleta very poorly pirated version.

Taffety Punk fell in love with the bad quarto when it was performed as the 2012 Bootleg. The brevity andadmittedlypeculiar language of this version jar both actors and audience from the comfort of the play they know so well, which means it's the perfect opportunity to reconsider what Hamlet is.

Hamlet director and company member Joel David Santner says, "While most people refer to this version of Hamlet as the 'bad' one due to it's brevity and sometimes peculiar wording, we are treating it as the ultimate text. This gives us a chance to present a different angle on a well-known story to the audience and perhaps encourage them to re-consider what Hamlet is about."