Mandell Weiss Theatre
UC San Diego Theatre District
Wed. Feb. 25, 7 pm (Preview)
Fri. Feb. 27, 7:30 pm (Opening)
Sat. Feb. 28, 2 pm
Sat. Feb. 28, 7:30 pm
Thurs. Mar. 5, 7:30 pm
Fri. Mar. 6, 7:30 pm
Sat. Mar. 7, 7:30 pm (Closing)
TICKETS
$20 General / $15 Faculty-Staff-Alumni Assn-Seniors (over 62) / $10 UCSD Students w/ID
BOX OFFICE: (858) 534-4574
UC San Diego Department of Theatre & Dance's new production of Hamlet, directed by Michael Socrates Moran, opens February 25 (preview) and
runs through March 7 at the Mandell Weiss Theatre.
Charged toward vengeance by the ghost of his murdered father the king and the questionable ascent of Claudius to the throne, Hamlet (played by Brian Smolin) seeks to cleanse Elsinore of its immoral madness.
"I see the play as a trap of mirrors both for the characters in it and the artists working on it," Moran said,
"Like Hamlet, working on this play has felt like the inevitable walking into one's grave and enduring the sheer terror of the unknown.Hamlet is beyond us much like Hamlet's charge is beyond him, but I suppose I know no better way to discover who we are as people and artists except in the face of what we know we may not be able to achieve.
"Still, perhaps the most severe terror is the confrontation with oneself this play demands. It is a trap of mirrors because it reflects back to us our unpleasant, inescapable darkness. For me, Hamlet is a seer, a visionary, one with a prophetic soul who sees the essence of people and life. In attempting to reveal truth and pursue justice he seeks to reveal the unseen murder of his father to those around him in hopes of reforming his world. In a contemporary culture that can often feel superficial and power-driven the myth of Hamlet, the dark prince who is reconnecting us to what we have denied in ourselves and our society, is inspiring. It is moving to watch what it costs a noble prince who desperately wants to create a world full of light unearth the darkness around him and in himself. To be cruel to his mother only to be kind, kill a king in order to re-birth the kingdom, hurt his beloved in order to protect her and strive not to become that which he condemns, is my idealistic vision of Hamlet. However through this play's inescapable dark mirror my vison's narrow moralism, haughty righteousness, didacticism and lack of forgiveness is also revealed, darkness you may very well see in the production."