After Hamlet is a collaborative reimagining of Shakespeare’s timeless tragedy, created with Sommer Ulrickson and Alexander Polzin. Rather than serving as a sequel, the work distills the essence of Hamlet and reframes its central theme: revenge.
We were particularly drawn to how vengeance—whether in Shakespeare’s time or our own—creates an unstoppable chain of retaliation. In the play, one ghost’s demand for justice sets Hamlet on a path that leads to nine more wrongful deaths. By the same logic, those victims too would become ghosts, each demanding their own revenge, and so the cycle continues without end.
After Hamlet blends fragments of Shakespeare’s text with newly written material, creating a dialogue between the original and our contemporary reflections. The staging includes multiple Hamlets, Ophelias, and Horatios, each embodying different facets of the story’s emotional and psychological landscape. Themes of death, fear, sexual tension, and haunting presences are interwoven with music, movement, and visual design to offer audiences a layered, politically resonant experience.
As director Sommer Ulrickson put it, “It’s almost a collaboration with Shakespeare… developing responses to the original work and exploring the consequences of taking revenge.”