Ben Duke's new production, "The Last Hamlet," reimagines Shakespeare's tragedy as absurdist comedy. The show, staged at Sadler's Wells East in London, opens with Hamlet trying to hire a car after missing his father's funeral because he was at a silent retreat processing abandonment issues and a traumatic year 7 disco memory of his uncle and mother dancing together to Yazoo's "Only You."
Duke, who co-founded Lost Dog theatre company, has built a track record of reworking classic texts. His previous productions have reimagined Paradise Lost, Romeo and Juliet, and the Medea myth. The pattern involves contemporary references, surreal tangents, and sharp one-liners layered over canonical stories.