HAMLET (IN REHEARSAL)

Donald Freed&rsquo,s stage version of HAMLET (IN REHEARSAL) unearths a buried play within the play within the play in which a guilt-imprisoned, state-imprisoned, cosmically-imprisoned Hamlet lunges for and ultimately grasps the quietus of freedom. It is an explosively original, marvelously creative feat of Nabokovian intellectual acrobatics. Wonderful! Leon Katz, Leon Katz&rsquo, Edition of the Notebooks of Gertrude Stein, Emeritus Professor, Yale UniversityIf Shakespeare had reawakened in the oppressed theater of the 21st century, read Beckett, watched C N N and had a stiff drink, this is the play he would have written. Adam Leipzig, producer &, dramaturgDonald Freed has brought us a completely new concept of Hamlet and a brilliant one. Setting up a rehearsal play to take its place with Buckingham and Michael Frayn, he engineers a high level debate/conflict, funny and active enough to hold any audience tight. The central impression is of a director beset like Hamlet, and a Hamlet with a great deal of the director. They share a predicament, fight it out and the audience wins. Edward Pearce, Machiavelli&rsquo,s Children, The Great Man, The GuardianNo actor with a pulse could read this play without wanting to get up and do it. Freed takes us into dark corridors between the lines of Shakespeare&rsquo,s play, creating a brilliant met-drama full of theatrical joy, startling epiphany and crackling-good language. Unique as can be. Ron Marasco, PhD, author of Notes to an ActorDonald Freed&rsquo,s HAMLET (IN REHEARSAL) is a revelation that rings so true, you will wonder why you never thought of it. Freed has trumped his own genius. Amazing! Lorinne Vozoff, Artistic Director, Theatre Group Studio_,