A fresh perspective on the Shakespearean downfall of a man will commence the Center for the Performing Arts at Penn State’s 2022–23 season. “Prince Hamlet,” which features a gender-bent cast plus American Sign Language and translation by Dawn Jani Birley, challenges the idea of who can tell the 400-year-old story.
The center will host three performances of the Shakespearean tragedy—at 7:30 p.m. Friday. Sept. 16, and 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 17, in Playhouse Theatre. Visit “Prince Hamlet” online for more information. Members of the cast will participate in a Q&A with interested audience members after the Sept. 16 performance. ASL interpreters will be available in the lobby one hour before curtain on performance days and will assist with the post-performance discussion.
Tickets—$35 for an adult, $5 for a University Park student, and $18 for a person 18 and younger—are available at “Prince Hamlet” online. Tickets will also are available by phone at 814-863-0255 or in person weekdays from 10 a.m.–4 p.m. at Eisenhower Auditorium.
The Why Not Theatre production is adapted and directed by Ravi Jain, a former professional clown with Cirque de Soleil. His reimagined tale features nontraditionally cast characters and a fully integrated Deaf actor in a production understandable to both Deaf and hearing audiences. Birley, a Toronto Theatre Critics Award-winning best actress, portrays Horatio and poetically delivers ASL in this highly visual narration.
In a recent video conversation with the center staff, Jain said Birley accepted the challenge of translating the effusive nature of Shakespeare—first by translating the English to the more efficient ASL, “then into ASL with a flourish,” he said.
Why Not Theatre was founded in 2007 by Jain in response to his experiences with cultural adversity. The Toronto company tackles modern issues with the belief that “there are more ways to see and hear people, that will help us see more in people who we may have written off,” he said.
