Suspense, trickery, and intrigue are at the heart of the Guild Hall Players’ upcoming production of “Hamlet,” directed by Phil Speary and running one weekend only March 19-22.

The play centers on the title character’s uneasy response to the death of his father and the unseemly speed with which Hamlet’s uncle Claudius takes over the throne and marries his mother. Hamlet smells a rat — besides, his father’s ghost tells him outright that he was murdered. Yet the title character spends the entire play (all four-and-a-half hours in its original form) philosophizing and dithering, planning to avenge his father’s murder but unable to do so until he has absolute proof of Claudius’s guilt. 

Speary noted that the play focuses on relationships among the characters, with all their deceits and intrigue. Joseph Urick, who wrote the adaptation and plays Hamlet, concurs, noting that the play is riddled with deceit, lies, and spying — a Shakespearian “Succession” or “Game of Thrones.” He and director Speary are leaning into that interpretation, including exploring the costs of the characters’ deceptions.

“No one is willing to be honest, which is why so many die at the end of the play,” said Urick, who also choreographs the show’s many fight scenes. 

One example of the twisty multi-levels of deceit: In the “nunnery” scene,  Hamlet, playing the part of a madman as part of his scheme to lure out the guilty, see-saws between genuine, passionate angst and deep cruelty toward his fiancée Ophelia. Hamlet knows he’s being watched, but not by whom. He’s trying to juggle multiple agendas: letting the spy know he knows they’re watching him, warning Ophelia that she’s not safe, trying to tell her he loves her — and trying to save her by bitterly ordering her to “get thee to a nunnery.” At this point in the play, Urick said, Hamlet has been pretending to be mad for so long he’s beginning to question his own sanity. 

Productions have set the tragedy in eras from Medieval to future dystopian. Speary’s production takes place in the late 19th century’s Gilded Age — the heyday of ghost stories, Speary said. It was also a period of corruption and uneven wealth distribution, but beyond its setting, the play makes no overt efforts to underscore comparisons to modern times.

The goals, said Urick, are to entertain and to show young audiences that Shakespeare isn’t something to fear or avoid. 

Urick, who is an assistant professor of voice and acting at Wichita State, wrote his adaptation for a student production at a college where he taught previously. He retained the characters that typically get cut from trimmed adaptations to offer a maximum number of parts for his aspiring actors. But he cut the show down to a crisp two hours by cutting scenes that don’t directly contribute to the plot, among other strategies. 

Speary wanted more, so this version runs about two-and-a-half hours — still short for “Hamlet.” Scenes have been reordered and “sort of mashed together,” Speary said. Focus is less on the ghost story, more on the intrigue. 

Among roles routinely cut, Urick has retained that of Reynaldo, who is sent by a father to spy on his own son. Reynaldo’s presence offers yet another angle into the complex web of deceit that Shakespeare wove, Urick said. 

The show’s germination began when Speary — who founded the Guild Hall Players 20 years ago this year — approached Urick about doing the show. Rehearsals began earlier than the typical month-long timeframe. By late February, many actors had some or most of their lines memorized. 

The cast includes two real-life couples: Urick and his wife Erin Polewski, a gender queer actor who plays Hamlet’s close friend Horatio, and Karen Harpenau (Ophelia) and Jacob Steward (Fortinbras and the First Player in the show’s play-within-a play scenes). The other actor playing against gender is cisgender woman Kristin Moody as Marcellus and another one of the players.

The set is a semi-thrust arrangement, partially using the built-in proscenium stage in the Guild Hall Theatre, but also spreading out onto a platformed area around which the audience sits on three sides. This allows for more intimacy, bringing Hamlet’s multiple soliloquies closer to the audience. 

Other major cast members are Mark Mannette (Claudius), Mary Tush Green (Gertrude), Joe Parrish (Polonius), Owen Balman (Laertes), Dan Schuster (Ghost and Yorick), Jerry Wehry and Christopher Sharkey (Gravediggers and, respectively, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern). Rounding out the cast are Robert Brining, Jeremy Buoy, and Emily Redfield. 

Speary provided the scenic design; lighting design is by Tony Applegate; costumes Karen Harpnau coordinated costumes; Randy Harrison is the sound designer; and Louise Brinegar designed props. Terre Winstead stage managed and Jeremy Buoy assistant-directed.

The Details

The Guild Hall Players present “Hamlet”
March 19-22, 2026 at St. James Episcopal Church, 3750 E. Douglas Ave. in Wichita

Performances take place at 8 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday and 7 p.m. Sunday in the St. James Guild Hall. General admission tickets are $12. Discounted tickets for students and active members of the military are $10.

To make a reservation, contact the theater company through Facebook or call the church at 316-683-5686. Reservations by phone must be arranged before noon on Friday, March 20.

Anne Welsbacher writes plays, fiction and nonfiction, and book and theater reviews. She can be found on Substack and Bluesky. She is the Performing Arts Editor for this publication. awelsbacher.com

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