-2009-: Hamlet

This is Hamlet for the year of swine flu, Twitter, and two wars. Denmark is a surveillance state, rotten not with treason but with apathy, live feeds, and solipsism.

And when Hamlet finally stabs the arras, he’s not sure if he’s killed a man or a metaphor. The skull in the graveyard has a Bluetooth earpiece still attached. hamlet -2009-

In 2009, the nunnery scene is shot like a reality TV fight. Ophelia’s flowers are dropped in a petrol station parking lot. Polonius is a career politician checking emails behind a tapestry. Claudius doesn’t pray — he delivers a press conference. This is Hamlet for the year of swine

No one says “good night, sweet prince.” They just ghost him. Then the lights flicker. Then the sound of rain on a skylight. Then — silence, save for one missed call from a father who was never really dead, only on hold. The skull in the graveyard has a Bluetooth

The players arrive via van, their Hecuba speech lit by iPhone flash. “To be or not to be” is whispered into a payphone receiver, the line dead except for the buzz of 21st-century dread.