Buzz for BEDLAM’S HAMLET
4th Wall Theatre Company’s production of BEDLAM’S HAMLET by William Shakespeare opened on May 2 and must close on May 24, 2025. You can learn more about the show and reserve tickets at this link. Photo by Gabriella Nissen.
IN THE PRESS
Houston Chronicle Review: “This direction is particularly notable for infusing comic moments unexpectedly, and understanding the youth and sensibility of young Hamlet as he is thrown into the deep end of a pool teeming with narcissistic sharks, with only Horatio as a part-time lifeguard in a big sea of troubles. And what a marvelous strategy this is, with fast pacing that allows the audience to understand the bewilderment of Hamlet’s realizations in a way that few productions accomplish. The Bard himself taught us that “the play’s the thing”—and boy is it ever with four of Houston’s most outstanding actors taking us through this extraordinary rendition with sheer sprezzatura.”
Houston Press Review: "‘With detailed and nuanced direction from Kim Tobin-Lehl, this production is adapted from New York’s Bedlam theater. … And Shakespeare and his Hamlet could not be in better hands. What a glorious night in the theater."
Broadway World Review: "HAMLET is a relentlessly dark play, but here Kim inserts light moments and toys with the idea that the actors should have a sense of creative theatricality around them. They are playing this piece! This is still an artful tragedy of epic renown, but it has a good clip in its pace, and everyone seems to be onboard to move it all along with inventive flourishes. It’s a train hurtling into a dead-end tunnel, but the party rages on inside the cars until we get there."
Car Takes Reaction Video: “It’s theatrical umami!”
Culture Map Houston: "‘You’ve never seen Shakespeare’s masterpiece done this way before. Using a directorial vision first conceived by the innovative New York theater company Bedlam, this stripped down and raw Hamlet calls for a cast of only four actors. Wesley Whitson tackles the role of the conflicted Prince Hamlet with Christy Watkins, Philip Hays, and 4th Wall co-founder Philip Lehl jumping in and out of around 30 roles between them, including furniture. The other 4th Wall co-founder, Kim Tobin-Lehl, directs this greatest of tragedies."
Houston Press Artist Interview: "[This adaptation] is about ‘speak the speech.’ It's all about the words and the story," director Tobin-Lehl says. "The immediacy of how this interacts with an audience is unique to me. We don't indulge in any overly dramatic emoting or any long extended breaks for any kind of spectacle. We assume the audience can listen to the speech as the same rate as they think. That they don't have to be indulged with any kind of hand-holding. That it actually works better when the text is the thing."
Broadway World Artist Interview: From actor Wesley Whitson: “I'm just trying to find where I am in the play. I'm trying to find where Wesley exists inside of Hamlet, drawing those connections and trying to bridge the gap between him and me. As actors, one of our big superpowers is that we are individuals. There's only one of me, and I'm trying to bring that sense of individuality to Hamlet, who is such an individual to begin with! He's a brilliant, brilliant young man, and a Renaissance Prince.”
AUDIENCE RESPONSE
I have definitely been urging friends not to miss this production. It’s one of the finest productions of any kind I’ve ever seen. Shakespeare himself would surely smile and applaud.
– Alice
Really admired the actors' skill, dedication, craft, and disappearing into their various roles.
– Mark
A masterpiece, creatively performed
– Susan
In a word? Superb!
– Alice