Claudius

David E. Kemp is a professor of drama at Queen’s University and the
author of The Pleasures and Treasures of the United Kingdom.

This reworking of Hamlet by Ken Gass, artistic director of Canadian Rep
Theatre (which produced Claudius in 1993), shifts the focus from Hamlet
to the relationship between Gertrude and Claudius. Moving effortlessly
between comedy and tragedy, Gass examines the Gertrude-Claudius marriage
within the framework of a political thriller, with Hamlet serving as the
catalyst. Gertrude is portrayed as a woman struggling to free herself
from her obsession with her new husband. The tension between private
morality and political survival is brilliantly rendered in this
captivating reinvention of the classic story.