'Great Performances' Trailer for 'Hamlet' Resets the Bard in America

When Great Performances was founded in the early 1970s, the Free Shakespeare in the Park series was already an institution, with Joseph Papp starting the series in the 1950s. However, it was still young on many levels, as the theater in which it performed had not been established until the mid-1960s. It was a no-brainer for the nascent show to partner with at the time, partly due to East Coast bias, the Shakespearean cannon, and the New York factor making it easily accessible. However, by the early 1980s, the two had parted ways, and it would not be until the late 2010s that a broadcast of the live show would find its way back to PBS as a yearly tradition.

This year’s offering is the 2023 production of Hamlet, directed by Kenny Leon. Leon’s 2019 Much Ado About Nothing was a standout in Great Performances’ lineup when it was shown in the spring of 2020, and this return to the same Shakespearean universe that was set was highly anticipated by theater fans. Reviews noted the set appears to be the same one from the 2019 Much Ado, though now in a state of collapse, with many of the same iconic props now half buried.

Leon said of his production: “A 400-year-old play exploring the need for a strong foundation of family, with music and words, Shakespeare’s Hamlet has much to say about humanity and the importance of our connectedness to each other. We set this production in 2021, filled with all of the challenges we face as Americans as we explore our need to love more profoundly both nature and its people.”