OLLI0183 - The Durability of Shakespeare’s Hamlet

Course Description

Somewhere in the world, a production of Hamlet is running, a student is studying Hamlet, or a group of readers are exploring the text. Why has this play remained a vital part of the stage, study, and reading group for over 400 years? Join Denice Hicks (executive artistic director, Nashville Shakespeare Festival), and Marcia McDonald (professor emerita of early modern literature, Belmont University), for an exploration of the meaning of this play on the page and stage over the centuries and for an audience of 2024.

This OLLI course will meet in three sessions. In the first session, Dr. McDonald will survey responses and critical assessments of Hamlet from its early staging through 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries and invite participants to share their experiences with Hamlet. In the second session, Denice Hicks will guide a close reading of key speeches and scenes. The third session will be attending the full production and talk back, running at Lipscomb University’s Collins Auditorium April 18-28 including 10am matinees on Thursday, April 18, 10:00 am, Friday, April 19, 10:00 am, Wednesday, April 24, 10:00 am, Thursday, April 25, 10:00 am, and Friday, April 26, 10:00 am.

This course will invite us to consider not only what different eras and productions have revealed about the play, but what our fascination with the play reveals about us.