Students in the cast of Hamlet spent Friday evening in Orinda watching California Shakespeare Theater’s rendition of Shakespeare’s well-known tragedy.

The play tells the story of a young prince in Denmark who loses his father and progresses through the various stages of grief in five acts, which involve betrayal, passion, and violence.

Bruns Amphitheater, the home of California Shakespeare Theater, is actually an abandoned pool house that was part of a greater mansion property.

According to Director of Artistic Learning Trish Tillman during her pre-performance talk, Director Liesl Tommy decided to add her own flair by staging the play in the empty pool, complete with underwater lights and a pool deck. She wanted to express a sense of loss by designing the set in a structure that usually needs to be full with water, but in this case, is empty.

“[I loved] what they did with the space, how they used the area, how they used their resources, and how they used landscape to […] create this outdoor theater, this magical little world,” Cordelia Larsen (9) said.

Because every actor interprets his or her role differently, students have seen 10 movie versions of Hamlet in addition to this play in order to observe as many diverse choices as possible. The California Shakespeare Theater production hits a little closer to home since it is live theater. Damon Aitken (11), who plays Polonius, watched the actor incorporate a large amount of humor into his performance.

“I could see where people laughed,” Damon said, adding that he plans to try integrating more comedy into his interpretation as well.

Jeffrey Draper, director of the Upper School’s production of Hamlet, was pleased that the students had the opportunity to learn more not only about Hamlet, but also about what it means to be actors.

“I hope [the students] learn a ton about themselves as performers, as communicators, as great artists. There is no better play to teach people how to act than this play,” he said.

Students who watched the California Shakespeare Theater production of Hamlet discovered a new interpretation of the tragedy, and many revealed their excitement for their production to debut on October 25.