The Fifteen Minute Hamlet

by Tom Stoppard

Following his success with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, the author continues his association with Hamlet by taking the most well-known and best-loved lines from Shakespeare's play and condensing them into a hilarious version of the play lasting approximately thirteen minutes. The miraculous feat is followed by an encore which consists of a two-minute version of the play! The vast multitude of characters is played by six actors with hectic doubling, and the action takes place at a shortened version of Elsinore Castle.

Genres: Plays, Drama, Shakespeare, Theatre

30 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1976

About the author

Sir Tom Stoppard was a Czech-born British playwright and screenwriter. He has written for film, radio, stage, and television, finding prominence with plays. His work covers the themes of human rights, censorship, and political freedom, often delving into the deeper philosophical thematics of society. Stoppard has been a playwright of the National Theatre and is one of the most internationally performed dramatists of his generation. He was knighted for his contribution to theatre by Queen Elizabeth II in 1997.

Born in Czechoslovakia, Stoppard left as a child refugee, fleeing imminent Nazi occupation. He settled with his family in Britain after the war, in 1946, having spent the previous three years (1943–1946) in a boarding school in Darjeeling in the Indian Himalayas. After being educated at schools in Nottingham and Yorkshire, Stoppard became a journalist, a drama critic and then, in 1960, a playwright.

Stoppard's most prominent plays include Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (1966), Jumpers (1972), Travesties (1974), Night and Day (1978), The Real Thing (1982), Arcadia (1993), The Invention of Love (1997), The Coast of Utopia (2002), Rock 'n' Roll (2006) and Leopoldstadt (2020). He wrote the screenplays for Brazil (1985), Empire of the Sun (1987), The Russia House (1990), Billy Bathgate (1991), Shakespeare in Love (1998), Enigma (2001), and Anna Karenina (2012), as well as the HBO limited series Parade's End (2013). He directed the film Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (1990), an adaptation of his own 1966 play, with Gary Oldman and Tim Roth as the leads.

He has received numerous awards and honours including an Academy Award, a Laurence Olivier Award, and five Tony Awards. In 2008, The Daily Telegraph ranked him number 11 in their list of the "100 most powerful people in British culture". It was announced in June 2019 that Stoppard had written a new play, Leopoldstadt, set in the Jewish community of early 20th-century Vienna. The play premiered in January 2020 at Wyndham's Theatre. The play went on to win the Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Play and later the 2022 Tony Award for Best Play.

Reviews

[Christian Doig · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tom Stoppard hace de Hamlet un juego de niños --a child's play--, en el sentido literal de la frase pero también en el del nonsense o absurdo de su concepto. Un elenco "infantil" monta la obra maestra de Shakespeare sin tener la menor idea de lo que dicen sus parlamentos, y es que todo está además desfigurado --minimizado-- en lo que más importa: la emoción y la filosofía de una pieza tan larga como densa en sus significados. El resultado es casi como si Pierre Menard hubiera preferido al melancólico danés por encima de su ilustre primo manchego, y se hubiese vuelto loco de alegría encontrando una solución tan cierta como inefable y ridícula al problema de indecisión del príncipe. En suma, y para no hacer de éste un comentario de 16 minutos, el bardólatra autor de Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead esencialmente desarrolla un fiel resumen del esqueleto argumental de Hamlet, lo que no impide que su metateatral idea llegue a ser aun hilarante.

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Performing "The Fifteen Minute Hamlet" was one of my favorite experiences as an actor. It was so refreshing to take Hamlet off of its pedestal and see it reinterpreted in a way that would bring belly laughs. The amazing thing is that it actually made me appreciate Hamlet that much more.

[John Wiswell · Rating 3 out of 5]

An amusing exercise in brevity and not so demeaning to the original play as I’d expected. Stoppard distills the key events, accentuating the betrayal at the beginning and Hamlet’s spiral into bitterness and violence. This would make a good refresher tool for students who are studying Shakespeare, as something in-between the text and Spark Notes. I have no idea how you’d perform it, though, other than having the players run off the stage at hilarious speeds.

[Scott Alexander · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this play so much, even in high school it was one of my all time favorites.
I have been in three different productions of this play, acting as several different parts.
My favorite being when I got to play the grave digger and four other parts, including the role of the ghost king.
I loved this portrayal of Shakespeare's classic.
It is hilarious fun while offering a tremendous level of customization for both the director and the set designer to have a blast. But furthermore there is a huge opportunity to toy around with costume design with this piece.
It is a great ensemble show with fantastic opportunities, thanks to Tom Stoppards carefully selected line contruction to add to where Shakespears was already solid. Where the master was tragic Stoppard was hilarious.
Great little one act show. Well worth reading or going to the theatre to watch.

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my goals in life is to watch an actual production of this play, because God is it fun to read. I literally read it entirely on a single bus ride, then read it again when I got into my room, if only so I could freely laugh at how quickly the play goes by. I've heard stories about how difficult the play is to produce on stage, but I imagine it's so worth it. I would suggest this to everyone, Shakespeare-fans and non-Shakespeare-fans alike...I mean, it takes 15 minutes to read, it's amazing!

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Absolutely absurdly hilarious. I always love to see this performed. It's so clever.

[Veronica · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hysterical--We did this as an excercise in a Theatre class in 7th grade. Where each character was translated into a 'modern' character'.

[Luke · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hamlet shortened.

[Ella · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yes excellent

10/10 would still recommend

[Deborah Schuff · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very short. VERY funny.

[stacey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hilarious.

[Garry Walton · Rating 4 out of 5]

The perfect reward for a class after studying Shakespeare's most famous play in detail. Performing this one was always a delight for my students, the faster the better. After the wonderful success of his breakthrough play, Rosencranz and Guildenstern Are Dead, a decade earlier, Stoppard turns the tables by omitting those two altogether from this 6-actor, 12-page script tissue of quotations. Other key roles in the original are similarly chopped, though the basic plot thread remains, along with most of the famous bits: Fortinbras and the gravedigger get 3 lines each, Horatio 5, Gertrude 7, Ophelia 8.

[Kris Veldhuizen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Besides this being an incredibly fun read, it’s quite amazing how Stoppard manages to retell the story of Hamlet not just so efficiently, but also while still retaining the feel of the original play AND managing to cram pretty much all the famous lines into it (without making it feel forced at all), of which there are, you realize, an insane amount!

Absolutely loved it!

[Christina O'Shea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Actually read this in under 15 minutes, but considering I'm a Shakespeare fan who has also been in a production of the regular 3+ hour Hamlet, I enjoyed it all the same and had fun reminiscing in this abbreviated version.

[Tom O'Brien · Rating 4 out of 5]

Does pretty much what it says on the cover. Although it is actually one Thirteen Minute Hamlet followed by another Two Minute Hamlet. Witty and frantic fun in any case.

[C · Rating 4 out of 5]

To be or not to be (He puts a dagger to his heart)

[Teague · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tom Stoppard accomplishes an impressive feat to distill Hamlet down to it's core essence, while retaining the iconic lines.

[Philip · Rating 4 out of 5]

That was cute

[Peter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outstanding!