Hamlet

The Sourcebooks Shakespeare Edition of Hamlet features an integrated audio CD with 25 performances by different actors throughout the twentieth century, narrated by Sir Derek Jacobi. Detailed essays, commentary and photos accompany our newly edited text of the play with insights from a noted Shakespeare scholar.

Hear 12 classic scenes with Hamlet played by:
--John Barrymore (1928)
--John Gielgud (from a 1948 recording made for radio)
--Laurence Olivier (from his 1948 movie soundtrack)
--Richard Burton (from Gielgud's 1964 "rehearsal" production on Broadway)
--Derek Jacobi (from a 1980 production for BBC-TV)

See images from notable productions:
--At the Joseph Papp Public Theater with Martin Sheen, Kevin Kline, and Liev Schreiber as Hamlet.
--Simon Russell Beale in New York City, Roger Rees at the Royal Shakespeare Company
--Stills from Kenneth Branagh's 1996 film and Michael Almereyda's 2000 version
--Set designs and costume renderings from a 1934 production directed by Sir John Gielgud

Read essays and commentary with insights from:
--Russell Jackson, editor of The Oxford Illustrated History of Shakespeare on Stage, on Kenneth Branagh's 1996 film.
--Douglas Lanier, editor of Shakespeare and Modern Popular Culture on Hamlet as inspiration for contemporary media
--Text editor Terri Bourus on productions of Hamlet throughout history

Additional essays dissect a contemporary performance, offer a modern cast's insights into their characters, and uncover the history of Shakespeare's world.

Peter Holland is the McMeel Family Chair in Shakespeare Studies at the University of Notre Dame. One of the central figures in performance-oriented Shakespeare criticism, he has also edited many Shakespeare plays, including A Midsummer Night's Dream for the Oxford Shakespeare series.

David Bevington is the Phyllis Fay Horton Distinguished Service Professor in the Humanities at the University of Chicago. A renowned text scholar, he has edited several Shakespeare editions including the Bantam Shakespeare in individual paperback volumes, The Complete Works of Shakespeare (Longman, 2003), and Troilus and Cressida (Arden, 1998). He teaches courses in Shakespeare, renaissance drama and medieval drama.

Dominique Raccah is founder, president, and publisher of Sourcebooks, a leading independent publisher outside of Chicago. Today Sourcebooks publishes nonfiction, fiction, and poetry. She is the series editor of Poetry Speaks and the Sourcebooks Shakespeare.

Marie Macaisa is a student and long-time fan of Shakespeare's works, leaving her previous career in high-tech to become the series editor of the Sourcebooks Shakespeare. She contributes the Cast Speaks essays for all volumes, writes the script and produces the accompanying audio, and is at work on the upcoming titles in the series.

Terri Bourus is an assistant professor of English at Indiana University Kokomo where she teaches Shakespeare and Renaissance Drama. She received her PhD in 2000 from Northern Illinois University. Her numerous publications include: "Working as a Director: An Interview with Aaron Posner" in Shakespeare Bulletin, 2003; "The First Quarto of Hamlet in Film: The Revenge-Tragedies of Nicol Williamson and Mel Gibson" in EnterText, 2001; Shakespeare's 'Hamlet': Complete Study Edition, edited by Sidney Lamb, 2000; and the upcoming text "Enter Hamlet [Reading on a book]: Shakespeare's Other Audience and the Publication of the Hamlet Quartos" in Shakespeare's Book, edited by Richard Wilson, 2006.