Four actors take on more than 30 roles in the stripped down, fast paced production of Hamlet about to go on stage at 4th Wall Theatre Company. But only one of the actors plays just one character. That would be Wesley Whitson as the Danish prince.
In William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the title character is a Danish prince studying in Germany who is called home by the death of his father the king. Once there he discovers Gertrude, his mother, has already remarried and it’s to his Uncle Claudius. By rules of succession, Hamlet should have ascended to the throne, but Claudius has already had himself crowned king.
His father’s ghost, who walks the castle battlements, commands his son to avenge his death. Hamlet hesitates to do so while his uncle comes up with a plot to kill him. Hamlet pretends to be mad while thinking things over and attempting to verify what his dead father has told him. He has a chance to kill Claudius, but his uncle is at his prayers and Hamlet decides he doesn’t want to kill him then since that might mean he would go to heaven.
Meanwhile, Ophelia despite the warnings of her brother Laertes, does not stay away from Hamlet, who rejects her. This leads to her descent into real madness and death. Eventually Claudius sends Hamlet to England where he plans to have him killed. But Hamlet, sensing a plot, returns to Denmark where he actually is killed in a duel with Laertes.
Written between 1599 and 1601, Hamlet has generated a mountain of scholarly debate. Was Hamlet a ditherer who just couldn’t bring himself to either do what must be done about his uncle or extract himself from the toxic situation? Was he a sensitive, honorable man whose life was destroyed by betrayal and a call for vengeance?
“He’s a genius. He is forced into unimaginable circumstances. He is a brilliant wit. He’s a master of irony. He was born to be a philosopher or a great artist. He should have been an artist. I don’t know if he was born to be a prince. He was charged with too much,” says Whitson who will be making a role debut. He’s done King Lear, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Romeo and Juliet a number of times, but never till now Hamlet.
“I feel like I’m approaching it with fresh eyes. A lot of it is me trying to find my way through it. Where do I see myself in this? And where’s my humanity in this? He’s all of us in so many ways.”
Christy Watkins plays Ophelia, Gertrude, Guilderstern and others. Philip Hayes is Claudius, Rosencrantz and others. Philip Lehl is Horatio, Polonius, Laertes and others. Originally directed by Eric Tucker, Artistic Director of Bedlam Theatre Company, the 4th Wall production is directed by Kim Tobin-Lehl.
“It’s about speak the speech. It’s all about the words and the story,” Tobin-Lehl says. “The immediacy of how this interacts with an audience is unique to me. We don’t indulge in any overly dramatic emoting or any long extended breaks for any kind of spectacle. We assume the audience can listen to the speech as the same rate as they think. That they don’t have to be indulged with any kind of hand-holding. That it actually works better when the text is the thing.”
According to Philip Lehl, this play sometimes gets lost among all the plays and not a multitude of theaters in the United States. “In London, this play gets done every year. In Houston there’s only a professional production of Hamlet only every five, seven, 10 years.
“There’s no need to do any gimmicky thing or worry about someone else’s interpretation. You do the play and try to get to the heart of it like we would with any other play,” says Lehil. “I think Bedlam’s philosophy of stripping away as much as possible and making the play as accessible as it can be to an audience is the right way to go. So I’m excited about it,” Lehl said. The play will run three hours including two intermissions.
Playing so many different characters means Lehl is present for almost the whole play. ” I’m in almost every scene. .And so I’m getting to know the play in a way I’ve never had before.”
As for all those words that director Tobin-Lehl refers to, Whitson says he found out on November 11 he got the part and immediately began learning his lines. Actually, because the other actors are playing multiple characters in this production everybody has a lot of lines, Lehl adds. “To do what we had to do, we had to know it coming in [to the first rehearsal.]”
As for the relatability of Hamlet to modern audiences, Tobin-Lehl says:
“Anywhere in life, the battle is do I do the thing I was told to do even though I know it’s wrong? Or do I decide that I’m going to withdraw from that demand even if it ruins a particular aspect of my life.”
“Ultimately it’s a great story,” Tobin-Lehl says. “And you can tell the story in a garage.”
Performances are scheduled for May 2-24 at 7:30 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays and 3 p.m. Sundays at 4th Wall Theatre Company, 1824 Spring Street. For more information, call 832-767-4991 or visit 4thwalltheatreco.com. $22-$62.
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This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2025.
