Patrick Page (Othello, Macbeth) joins the cast to play Claudius, Tony-Award winner Chuck Cooper will play Polonius, Susan Hart will play Gertrude and Dakin Matthews performs the Ghost of Hamlet’s father, Gravedigger and the Player King.

More than 560,000 people have attended the Free For All since 1991, when Shakespeare Theatre Company Artistic Director Michael Kahn and Founding Chairman R. Robert Linowes inaugurated the tradition of free Shakespeare in D.C. with Kahn’s production of The Merry Wives of Windsor.

“Each summer, we pack up one of our mainstage plays, take it out to the park and make a great work of Shakespeare accessible to as wide an audience as possible, many of whom have never been to the theatre before: young people, students and people on fixed incomes,” Kahn said. “It’s a great pleasure to see people discover Shakespeare in a relaxed, outdoor setting, often alongside their children.”

One of the greatest plays ever written, Hamlet has captivated audiences for 400 years with its explorations of life, love, duty and vengeance. Commanded by his murdered father’s ghost to seek revenge, Hamlet struggles with the human and spiritual costs of pursuing justice. Featuring some of the most beautiful language ever written, Hamlet marks a turning point in Shakespeare’s career toward more complex depictions of good and evil, of heroes and villains. The production is set in a modern world evoking the secrecy and mystery of its Danish court. Jeffrey Carlson portrays Hamlet as a young man experiencing death, love and betrayal for the first time.

When the Shakespeare Theatre Company first presented Hamlet in 2007, the Washington Times praised Carlson as “magnetically effective as the moody, unpredictable Hamlet,” and DC Theatre Reviews call the production “lush, gorgeous, thrilling, lucid, hilarious, moving and profound.”

Alexander Burns has served as assistant director for the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s mainstage productions of Hamlet, Edward II and Titus Andronicus, acted as directorial assistant for the Company’s 2007 production of Richard III and directed for the ReDiscovery Series. A graduate of Northwestern University, Burns has directed for the Exigent Theatre and assistant directed at the Goodman Theatre, Steppenwolf Theatre, The Old Globe, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival and Syracuse Stage.

The cast also features J. Clint Allen, Colby Chambers, Elliot Dash, Kyle Haden, Bill Largess, Kenneth Lee, John-Michael McDonald and Michael Zlabinger. -- www.shakespearetheatre.org