King's Player

Hamlet's Dad,
Hamlet senior,
is just two months dead
and his mum is now marrying his brother,
Hamlet's Uncle.

with me so far?

Hamlet is mighty pissed off.

He gets even more mightily pissed off however, when he gets a visit from his dead dad's ghost. The ghost of his dead Dad tells him of his gruesome murder and that it was that same uncle who is now marrying his Mum who killed him in the first place. Unsure whether this ghostly vision is in fact the truth or merely the result of too many dodgy drinks after the wedding, Hamlet decides to set up a trap.

He hires a visiting group of actors to play out a play, a sort of Medieval crimestoppers, which just happens to have an identical storyline to the one told him by the ghost and sits back to watch the new King's reaction.

Just as the play reaches the juicy bit the King leaps up, guilty as sin, and storms out of the room in a panic.

Hamlet, convinced now that his uncle did indeed do the dirty on his dead dad, plots his revenge.

That's about all that concerns us for now except to say it all ends badly with just about everyone - including a young virgin, a King, a Queen, a virgins brother, an old retainer and of course a minstrel (alas, poor Yorick) - dead on the ground by the final whistle.

Lots of blood.

So there you have it, that's Hamlet's story...

But this is the story of the Player...