At a time when artificial intelligence, algorithms, and digital media increasingly shape how we experience the world, The Oracular Theatre invites audiences to reconnect with something fundamentally human. This September, BECOMING HAMLET arrives in New York for a limited Off-Broadway engagement, presenting a groundbreaking theatrical experience in which the audience doesn’t simply watch Hamlet—they become Hamlet.

Adapted by Damon Horowitz and directed by Sybille Bruun, Becoming Hamlet reimagines Shakespeare’s masterpiece as a participatory event in which audience members assume the role of the troubled Danish prince. Through guided participation, spoken text, and direct interaction with a professional ensemble, audiences experience Hamlet’s journey from the inside—grappling with grief, love, betrayal, indecision, family, and the search for purpose.

Unlike traditional immersive theatre, Becoming Hamlet does not ask audience members to put on a mask or pretend to be someone else. Instead, it creates a shared theatrical language that allows participants to inhabit one of literature’s most complex characters while remaining authentically themselves. Every performance becomes unique, shaped by the voices, choices, and emotional responses of the audience gathered that evening.

Inspired by Shakespeare’s timeless exploration of human consciousness, the production invites audiences to experience the play not as spectators, but as active participants. Themes of grief, love, doubt, identity, and moral choice unfold collectively, creating a theatrical event that exists only in the shared presence of the people in the room.

At a moment when so much of modern life is experienced through screens and digital platforms, Becoming Hamlet offers something increasingly rare: the opportunity to gather, listen, imagine, and create meaning together in real time. Rather than commenting on technology itself, the production celebrates the uniquely human experience that live theatre makes possible.

This production adapts Shakespeare’s masterpiece for the modern era by placing the audience inside the play: the play is experienced from a first-person perspective, the audience feels what Hamlet feels and speaks Hamlet’s iconic lines, while directly interacting with the other characters. Preserving Shakespeare’s language while reinventing the relationship between actor and audience, Becoming Hamlet transforms theatre into an act of collective discovery, where the audience’s participation becomes the performance itself.

The cast includes The Audience as Hamlet; David H. Littleton* (The Public Theater) as Claudius; Désirée Baxter* (NYC: All’s Well That Ends Well) as Gertrude; Jim Pratzon* (Recent: The Tempest) as Polonius; Steven Lamont (Regional: Treasure Island) as Laertes; Judith Feingold* (Regional: No Exit) as Ophelia; Tyler Moss* (Regional: Henry V) as Horatio; Truman Gaudoin* (Hamlet) as Guildencrantz; Equiano Mosieri* (Regional: Romeo & Juliet) as Ghost/Gravedigger; Damon Horowitz (NYC: Julius Caesar) as the Hamlet Guide; and Tristan Andre*, Addy Paul Jenkins, Emily Jackoway*, and Sevans Martinez as the Facilitators.

The creative team includes Amit Gajwani (Costume Design), Yijun Yang (Scenic Design), Maryam Sweirki (Lighting Design), Marlon Feld (Composer), DJ Potts (Sound Consultant), Rose Riccardi (Stage Manager), and Drew Francis (Production Consultant)