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Shakespeare & Beyond

What's onstage at Shakespeare theaters in February

Clay Vanderbeek (Rosencrantz) and Nate Ruleaux (Guildenstern) in Annapolis Shakespeare Company’s 2019 production of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead directed by Donald Hicken. Photo by Joshua McKerrow.
Clay Vanderbeek (Rosencrantz) and Nate Ruleaux (Guildenstern) in Annapolis Shakespeare Company’s 2019 production of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead directed by Donald Hicken. Photo by Joshua McKerrow.

Every month, we call up our Shakespeare theater partners to see what they have onstage. Find out what’s on across the US in February.

aran Tahir, left, as Claudius, and Mark Torres as Polonius in "Hamlet 360: Thy Father's Spirit," Commonwealth Shakespeare Company and Google. Photo by Matthew Niederhauser.

Faran Tahir, left, as Claudius, and Mark Torres as Polonius in “Hamlet 360: Thy Father’s Spirit,” Commonwealth Shakespeare Company and Google. Photo by Matthew Niederhauser.

Normally, you’d have to be in Boston to watch a show at the Commonwealth Shakespeare Company. This time, you can stay at home and be in the show. Hamlet 360: Thy Father’s Spirit is a virtual reality experience that puts you in the play. From the New York Times: 

If you look to your left, you will see your own reflection in a gilded mirror. You will appear haggard, bloody, ferocious and, in fact, dead. Because in this virtual reality version of Shakespeare, you are the ghost of Hamlet’s murdered father.

Watch—or, rather, explore—the performance on YouTube with your smartphone and VR headset. Then, get the behind-the-scenes scoop in Elizabeth A. Harris’s recent piece in the Times, “Hamlet in Virtual Reality Casts the Viewer in the Play.” You’ll learn about the technology that Commonwealth Shakespeare Company and Google used, as well as the extra-long takes required to seamlessly create the experience.