Type – Comedic, Shakespearean, Sketch
If you liked – Hamlet, Theatrically Reflective Comedy
If you hate – Modern Shakespeare Adaptations with no sense of time or space, one person technology focused theatre, theatre without an audience, critics
Hamlet Camp: Brilliantly chaotic, poetic and reflective. This is your chance to see three of Australia’s greats in therapy.
In the western canon of literary works, Shakespeare’s dramatically moody, prone to soliloquy, Danish Prince Hamlet is regarded by some as a golden crown of one’s career. For some, it may even be an obsession – this melancholic Prince of questions, words, words, words, and that oh so famous speech. Stars of stage and screen, Brendan Cowell, Ewen Leslie, and Toby Schmitz fall into this obsession with an infectious passion and chaos in the return of Hamlet Camp – where a fully realised in-joke becomes a melange of theatrical in-jokes, critiques and introspective comedy.
It starts with an attempt to rouse the crowd in a cheering, cage-match style introduction to Cowell, Leslie and Schmitz before each start with an offering of poetry taking us on a trajectory of their lives as actors in the Australian industry. Schmitz delves into Skip Retail Therapy, about the life of working in an inner-west second hand book shop, where some of the neatly stacked plays on shelves reflect his own image in the works he’s helped bring to the literary canon. Cowell, takes a passioned approach to idolising the true essence of home, that of the storage unit, which became his fortress of solitude in a nomadic career. Whereas, Leslie’s more grounded and emotional approach gives us an animated journey through the triumphs and the tribulations found in the career of a child actor, questioning what is lost when balancing career and family.
It’s an odd start to a piece that is called Hamlet Camp, but what it does thematically, is establish the three actors as corporeal beings, each circulating around a deluge of obsession, introspection, relationships and isolation – the perfect cocktail for a Hamlet addiction. Claudia Haines-Cappeau segways the piece through an Ophelia dance sequence before we then transition into the main crux of why we’re here; the Bard of it all.
The staging sees the three actors sitting in blue scrubs, each wearing electronic implants that zap them and correct their behaviour at the mention of Hamlet quotes, character names, or rhyming couplet. This is Hamlet Camp, a rehab for the actors who have tipped over the safe amount of obsession when it comes to performing their own version of the Danish Prince and cannot release the everlasting desire to chase that high once more.
It’s a joy to see these three stalwarts of the Australian stage explore the tides of change in theatre, taking jabs at modern adaptations, overzealous directors, and – gasp – critics. Everything from rapping soliloquies, to one-person performers using an abundance of screens (sorry Kip Williams), and empty, wooden stages with actors begging for a set and place in time – Belvoir’s Lear anyone? – come through their sharp and sublime wordplay.
But Hamlet Camp does often teeter into questions of why in its own aspects. Why start with three bouts of individualised poetry, only to not play their own selves inside the guise of Hamlet Camp? Why does this sometimes feel like one long Saturday Night Live sketch? Why only offer the shakeup of a fourth Hamlet for a new layer of conversation only in the final two minutes?
Is Hamlet Camp Worth Seeing in Sydney?
Hamlet Camp jumps in and out of many jokes for those who wade or swim headfirst into the theatrical industry, the world of Shakespeare, or the lifelong chase for passion and obsession. In many ways, Cowell, Leslie and Schmitz lay themselves bare on stage, with sharp fourth-wall breaks that gives the piece its intimacy – and with three actors of this calabre, well that’s the real gift.
Tickets and Practical Info for Hamlet Camp in Sydney 🎟️
Carriageworks, from the 8th Jan – 25th Jan
Tickets: https://carriageworks.com.au/events/hamlet-camp-2026/
Starring and Written By:
Brendan Cowell
Ewen Leslie
Toby Schmitz
Line Producer
Claudia Haines-Cappeau
Original Music and Sound Design
Steve Francis
Original Lighting Design
Jimi Rawlings
Ophelia Dance Piece Choreographed and Performed by
Claudia Haines-Cappeau
MODERN CONVICT FILMS
Producers Brendan Cowell and Jonathan Duncan
A Reserve
Standard$80
Concession$75
30 Down$65
B Reserve
Standard$70
Concession$65
30 Down$55
*a $5 booking fee applies to all transactions.
