THREE (FORMER) PRINCES OF AUSTRALIAN THEATRE WRESTLE WITH THE DANE IN THE WORLD PREMIERE OF HAMLET CAMP 13 Nov 2024

– Brendan Cowell, Ewen Leslie and Toby Schmitz perform onstage together for the first time in a personal, provocative and hilarious night of poetry, pith and play. 

– Three ex-Hamlets wrestle with their existential demons in this self-help slaughterhouse of Shakespeare. 

Sydney Australia: Three stars of Australian stage and screen stretch their hammies and flex their couplets to both exercise and exorcise the ghosts of Hamlets past in the world premiere of Hamlet Camp, presented at Carriageworks from 14-25 January. 

Brendan Cowell, Ewen Leslie and Toby Schmitz have been mates for years, but they are also bound together as members of a select club of former Princes. Each of them has scaled the Shakespearean summit to go head-to-skull with poor Yorick in the most coveted acting role in the business. This is the kicking off point for an evening of laughs, tears and bewilderment as they consider an actor’s life of friendship, passion, cruelty, glory and chaos. It’s a rehab… but for Hamlet’s… in an intimate setting within Carriageworks. 

Brendan Cowell said: “Believe it or not poetry is back! Off the back of PLUM on ABC iView, and recent spoken word performances with Vivid Sydney, Red Room Poetry and Sydney Writers Festival, it seems the healing and empowering nature of the written word has never been more potent. Poetry is in everything we do. Rap music. Emails. Texting. It’s how we digest major events in human life! And William Shakespeare was one of the first guys to go around town saying poems were cool…” 

Cowell, Leslie and Schmitz share a long history over their brilliant careers. They came through the acting ranks together, have written parts with each another in mind and have even taken over roles from one other on international stage tours. 

They also share an unshakable connection to The Dane. It’s the role every actor hopes to God they land but, once played, it tends to hang around like a ghost lurking on the battlements. These three player princes have struggled to let go of their ‘take’ on the part, turning down opening night invitations to other Hamlets, and spending a lot of time wandering graveyards wondering if they got ’the speech’ right.  

Audiences can bear witness to their existential dilemma in rehab format at Hamlet Camp. This self-help slaughterhouse session of soliloquies, swords, and sublime word play wrestles with the conundrum that being cast in the most sought-after role in the history of theatre is both a blessing and a lifelong curse. 

Penned and performed by the trio, this love letter to language includes a poem or two sprung forth from the tips of their own quills, plus some surprise music and dance from the ghost of Ophelia herself. 

Hamlet Camp will be presented by MODERN CONVICT FILMS and Carriageworks from 14-25 January. Tickets are on sale now.  

Written by and starring Brendan Cowell, Ewen Leslie, Toby Schmitz 

Additional music and performance by Bonniesongs & Claudia Haines-Cappeau. 

IMAGES: Available to download here.