One of the strongest community theatre casts ever assembled will present Hamlet in the New Fortune Theatre in March 2002.

Presenting the eighth production in a succession of summer classics, the Graduate Dramatic Society brings one of the greatest plays ever written to life in the unique environment of the New Fortune Theatre. This venue is an open air replica of the original Fortune Theatre built in the 17th century by the same carpenter that built Shakespeare's Globe Theatre. The only replica Elizabethan Theatre in the southern hemisphere provides a unique opportunity to experience Shakespeare in a venue remarkably like that the plays were written for.

With a dozen productions of Shakespeare behind him, Grant Malcolm is one of the state's more experienced Shakespeare practitioners. Highly successful productions in the New Fortune include A Midsummer Night's Dream and Macbeth and performances in The Taming of the Shrew, Henry IV Pt1, The Merchant of Venice, Much Ado About Nothing, As You Like It and King Lear.

The Hamlet cast list reads like a brief who's who of community theatre in Perth with stalwarts of companies from Rockingham to Kalamunda to Wanneroo plus a host of exciting relative newcomers.

David Meadows takes the title role in this production after a period touring with the renowned Bell Shakespeare company and playing this role in a professional season in Queensland.

Amongst the other luminaries, Collin O'Brien, who lectured in Shakespeare for many years at UWA, appeared in the very first production in the New Fortune Theatre in 1964.

Claudius - Fred Lawson

Gertrude - Shirley Welch

Hamlet - David Meadows

Polonius - Collin O'Brien

Laertes - Ben Sorgiovanni

Ophelia - Fiona Blakeley

Reynaldo - Michael Dunbar

Horatio - Mark Blades

Voltemand - Stephen Whiley

Rosencrantz - Tony Petani

Guildenstern - Eliot McCann

Osrick - Dario Dalla Costa

Francisco - Rob Stuart

Barnado - Lucas East

Marcellus - Craig Edwards

Messenger - Tim Collins

Gentleman - Andrew Baker

Gravedigger - Peter Fry

Priest - Adam McGurk

Player King - Conrad Crisafulli

Player Queen - Zorina Gavolovich