Hiran Abeysekera played the Prince of Denmark in Robert Hastie's staging of Shakespeare's tragedy in the National Theatre's Lyttelton.
Hiran Abeysekera, an Olivier Award winner, played Hamlet in the Lyttelton at the National Theatre on the South Bank from Thursday 25 September to Saturday 22 November 2025. Robert Hastie, the theatre’s deputy artistic director, directed.
Shakespeare wrote the tragedy between 1599 and 1601, and it is his longest play. Prince Hamlet learns from his father’s ghost that his uncle Claudius murdered the king and took both throne and widow. He feigns madness and stages a play before the court to test the ghost’s word.
The story draws on the Danish legend of Amleth, told in the Gesta Danorum, and is set at Elsinore, which Kronborg Castle stands for. Three early texts survive, from 1603, 1604 and 1623, and each carries lines the others lack.
Abeysekera’s earlier credits include The Father and the Assassin and Life of Pi. Hastie came to the production from Standing at the Sky’s Edge and Operation Mincemeat.
The company included Alistair Petrie, Ayesha Dharker, Tessa Wong, Geoffrey Streatfeild and Siobhán Redmond. The staging later travelled to New York, where it played the Brooklyn Academy of Music from 26 April to 17 May 2026.