Hamlet Exacts a Princely Toll, Which Many Will Pay

This approach is impressionistic, Tsikurishvili notes, and it works only because viewers bring their own familiarity with "Hamlet" to the performance. "What I try is to find symbols and suggest ideas, and then you, as an audience, participate," Tsikurishvili says. "You figure out, "Oh, that's 'To be or not to be'!"

The audience's knowledge of the Bard is also critical to the work of Tiny Ninja Theater. A "Hamlet" enacted by inch-high figurines packs a real aesthetic wallop for spectators brought up to consider the play the zenith of English literature.

Dov Weinstein, who manipulates the figurines and provides the voices for Tiny Ninja productions, says that when it comes to Shakespeare tragedies, his company is to the manner born. "The ninjas have a certain kind of gravitas which is best served by this stuff," he says solemnly.

Tiny Ninja Theater made its name with stagings of "Macbeth" and "Romeo and Juliet." "Hamlet," a more recent addition to the roster, differs from those productions in incorporating live video projections. " 'Hamlet' is so much about who's watching who; who knows what; who's overhearing this. That intrigue stuff. It seemed a good way to do it," Weinstein says.

There's another goal: Much of the footage specifically represents Hamlet's point of view, providing a visual gauge of how fully the character's personality dominates the play. For much of the show, the audience sees not the figure of the prince, but rather the images that the prince himself is seeing.

The rest of the time, the role will be filled by a small plastic ninja.

"He's dressed in black, as Hamlet always is," Weinstein says. Since long monologues are not the forte of such miniature statuettes, Weinstein has abridged and edited the script so as to "front-load the action."

All that mayhem at Elsinore Castle simply had to enter the Tiny Ninja repertoire sooner or later. " 'Hamlet' becomes the pink elephant in the room at a certain point," Weinstein says. "If you're not doing it, you're avoiding doing it."