Dungog Shakespearience 2025

Name: Dungog Shakespearience 2025
Start: 2025-10-30T18:00:00+10:00
End: 2025-11-01T18:00:00+10:00
Location: Wangat Lodge

About

Dungog Shakespearience presents HAMLET.

In its fourth year, after a sell-out seasons in 2022, 2023, and 2024.

At Wangat Lodge - outdoor theatre at its finest!

Staged across three unique outdoor stages, the audience will be guided by the actors through the woods and back again. The venue is eco-accommodation and venue centre, Wangat Lodge. A stunning 50 acre wildlife sanctuary on the Chichester River. The performance will not just be seen, but lived. This is the best and original way to experience Shakespeare!

HAMLET. The Plot!

Prince Hamlet of Denmark is thrown into a whirlwind of revenge (and madness!?) when his father’s ghost reveals he was murdered by Hamlet’s treacherous uncle, Claudius—who has not only stolen the throne but also married Hamlet’s mother. Torn between duty and doubt, Hamlet plots a dramatic showdown, staging a play to “catch the conscience of the king,” all while feigning (or perhaps slipping into) madness. Love, betrayal, duels, poison, and a graveyard confrontation pile up until the stage is drenched in tragedy, leaving nearly everyone, dead in a breathtaking cascade of blood, vengeance, and fate. And honestly, if Hamlet had just gone to therapy and muted Claudius on social media, we might have been spared five acts of chaos

WHY. Hamlet.

Hamlet remains timeless because it explores universal struggles—grief, betrayal, indecision, and the search for truth—that still resonate deeply in modern life. He’s the prototype of the overthinking anti-hero, torn between action and hesitation, reflecting the paralysis many feel in the face of overwhelming choices. In an age of endless information and moral gray areas, Hamlet’s doubts and dilemmas feel more relevant than ever.

A current-day Hamlet prototype could be someone like Elon Musk—constantly in the spotlight, torn between visionary ambition and chaotic impulses, surrounded by controversy, critics, and questions of legacy. Or, on a more everyday level, Hamlet’s dilemma plays out in anyone caught between duty and personal desire—like whistleblowers debating whether to expose corruption, or public figures hesitating to act while the world watches. In short, Hamlet lives on in every high-profile figure who wrestles with indecision, scrutiny, and the weight of consequence in front of an audience.

Director Timothy Weston

With over ten years experience of outdoor Shakespeare including with the world renowned Cambridge Shakespeare Festival, and Sydney's long running and much lauded Shakespeare By The Sea. He has appeared in over thirty Shakespearean productions in his career playing everyone from Malvolio to Mark Antony, Caliban to Horatio. He studied at the University of Sydney and Sydney Theatre School, making his directorial debut in the successful tour of Chekhov's Guns in 2011. In 2022 he took the helm of Dungog Shakespearience to bring professional level Shakespeare to nature based stages, enlivening the productions and making them more accessible to a wider audience. His recent acting credits include four weeks as the eponymous King in King Richard II, Don Jon in Much Ado About Nothing, Aeneas in Dido; Queen of Carthage, David Copperfield in Copperfield! The Musical at the Gatehouse Theatre in London, and the wicked Oliver in As You Like It for last year's Dungog Shakespearience.'

ACCOMMODATION AND DINNER Packages available when purchasing your show tickets.

WANGAT LODGE provides a festival-like atmosphere during the Dungog Shakespearience. There will be a Foyer Bar, with beers and wine and soft drinks as well as bar snacks and ice creams.

*N.B. Accommodation tickets (dormitory style) are booked, as 'add-ons' through this site. You can also contact venue - info@wangat.com.au, if you have specific Qs regarding accomm.

*N.B. Dinner Tickets (2 course Middle-Eastern chef-prepared banquet with dessert) are booked as 'add-ons' through this site. We will collect your dietary requirements after you have booked with follow-up email. You can also contact venue - info@wangat.com.au, if you have specific Qs regarding catering.