Overview

It is a play within a play set in a St. Petersburg mental institution in 1900. An actor playing Hamlet imagines he has killed Polonius—really killed him. Or has he? By staging a psychodrama that enlists his former colleagues, he seeks to prove his sanity. But the developing action accumulates increasing evidence of deeply rooted instability. A running conflict between actor and the institution's head doctor is interrupted by flashbacks that recall his childhood, his stage career and his theater relationships. Where does the truth lie in this brilliant play that moves on several levels?