Moral corruption, revenge, madness, murder. Shakespeare’s Hamlet runs the gamut of dysfunction. Set in the castle of Elsinore just after the death of Prince Hamlet’s father and remarriage of his mother Gertrude to his uncle Claudius, the story is rife with sadness, anger, and paranoia – even before the ghost of Hamlet’s father appears.

Psychoanalyst David Donovan joins Alyson Germinder, the Heart of America Shakespeare Festival’s dramaturg, in discussing the villainy and abundant human frailty in perhaps the greatest of the Bard’s 38 plays. They explore the madness, real or feigned, of Hamlet and other characters as their psyches are laid bare and psychological truths are revealed.

The event, preceding HASF’s summer production of Hamlet, is part of the McMeel Family Shakespeare Series co-presented by the Kansas City Public Library and the Heart of America Shakespeare Festival.