A literature professor once told me that "everyone should spend fifteen minutes a day thinking about Hamlet." There's something to that — a reason why Shakespeare's 400-year-old masterwork is still being read and performed regularly, and also why the Toledo Rep is presenting it this month. Hamlet is one of the cornerstones of Western culture, an epic meditation on justice, family and what it is to be human. And it's also a hilariously convoluted potboiler, with plenty of scheming, stabbing, snarky wit and long-delayed comeuppance. The Rep's staging, directed by local theater veteran Matthew Gretzinger, is a chance to see your own community sink its teeth into a tragedy that has transfixed audiences for centuries. September 14,15, 20, 21 & 22, 8pm; September 16 & 23, 2:30pm. $20 adults.
16 10th St. 419-243-9277. www.toledorep.org. —MD