Was Dane’s Madness Just Method? Jury to Decide (Shakespeare)
WASHINGTON, March 9 — With just days to go before the trial, the opposing counsels were already squaring off.
“We have an incredibly strong case,” said Miles Ehrlich, the prosecutor. “It is hard to find anyone in history who had a better proven appreciation for the nature of his actions.”
The defense lawyer, Abbe D. Lowell, was equally confident. “The cry for justice, as sincere as it is, should not have us try those with mental illness as serious criminals,” he said. “There are an abundance of demonstrations of the actuality and sincerity of my client’s mental disorder.”
The defendant, who has — for centuries — declined to comment, is none other than Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, possessed avenger of his father’s death, murderer of Polonius.
The prince’s criminal responsibility — whether he was sane at the time of that killing — is the central question of “The Trial of Hamlet,” to be heard here on Thursday at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. The mock trial is a Washington wonk’s dream, stacked with Shakespeare-loving luminaries. Justice Anthony M. Kennedy of the United States Supreme Court, an enthusiastic Shakespeare aficionado who conceived of the idea, will preside over the trial.
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“We have an incredibly strong case,” said Miles Ehrlich, the prosecutor. “It is hard to find anyone in history who had a better proven appreciation for the nature of his actions.”
The defense lawyer, Abbe D. Lowell, was equally confident. “The cry for justice, as sincere as it is, should not have us try those with mental illness as serious criminals,” he said. “There are an abundance of demonstrations of the actuality and sincerity of my client’s mental disorder.”
The defendant, who has — for centuries — declined to comment, is none other than Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, possessed avenger of his father’s death, murderer of Polonius.
The prince’s criminal responsibility — whether he was sane at the time of that killing — is the central question of “The Trial of Hamlet,” to be heard here on Thursday at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. The mock trial is a Washington wonk’s dream, stacked with Shakespeare-loving luminaries. Justice Anthony M. Kennedy of the United States Supreme Court, an enthusiastic Shakespeare aficionado who conceived of the idea, will preside over the trial.