Walking into the Walkerville Arts Centre at 1519 Wyandotte Street East, you can still catch that scent of fresh renovations and high-stakes ambition. It is a space that demands something more than the usual community theatre fare. And Ghost Light Players director Jeffery Bastien is looking to deliver exactly that with his upcoming take on Shakespeare’s *Hamlet*.
But do not expect the usual brooding prince in tights leaning against a faux-stone pillar. Bastien is swinging for the fences with a concept that sounds like a fever dream born in a Canadian basement. He is citing *Strange Brew* as a primary spark.
Yes, that *Strange Brew*. The 1983 cult classic where Bob and Doug McKenzie stumble into a job at the Elsinore Brewery only to find a conspiracy involving mind-control drugs and floppy ears. It sounds ridiculous until you remember that the movie was always a loose, beer-soaked riff on the Bard’s greatest tragedy.
Bastien is leaning into that weird DNA. He is not making a comedy, but he is using that hoser irreverence to strip away the preciousness that usually kills Shakespearean productions. He wants to get away from the weight of history that often turns *Hamlet* into a museum piece.
“I’ve seen Branagh’s, some of Mel Gibson’s, some of Ethan Hawke’s, and the latest in Stratford, but I’ve been avoiding other productions as I don’t want to be influenced,” Bastien says. “I haven’t seen one that’s taken the route I have, so they can only give me limited assistance. I guess my willingness to go a different direction would be most influenced by Strange Brew! Having said that: our production isn’t a comedy!”
That distinction is vital. While the McKenzie brothers provided the spark, the actual execution is far grittier. This is a reimagining that swaps the battlements of Denmark for the glass-and-steel cages of a modern Wall Street.
It is a world of corporate raiding, hostile takeovers and the kind of greed that makes the ghost of a dead king feel like a minor HR violation. Bastien has been sitting on this idea for years. It is a vision of power that feels uncomfortably close to our current headlines.
The setting is not just a cosmetic choice. It is a commentary on the massive gap between the people making decisions and the people living with the fallout. In Bastien’s eyes, the corporate elite are the new royalty, and their boardrooms are the new royal courts.
“We live in a time where we’re mostly ignorant of what’s happening above us,” he says. “By above us, I mean the hyper-wealthy, that 1% that couldn’t care less about us. There is such a schism between us and them that it is a new form of royalty. Oligarchy is a new form of feudal state. We can see Disney growing like we saw the USSR grow in our lifetime, or British, or the Romans. Corporations are People and cluster can be seen as Countries, and war is happening all the time. In that world, your problems and my problems are ineffectual and trite; their problems have consequences felt around the world. But the thing is, these Corporations still have people in them, and people still have these base urges. Greed, power, survival, loyalty, corruption, lust - all of this exists and influences and is magnified by those absurdly huge circumstances. Still, at the end of the day, that world is alien to us, much like the Court of Kings and Queens would’ve been alien to anyone in the Globe Theatre.”
We live in a time where we’re mostly ignorant of what’s happening above us. By above us, I mean the hyper-wealthy, that 1% that couldn’t care less about us. There is such a schism between us and them that it is a new form of royalty. Oligarchy is a new form of feudal state.
This is where the production gets its teeth. By framing *Hamlet* through the lens of a global oligarchy, the play stops being a story about a sad prince and starts being a story about a system that eats its own.
The Walkerville Arts Centre provides the perfect backdrop for this kind of industrial coldness. It is a venue that feels modern and raw. And Bastien is filling that space with a physical energy that is often missing from the "stand and deliver" style of classical acting.
He is pushing his cast toward a movement-based approach. This is not about actors finding their light and reciting poetry. It is about bodies in space, kinetic energy and the physical toll of psychological warfare.
Bastien is pulling from some heavy-duty theatrical theory here. He is talking about Viewpoints and Biomechanics. These are not just buzzwords for the theatre nerds; they are tools used to create a specific, visceral language on stage.
“I have taken a very physical and movement based approach,” Bastien says. “I started GLP with the intention of going in this direction, and, for all the shows I’ve directed for this Company, one can see a through-line of physicality. What do I mean by Physical and Movement based? I mean Anne Bogart and Tina Landau’s Viewpoints system, with some of Michael Chekhov’s physical work, some of Meyerhold’s Biomechanics. All of this is taught at the University of Windsor and now I’m blessed to work with a lot of their students and grads. And my veteran actors have been following me on this path since 2014 when I started directing 'Bug'. Now, that’s not to mean that it’ll be a dance show, but I have made every effort to make the text a catalyst for kinetic response, not loving ourselves for speaking the Bard’s Verse. I want the audience to see powerful images that convey the themes, the ideas we’re trying to express through our bodies, as me move through the text. The text is the spine and the cast makes it organic, adds the visceral.”
That rejection of "loving ourselves for speaking the Bard’s Verse" is a sharp critique of traditional Shakespeare. It is a call to action for actors to stop treating the words like holy relics and start treating them like weapons.
The influence of the University of Windsor’s drama program is clear here. By utilizing students and grads who are trained in these specific physical disciplines, Bastien is building a production that feels cohesive and disciplined.
But there is a risk in this kind of high-concept theatre. If the physicality overwhelms the narrative, you lose the heart of the play. And *Hamlet* is a play with a lot of heart, even if it is a black, cynical one.
Bastien seems aware of this balance. He is using the text as the spine, ensuring the story remains the central force even as the actors are contorting themselves through the corporate landscape.
The production runs from Nov. 22 to Dec. 1. It is a short window for a show this ambitious. But for a company like Ghost Light Players, that intensity is part of the draw.
They are a group that has consistently tried to push the boundaries of what local theatre in Windsor can look like. Whether they are doing gritty realism or stylized Shakespeare, there is always a sense of urgency.
And in a world where the "1%" continue to operate in a sphere far removed from the rest of us, maybe a Wall Street *Hamlet* is exactly what we need. It is a reminder that even in the highest offices, the same base urges—lust, greed and the need for survival—are still running the show.
So, if you find yourself at the Walkerville Arts Centre this month, do not look for the beer-drinking hosers of *Strange Brew*. But do look for that same spirit of disruption.
Bastien is betting that by looking at the world of corporate giants, we might finally see the tragedy of *Hamlet* for what it really is: a story about how power corrupts everything it touches.
It is a bold move. And in the theatre, bold is usually the only thing worth watching.
*Hamlet* opens at the new Walkerville Arts Centre on Wyandotte in Windsor on Nov. 22 and runs until Dec. 1. Catch it before the corporate overlords shut it down.
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