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Ato Blankson-Wood Performs Hamlet's "To be, or not to be"
Clip: Season 51 Episode 19 | 2m 35sVideo has Closed Captions
Ato Blankson-Wood performs "To be, or not to be" at the Delacorte Theater.
Ato Blankson-Wood performs Hamlet's famous "To be, or not to be" soliloquy during the Public Theater's production.
Major series funding for GREAT PERFORMANCES is provided by The Joseph & Robert Cornell Memorial Foundation, the Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Arts Fund, the LuEsther T. Mertz Charitable Trust, Sue...
![Great Performances](https://image.pbs.org/contentchannels/7Is8B0v-white-logo-41-BRKTDby.png?format=webp&resize=200x)
Ato Blankson-Wood Performs Hamlet's "To be, or not to be"
Clip: Season 51 Episode 19 | 2m 35sVideo has Closed Captions
Ato Blankson-Wood performs Hamlet's famous "To be, or not to be" soliloquy during the Public Theater's production.
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Great Performances Newsletter
Subscribe to the Great Performances newsletter to keep up with the latest full episodes to stream, exclusive content, and more!Providing Support for PBS.org
Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorshipTo be, or not to be.
That is the question.
Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take arms against a sea of troubles.
And by opposing, end them.
To die -- to sleep, no more; and by a sleep to say, we end the heartache and the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to.
‘Tis a consummation devoutly to be wished.
To die, to sleep.
To sleep, perchance to dream.
Ay, there's the rub.
For in that sleep of death, what dreams may come when we have shuffled off this mortal coil, must give us pause -- there's the respect that makes calamity of so long life.
For, who would bear the whips and scorns of time?
The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely, The pangs of disprized love, the laws delay, the insolence of office and the spurns that patient merit of the unworthy takes when he himself might his quietus make with a bare bodkin.
Who would fardels bear, to grunt and sweat under a weary life, but that the dread of something after death, the undiscovered country from whose bourn no traveler returns, puzzles the will, and makes us rather bear those ills we have than fly to others that we know not of.
Thus, conscience does make cowards of us all.
Ato Blankson-Wood and Lorraine Toussaint in "Hamlet"
Video has Closed Captions
Ato Blankson-Wood (Hamlet) and Lorraine Toussaint (Gertrude) in The Public Theater's "Haml (2m 51s)
Video has Closed Captions
The cast of Hamlet discuss what shapes their characters' interactions with one another. (14m 9s)
Video has Closed Captions
The cast of Hamlet discuss what it means to bring the story of Hamlet into the modern day. (8m 17s)
Video has Closed Captions
Experience this Shakespearean classic directed by Tony Award winner Kenny Leon. (30s)
Solea Pfeiffer performs as Ophelia in The Public Theater's "Hamlet"
Video has Closed Captions
Solea Pfeiffer performs Ophelia's flower monologue from Hamlet Act IV Scene 5. (2m 37s)
Providing Support for PBS.org
Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorshipMajor series funding for GREAT PERFORMANCES is provided by The Joseph & Robert Cornell Memorial Foundation, the Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Arts Fund, the LuEsther T. Mertz Charitable Trust, Sue...