This translation unties the language knots that can make some of the play difficult to understand in a single theatrical viewing and makes it accessible to new audiences drawing out its timeless themes while helping to contextualize the familiar lines so that contemporary audiences can feel their full weight -- To thine own text be true--Lisa Peterson s translation of Hamlet into contemporary American English makes the play accessible to new audiences while keeping the soul of Shakespeare s writing intact. Lovers of Shakespeare s language take heart: Lisa Peterson s translation of Hamlet into contemporary American English was guided by the principle of First do no harm. Leaving the most famous parts of Hamlet untouched Peterson untied the language knots that can make the rest of the play difficult to understand in a single theatrical viewing. Peterson s translation makes Hamlet accessible to new audiences drawing out its timeless themes while helping to contextualize To be or not to be: that is the question and Something is rotten in the state of Denmark so that contemporary audiences can feel their full weight. This translation of Hamlet was written as part of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival s Play On! project which commissioned new translations of thirty-nine Shakespeare plays. These translations present work from The Bard in language accessible to modern audiences while never losing the beauty of Shakespeare s verse. Enlisting the talents of a diverse group of contemporary playwrights screenwriters and dramaturges from diverse backgrounds this project reenvisions Shakespeare for the twenty-first century. These volumes make these works available for the first time in print--a new First Folio for a new era.