Smart Bets: Hamlet

Montford Park Players closes out its summer season with a blockbuster of a production: A story of "treachery, revenge, incest, moral corruption, duty and madness," as the theater troupe's website puts it. That dark thriller, aka Shakespeare's Hamlet, is the bard's longest play and, even today, is among his most performed. It tells of the revenge that the prince of Denmark took on his uncle, Claudius, who murdered the King. That monarch, by the way, was Claudius' brother and Prince Hamlet's father. Things spiral downward from there. “Though this be madness, yet there is method in it," one character, Polonius, says. The plays runs Fridays through Sundays, through Saturday, Sept. 14. 7:30 p.m. nightly at the Hazel Robinson Amphitheatre. Free, donations accepted. http://www.montfordparkplayers.org.