Cerritos College’s production of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, had its opening weekend Oct. 10-13.

The play was performed in the Performing Arts Center’s auditorium and is a three-hour show with two 15 minute intermissions.

Hamlet is Shakespeare’s longest tragedy, with the character of Hamlet having the most lines of all Shakespeare’s characters ever written.

Angelo Santos, who portrayed Hamlet, said, “I’ve done main roles before, but it’s intimidating in the way that he does have the most lines in all of shakespeare. He has the most famous soliloquy in all of theater which is ‘to be or not to be’ and it scared me shitless…I think the key is to just stay true to the character, stay true to the circumstances.”

The production was directed by the theater arts department chair, Professor Brandt Reiter, who also portrayed Claudius in the play.

Professor Brandt Reiter said, “I proposed it because one, this is an election year and it’s about regime change and I think it’s got something to say about that, and because from my experience with the students here, I thought they could handle it.”

The production was well received by the audience with gasps, and laughter heard throughout the play.

Reiter said, “Friday I thought went extremely well. Often on opening, the actors are running on adrenaline and we don’t really know how it’s going to land with the audience and we had a large crowd and they were really responsive.”

“Saturday was fine, there’s often a little dip in energy, the second performance. Sunday, the energy was back up. I thought it went very well. ”

He continued, “So I’m really looking forward to seeing what it’s going to look like next week now that we’ve had the experience in front of an audience.”

The tragedy follows the story of Hamlet’s dissent into madness as he tries to uncover whether his uncle, the King, killed his father and what he will do about it.

In the play, Hamlet continuously hears a voice of the ghost of his dead father confessing that he was killed by the uncle and urging Hamlet to avenge him. In turn, the King also makes plans to kill Hamlet.

The play ultimately ends with the death of the entire royal family.

Daniela Lopez portrays Ophelia in the production, who is Hamlet’s love interest and falls into madness after the death of her father.

Lopez said “So. it’s just about trying to do her justice. She’s going crazy for a reason and my heart breaks for her. It’s an honor to portray that character and it’s a blast every night.”

About opening weekend she said, “I think opening went great. There was such a good energy among the cast. I feel like we’ve really bonded and we push each other to be better and better every time. It was so fun.”

Mirna Castro, mother of Daniela Lopez who portrayed Ophelia in the play, said, “She did good, I think. I had never seen her act in something so out of her character. In part of the play, she goes crazy. So it was very interesting to see her act without being afraid of looking silly or feeling embarrassed about how she looked or sounded. That impressed me.”

“I was so impressed at how good everyone is… It was really good. It was feeling a little bit long but the acting was so good that it made up for it,” Castro said.

The play had some comedic relief through the characters of Rosencrantz (portrayed by Jaylan Price) and Guildenstern (portrayed by Micah Rodriguez)

“We’ve known each other for a while, so we kind of have that-” Rodriguez started.

Price continued, “Perfect symmetry. Like when he does one thing, I do the other thing. We just-”

“Match each other. I think that’s why it works out so well,” Rodriguez finished.

The play held auditions on Aug. 21 and 22 leading to a group of both experienced and newer actors to fulfill the roles of the cast.

Alyzah Alvarez, assistant stage manager, said “I’m so proud of everybody who is part of this production, cast, crew etc. because just seeing everything from the beginning up until opening night, it’s just been amazing. Their growth has been exponential.”

The next performances will take place on Oct. 18 and 19 at 8 p.m. and Oct. 20 at 2 p.m