Hamlet Live:
the castle becomes the story.

The project: a live heritage experience

Hamlet Live is an immersive theatre experience within a working visitor attraction. Kronborg is both a historic place to explore and the setting associated with Shakespeare’s Hamlet. The design brings those two ways of experiencing the castle together: visitors encounter the fictional world while moving through the real building.

The central design question is how to make a well-known story present during an ordinary castle visit. That requires a relationship between the rooms, the characters and the people arriving in them. The story has to work as a sequence of encounters as well as a dramatic whole.

Peter’s role: concept, writing and direction

Peter developed the experience in creative collaboration with Barry McKenna, with a contribution spanning concept, writing and direction. This connects the initial idea with the live situations that visitors actually meet.

For this kind of experience, creative direction must hold together two things: the coherence of the fictional world and the openness of an encounter with a real guest. A character needs a clear dramatic identity while allowing space for a conversation to take an unexpected turn.

The visitor experience: discover, watch, take part

Visitors meet characters as they explore the castle. Short scenes establish the drama; interaction and improvisation allow an encounter to respond to the people present. The experience unfolds across rooms and corridors rather than asking everyone to follow one fixed viewing position.

This creates several ways into the story. A visitor can observe an encounter, become curious about a character or take part in an exchange. Place gives the meeting context, performance gives it a human presence, and participation gives the visitor a relationship to what is happening.

Design lesson: make heritage a human encounter

The case illustrates how immersive storytelling can connect a cultural landmark with live, responsive performance. The important design choice is to give the visitor something to discover and someone to encounter within the place itself.

For museums and heritage attractions, the transferable question is: which stories could visitors meet here, and what role could they have in that meeting? The answer should grow from the particular site, its material and its audience.

International academic relevance

Hamlet Live in international research

The production has been examined in Danish and Australian academic work, including a Roskilde University master’s thesis and Kathryn Prince’s research chapter at the University of Western Australia, both from 2019. Later research has also examined the employees’ learning and adaptation during Covid-19.

The article presenting the 7 I’s has subsequently been cited and discussed in international research on tourism storytelling, immersive museums and authentic heritage experiences. Together, these studies connect the practical case with broader questions about performance, participation and place.