I thought I knew a lot about Hamlet. As     1     high school student with English literature as one of my main subjects, I have to! Shakespeare’s Hamlet is probably the most important play by the     2     important writer in English. Almost everybody knows “To be, or not to be”, right? Having s    3     quite a few productions of Hamlet and read the play many times, I was full of c    4     until the Peking Opera came to town!

D    5     back to the 18th century, Peking Opera has over two hundred years of history. Does this mean it’s easier than a Shakespeare play to understand? To find out the answer, I just had to go and see The Revenge of Prince Zidan — the Peking Opera v    6       of Hamlet.

Easily my favourite part of the show was how the characters moved on stage. I had never seen Prince Hamlet do a backflip before! That was simply i    7     . It was so dazzling and energetic that I wasn’t sure if the characters were performers     8     athletes! Everyone was clapping.

Before experiencing The Revenge of Prince Zidan, I wasn’t sure if I would enjoy it. But, in fact, I was on the     9     of my seat! Feeling the strong emotions of love, anger, fear and grief in the performance, I could easily recognise the theme of Hamlet. So, if you want to see a show that combines music, singing, drama, poetry and costume design with explosive effect, The Revenge of Prince Zidan     10     all the right boxes!