The Post Apocalyptic Space Shakespeare: Hamlet

A billion years in the future, humanity is extinct.

But Shakespeare remains.

A machine civilization, so far advanced that it has the power to recreate lost civilizations, stumbles upon the works of the playwright, William Shakespeare.

With only those plays to represent humanity, the machines must decide whether humanity is worth resurrecting or not.

The only way to know the plays is to stage them.

Enter J-9, although she prefers to be called Janine. She is a human-like construct, created by the machines, to enter and experience the plays of Shakespeare, as they run in simulation, indistinguishable from reality.

Based on Janine's impressions of humanity, drawn from her experiences of living within the unfolding plays, the machines will render their judgment: is humanity worth saving or shall humanity be consigned to oblivious?

The stakes are higher than the bard could have ever imagined.



Created by Ted Neill, the Post Apocalyptic Space Shakespeare remains true to the plots of William Shakespeare's plays while introducing stage directions that make the text more accessible to modern readers. The addition of Janine as an outsider looking in—and caught up in her own story framing the action of the plays—provides commentary and insight usually buried in academic papers but delivered here with heart and humor. It's an original take on classic plays that will remind readers why the plays endure five hundred, and maybe five billion, years after they were written. 


Traditionally, Shakespeare's plays, do not need to be read in a particular order. These "simulations," do have an order, especially as Janine's story evolves with them.

Simulation Order:

1. Hamlet
2. Othello
3. Twelfth Night
4. As You Like It
5. A Mid-Summer Night's Dream
6. Much Ado About Nothing
7. Taming of the Shrew
8. Romeo & Juliet
9. Cymbeline
10. The Tempest
11. MacBeth
12. Richard III
13. Troilus & Cressida
14. Pericles
15. King Lear
16. Julius Cesar
17. Anthony & Cleopatra