Hamlet is the great Dane that every actor wants to sink his teeth into. The role is a prime event for someone who wants to show his range and agility as an actor and demonstrate that he is up to any and every role. This has been the case for the more than 400 years since the tragedy was first performed. It is no less a tour de force today.

Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey's fall production of "Hamlet," directed by Bonnie J. Monte, is redolent of everything that is truly fine about this company. Monte serves also as the Artistic Director of the company, even while directing plays, and a careful vision has brought about this symphony of anachronisms.

Edmund Kean, in a Victorian-era production of "Hamlet", was the first to adopt a more everyman form of dress. While lavish costumes had previously characterized many productions, this was first also to treat Hamlet somewhat more seriously. The present production employs a spare, nearly post-Modern austerity in its set, designed also by Monte, with a dominant centerstage motorized platform anchored, at one end, by a spiral staircase, at the other, by two sets of chains ascending to the heavens. As the walls close in metaphorically on Hamlet, this artful ceiling lowers with a dungeon-esque clatter.

The sound design by Karin Graybash employs artful touches that include a soundscape employing the voices of Harmonium Choral Society, whose Artistic Director Anne Matlack frequently arranges eclectic a capella settings of spectacular vocal music. This periodic interpolation of open-chorded ancient sounding music clashed our aesthetic senses with our chronological ones. The no-time time of the middle of the night when the King's Ghost is first spotted is heralded by spectral martial voices, seamlessly integrated with the lighting designs of Steven Rosen and Monte's sets, providing that sense of day breaking and relative safety after an especially vivid, especially bad dream. Special voice effects for the King's Ghost, played by Robert Cuccioli, added to the sense of living dream.

Hugh Hanson's costumes also mingle different eras, underlining that Hamlet's struggles are ones we might all undergo. The men were nearly all clad in riding pants, with early 20th century coats trimmed with varying kinds of fur. Shirts made of rich material underline royal status and Claudius' coat is exceptional. Gertrude's and Ophelia's dresses are studies in contrast-Gertrude is most often clad in the dark reds of blood-is she complicit in her husband's death or an unwitting accomplice? The maligned Ophelia is in the white and blue associated frequently with the Virgin Mary, and Ophelia goes to her grave a virgin as well, after being viciously spurned by Hamlet.

Cuccioli's Claudius, regal and fratricidal, is initially very hale-fellow-well met. His brother has passed, and he has now married his dead brother's wife, the luminous, ivory and sable Gertrude (Jacqueline Antaramian). Hamlet is none too pleased with the marriage, practically on the heels of his father's funeral. Since Freud was not born until three centuries hence, Hamlet's struggle is entirely his own. Considering the time the action would have occurred, women would have little recourse than to marry someone who could attend their needs-further, there was Biblical precedent. But all Hamlet can see is his mother, now considered by her son to be a fallen woman, and the perfidious brother with the mark of Cain.

Lauren English's Ophelia is arch and sassy, sexy and sweet and later tortured and scary-beautiful in her madness. The scene where she and Hamlet part ways for good, and all is devastating to behold, only makes her entrance later that much more dark and tragic. Daniel Stewart as her brother Laertes exploits his gorgeous voice to the max. Listening to his voice is like listening to music as it rises and falls and, every inch the warrior, his presence is commanding. Laertes' dismissive embrace of his father, when he leaves for what he does not know will be the last time, feels like foreshadowing. There may be the tickling of a vague familiarity when you see him. The short answer is "yes."

Polonius (John Hickok) embodies the courtier, making certain he provides what, he thinks, Claudius requires-spouting regular aphorisms to his son, making pronouncements to his daughter and offering advice both solicited and otherwise to his liege. Courtiers of the time were expected to be very adept at wordplay, and Polonius is that. Being Claudius' man Friday ultimately leads to his peril, but don't we often go marching off blindly into the fray?

Greg Jackson's Horatio, however, is the character with whom many of us may identify. He's got the maelstrom of Hamlet's life swirling around him, yet he is the constant. Hamlet's polestar, Horatio is a voice of reason in the surrounding cries of the wilderness. Jackson's Horatio is trying to make sense of what's around him when his dearly loved friend descends into a personal, yet very public Hell.

Equally of note are Ames Adamson, man of a thousand faces, who plays Reynaldo, King-of the roving Players-and the First Gravedigger, rich in laugh-out-loud gallows humor! Also veteran Shakespeare Theatre of NJ player Michael Stewart Allen as Guildenstern, and Osric; newcomer to the Company Gene Gillette as Rosenkrantz, and Priest; and Robert Grant as Voltemand, and Fortinbras, are ones to watch in this production. There is something going on visually-sometimes with organic movement, sometimes with stylized-that make this production a continual delight.

Jason Edward Bobb, fresh from a sojourn with the The Next Stage Company of Shakespeare Theatre of NJ, ably took on several roles as well. Having seen him as Petruchio in "Taming of the Shrew" with that group, it's great to encounter such a talented actor so early in his career. He is a treat to watch.

Jon Barker and Pressly Coker round out this stellar cast. Each is integral to the action and both are featured prominently throughout the production. When a player has many roles, it is every bit as demanding as having a single long one-each character must be differently portrayed and Shakespearian players are the decathletes of acting. Each role may be comic and dramatic both, but each role must be discrete. Kudos all around.

Actors, male and female, have attacked the role of the Prince of Denmark. Gareth Saxe rends the bloody body of the work and brings home the bitterness and angst of a young man who has lost not only his father, but his sense of himself in the world and even of the world itself. Saxe's Hamlet shows the child within the man, while showing the man himself. Hamlet's mother is both his mother and his aunt now, and a bitter disappointment. When the man does not or cannot control the hurt child within, therein lies the tragedy. That wounded child is within us all and Saxe is intense and humorous, and brilliant.

Shakespeare Theatre of NJ presents "Hamlet" at the F.M. Kirby Theatre on the Drew University Campus in Madison, New Jersey through October 11. Performances run Tuesday through Sunday, with matinees on Saturday and Sunday. Purchase tickets via the website http://www.shakespearenj.org, or call 973/408-5600.