Certainly that is the case with this coming week's production at MK Theatre but then, to be fair, it does marry the absolute crème de la crème of theatre companies with the work of the Bard.

From Tuesday, Northern Ballet Company tiptoe into Milton Keynes for a five-day stay of ballet brilliance – with their interpretation of Shakespeare's Hamlet.

And it's not only love that you can't hurry, you know – you can't hurry NBT. This particular production has taken two years to get to the stage.
Take to your seats and let the story take you back to the early 1940s, and occupied Paris, where Hamlet's mind unravels against a backdrop of one of the most terrifying periods of the 20th century.

Celebrated composer Philip Feeney and co-director Patricia Doyle's scenario sees a young man arrive back from the Front to find his home and his world isn't the same one that he left behind.

His father is dead, his mother has married his uncle and the enemy occupies his city. As his world descends into chaos, the boundaries
between truth and deception, sanity and insanity become distorted…
"I have wanted to create a dance version of Hamlet for a long time," says artistic director David Nixon.

"Hamlet is a young man who starts out with everything but loses everything. It is a story that people immediately identify with and there is much about it that has resonance in our darker corner.

"Maybe that's why it is so popular, because somewhere deep inside of us at some time we all debate whether to be or not to be."

But how can ballet tell the words of the Bard…without the words?

"It is daunting, as we won't have any of the text – the famous soliloquies – but we just express these in dance and with emotion," explains Patricia. "Through dance, we can interpret the story and its central character in another way, staying true to Shakespeare's inspiration and imagination, but at the same time making it perhaps a little more contemporary by relating it to a fairly recent past."

Something of a particularly 'local' angle to this week's show, too – Newport Pagnell dancer Chantelle Gotobed will be performing.

NBT's concert manager Barry Collarbone is also a city dweller, and daughter Nicole heads up the venue's Get Closer events, which so far as Hamlet is concerned, run as follows:

Ballet Explored (Thursday May 22, 11.15am-12.45pm). A talk by NBT staff, and the chance to watch the class.

Pre-Performance Talk (Thursday May 22, 6.30pm-7pm) free.

Workshop and touch tour for the visually impaired (Saturday May 24) free.

Audio-described performance (Saturday May 24, 2.30pm).

Tickets are priced between £12 and £28.

Call the box office with your ticket requirements, on 0870 070 6652.