One Hamlet Less(1973)

One Hamlet Less is a darkly comic reimagining of Shakespeare's tragedy. Prince Hamlet wants nothing to do with his family's politics or the kingdom's fate, and he's thoroughly unimpressed by the passive Ophelia. When his friend Horatio insists on telling him about his father's ghost demanding revenge, and Polonius corners him with pop-psychology lectures about the Oedipus complex, Hamlet dreams of escape. He fantasizes about fleeing to Paris with Kate, the charismatic lead actress of a traveling theater company, to pursue his real passion: writing plays. This absurdist take strips away the brooding melancholy of the original, replacing it with sardonic wit and the messy reality of a prince who'd rather create art than inherit tragedy.