If Shakespeare were alive today, he would urge you to take a ride to Warwick’s Gamm Theatre and watch his classic tragedy performed the way he wrote it: psychological, physical, tense, tight and terrific.

There’s a lot of lumber in Michael McGarty’s set, making the multitude of scenes flow smoothly under the tight direction of Artistic Director Tony Estrella.

Estrella, who played the role in 1997 and 2011, chose one of Rhode Island’s most versatile and accomplished actors, Jeff Church, to succeed him in playing the tragic Prince of Denmark.

Church attacks the role using every bone and muscle in his body to demonstrate the madness and melancholy that overtakes the man as he grieves for his father and seeks revenge for his murder.

And oh, those soliloquies!

Church makes them come alive as he faces the audience and allows his madness and melancholy to come through.

The entire cast—there are no small parts— rises to every occasion in a two-hour and forty-five-minute fast-paced production that ends in a realistic, up-close sword fight choreographed by the best: Normand Beauregard.

Gamm veteran Jim O’Brien handles two diverse roles perfectly, first playing the ominous ghost of Hamlet’s father and then the Player King in the play within the play when Hamlet outs his uncle.

Gamm regular Jeanine Kane plays Hamlet’s mother, with grace and style, wearing one of costume designer Mikayla Reid’s splendid costumes.

While I have seen numerous “Hamlets” over my many years, none have left me as exhausted as watching Jeff Church move around the stage with such intensity and dexterity, embodying the madness, grief and desire for revenge that Hamlet possessed.

Aspiring actors must see and learn from his incredible performance.

“Hamlet” plays at Gamm through April 27. Visit gammtheatre.org or call 723-4266 for tickets.