Kenneth Branagh writes and directs a comic tale about an out-of-work actor's desperate attempt to salvage his career and his life by staging a production of Hamlet. Lacking time and money to do the play justice, he hires a motley cast of drunks, incompetents, oddballs and an aging female impersonator to play Queen Gertrude. Now, through backstage dramas, inevitable disasters and the occasional triumph, this cast of would-be losers strives to create theater magic in only three weeks!