It seems improbable to describe a production of “Hamlet” as buoyant, spirited and exhilarating. That’s just not how most directors tell the sad story of the Danish prince driven to distraction by his mother’s marriage to his uncle soon after his father’s death. But the extraordinary “Hamlet” at the Folger Shakespeare Theatre, produced by London’s Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, is anything but a conventional production.

Using a streamlined version directed by Globe artistic director Dominic Dromgoole and Bill Buckhurst, the most stunning change in this “Hamlet” is that all the roles are played by eight actors, yet there is never any confusion about who’s who.