In the unlikely event that William Shakespeare was to stumble across Harlow Playhouse next Wednesday, he would be witness to three of Covent Garden’s top street performers presenting Hamlet not as the great tragedy he had envisioned but as a comic masterpiece.

Yet despite this seemingly revolutionary interpretation, Ben Langley, writer and star of Ha Ha Hamlet, is certain The Bard’s response would be positive.

“I think he would be very congratulatory,” the 34-year-old actor tells me.“ He would be amazed his work is still being performed today, and that’s the idea of Shakespeare, that we can recreate and modernise his work and offer our own slant on it.”

Ben’s “slant” is to perform the original four-hour play in just 90-minutes with the help of his two friends, Mike Raffone (who he has known for 15 years) and Andrew Fettes (who he met in pantomime seven years ago), a suitcase of props and a lot of gags.

But although Hamlet as a comedy may seem ridiculous to some (particularly all of us GCSE English students who were forced to write reams on the subject of tragedy), Ben, who describes himself as an “executive street performer”, explains many of the jokes came from Shakespeare’s pen.

“A lot of comedy comes from the original script, which is the loveliest thing. It’s all there, provided you have a funny head on,” the Bristol-born former child actor says. “The characters in all Shakespeare’s tragedies, particularly Halmet, are so tragic, straight and adamant in their action, well perhaps not the procrastinating Prince, but because they are so straight and serious, it becomes quite funny. Also a lot of the text is funny in this day and the comedy jumped out straight away. It made my job so easy, which was to paint it with an angle where we are coming from, three idiots you have never hear of with suitcases full of props.”

Before the success of Ha Ha Hamlet, Ben’s solo street act had earned him the title of The Bristol Harbour Festival Street Performer Of The Year, and he was a regular in pantomime at the Octagon Theatre in Yeoville. In fact, it was under the request of theatre manager John White that Ha Ha Hamlet was born, after he asked Ben to write some original material with the promise he would give it a stage. The play enjoyed three sold out nights in March 2007, and was followed up by Ben’s second Ha Ha creation, Ha Ha Homicide, “a sort of Agatha Christie send-up”.

After being introduced by a mutual friend, Ben signed a five-play deal with producer Jamie Wilson, and Ha Ha Hamlet was resurrected for a trip to Edinburgh in August 2008, followed by a 25-night-tour, and now further spring dates.

“It’s a different performance every night,” the West Dulwich resident tells me. “We are three good mates, so it’s sort of like a night out. It’s not just a play, it’s not like when the curtain goes up we do a set piece, it’s more of an event, a celebration, and we can come off the script, and just have a laugh, it’s very informal. It all goes back to street performing, if there is mileage in a gag we run with it.”

The group’s “informal” approach begins from the moment the audience walk into the theatre, with the three actors standing on stage greeting them with such sarcastic comments as “here comes my mother, followed by her stalker”.

The reason for this, Ben explains, is “to build up a warmth with the audience and condition them to accept anything that happens afterwards”, and with the tragic Ophelia suicide scene being handled as tactfully as throwing a Barbie doll in a bucket of water it’s a good thing too.

And what’s next on the agenda for the Ha Ha brand? “Ha Ha Hitler”, Ben utters almost apologetically. “It just get’s worse doesn’t it!”

Ha Ha Hamlet arrives at the Harlow Playhouse on Wednesday, May 20, 8pm. There will be a free workshop before the performance at 6.30pm. Tickets: 01279 431945, www.playhouseharlow.com (£12/buy four tickets and get the fifth free)