At first glance, a title like “Daredevils’ Hamlet” seems absurd—the two concepts are so radically different, it’s hard to imagine how they could even begin to fit together. The Neo-Futurists, however, seem to thrive on ridiculousness and incongruity, so it’s no surprise they found a way to make it work. What was surprising, though, was that daredevils and Shakespeare’s great tragedy have much more in common than you’d think.

“Daredevils’ Hamlet,” a successor of sorts to the Neo-Futurists’ 2005 show “Daredevils,” follows the exploits of five—you guessed it—daredevils, who spend their time tumbling, wall-running and jumping through hoops against a backdrop of fog, strobe lights and enough over-the-top electric guitar to make Evel Knievel jealous.

The actors essentially play themselves, or dramatized versions of themselves, when they’re not busy portraying their own unique interpretations of Shakespeare’s classic characters. Lead daredevil and Neo-Futurists creative director Ryan Walters is a daredevil who always dreamed of playing the lead role in “Hamlet,” and his jumpsuit-clad brothers—Brennan Buhl, John Pierson, Anthony Courser and Jay Torrence—decided to do everything in their power to support him and make that dream a reality.

This is where the talent of the performers really shines through. It’s clear they have a solid, thorough understanding of “Hamlet.” They deliver classic lines while jumping over each other, doing flips, climbing and tackling one another. More often than not, the quotes are played off as jokes themselves—like when Walters delivers Hamlet’s “Oh, what a piece of work is a man” soliloquy while repeatedly trying and failing to ride a plastic children’s tricycle up a large wooden ramp. However, their portrayal of well-meaning daredevils who don’t seem to know quite what they’re doing is what brings out most of the laughs.

When Walters is getting ready to play Hamlet, for example, he wears a frilly collar on top of his jumpsuit and runs offstage to find some “Shakespeare shoes,” emerging a few minutes later on roller skates and wearing aviator goggles. Meanwhile, the other characters get into costume, with Courser dressed as Robin Hood with a pointed, cardboard hat and colorful Nerf bow; Pierson as Abraham Lincoln (felt beard, cardboard top hat and all); Buhl in a basketball jersey as New York Knick Patrick Ewing; and Torrence as a second Lincoln, but in a straitjacket.

Such scenes of chaotic lunacy are broken up by “Moment of Thought” interludes, during which an individual daredevil is asked a series of Hamlet-themed questions about his relationship with his father, the amount of melancholy in his life and whether he considers himself a man of thought or a man of action.

These interludes underscore the reasons why “Hamlet” is such a perfect fit for the daredevils. The Bard’s classic tragedy deals with the young Danish prince meditating upon mortality, risk, loss, fear and what it means to be a man. Meanwhile, the daredevils take time away from their feats of laughter, daring and bravado to consider what drives them to perform acts of hyper-masculinity and take such risks. This could have easily felt pretentious, were it not for the pure frankness and honesty with which the actors approached the show. They were open and forthcoming about the details of their lives, and from the way they laughed, smiled and joked with one another, it was clear that they were enjoying the experience. They looked more like friends horsing around together than a group of actors on a stage.

The emotional depth of the cast helps elevate “Daredevils’ Hamlet” from what could have been a simple comedy of slapstick stunt work and a few Shakespearean winks and nods, to something far more complex and interesting. Torrence’s performance, in particular, showed the greatest range of acting skill in the entire show.

One scene casts him as a raving lunatic in a straitjacket, running around the stage screaming at the audience with a gleeful psychosis reminiscent of Heath Ledger’s Joker in “The Dark Knight.” On the complete opposite end of the spectrum, his portrayal of Horatio after the death of Hamlet is full of enough genuine sorrow and loneliness to rival any traditional Shakespearean actor.

“Daredevils’ Hamlet” is more than just a comedy, although it certainly is funny. When you come down to it, it’s just good theater. It’s brilliantly written and expertly performed, and while a basic familiarity with “Hamlet” helps, it can be enjoyed by just about anybody.