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Leading the Sydney Festival’s theatre program for 2010, is possibly one of the most studied, most referenced, most quoted and theatrically emblematic plays of the English canon, Hamlet. Only this time - it’s in German.

In a new translation by Marius von Mayenburg, Schaubuhne Berlin’s resident director Thomas Ostermeier has asked us to surrender stale school books and give over to watch the maniacal suffering of a brilliant mind in an horrific situation. Taut and robustly unapologetic, this irreverent re-working of Shakespeare’s text - twenty characters are distilled into eleven - played by a company of six actors. The result is a throbbing circus of events - at times farcical, at times leaden with despair and laced with contemporary iconography - Ostermeier’s Hamlet confronts contemporary theatre head-on, full force and with a wicked grin.

We are plunged into Hamlet’s (Lars Eidinger) tragedy as soon as the audience lights dim. A grave centre stage - a wooden casket awaits burial. Slowly - umbrellas in hand - actors make their way through a golden beaded curtain onto the dark earthy peat of the burial ground. Rain. A gravedigger tumbles over himself and the coffin - a poignant situation disintegrates into slapstick horror as his wife and her new husband look on. Moments later - a wedding feast. Rejecting the Shakespearean exposition “telling” the audience of this sequence of events - von Mayenburg and Ostermeir choose to “show” the audience the swift turn of events - and suddenly we are placed in the immediate centre of the conflict. Hamlet’s mother, Gertrude (Judith Rosmair) moments after her husband’s death has married his brother Claudius (Urs Jucker), who has become the new King of Denmark. When Hamlet’s father’s ghost (Urs Jucker) appears and asks Hamlet to avenge his murder, Hamlet dons the guise of a madman in self-defence and unintentionally destroys himself in the process.

This is not a traditional, paint-by-numbers, recitation of Shakespeare’s text re-costumed in contemporary clothes. This is a production pulsing with angry (and very playful) theatrical lifeblood. A production which reinvents Hamlet as a person whose defence is his own undoing - his ambitious and bloody pursuit hurtles him inexorably towards his own demise. Scenes are re-ordered (some are edited, some translated, some transposed and some re-written) and text becomes referenced as Hamlet tells Rosencrantz (Stefan Stern) and Guildenstern (Sebastian Schwarz) to leave him as he has a monologue to do. Actors break out of performing - both out of character and out of the performance space. This is a creative re-thinking of the story for a contemporary audience. Everything is examined - death, love, sex, loyalty, family, politics - even the practice of theatre itself. What you assume is theatre - entertainment - performance, is interrogated and parodied.

Designers Jan Pappelbaum (Set), Nina Wetzei (Costume) and Erich Schneider (Lighting) create an earthbound world in which the life of the characters seems to be grotesque and gaudy. Video by Sebastien Doupouey amplifies Hamlet’s perspective dwarfing the characters onstage, whilst Nils Ostendorf’s music grates, groans and swells as an impressive driving force. Hamlet demands your attention and keeps it throughout the non-stop two and a half hour rampage.

It is very, very true, “If you think you’ve seen Hamlet - it’s time to think again” because this production demands you think beyond what’s dreamt of in our philosophies - reach beyond your expectations and encounter a work which is dynamic and utterly enthralling.


Schaubuhne Berlin and the 2010 Sydney Festival
Hamlet
by William Shakespeare

Director Thomas Ostermeier
Translator Marius von Mayenburg

Hamlet is performed in German with English surtitles. Latecomers will not be admitted.

Venue: Sydney Theatre at Walsh Bay | 22 Hickson Road, Walsh Bay
Dates/Times: January 8, 11, 12, 14–16 at 8pm; January 10 at 5pm
Duration: 2hrs 30mins, no interval
Tickets: A Reserve $99 / $89; B Reserve $89 / $79
Bookings: Sydney Theatre 02 9250 1999 | Sydney Festival 1300 668 812 | Ticketek 1300 795 012
Website: www.sydneyfestival.org.au/hamlet