Rok Grotowskiego 2009 - HAMLET: THAT IS THE QUESTION

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28th – 30th June (Saturday – Monday)

Teatr Polski, Scena na Swiebodzkim (Swiebodzki Stage)

HAMLET: THAT IS THE QUESTION, dir. Richard Schechner

Translation: Zhu Shenghao

Adaptation, director: Richard Schechner

Associate director: Benjamin Mosse

Set, costume and light designer: Hao Shi

Acting:

Hamlet: Guanglei Xue

Horatio, Doctor: Lei Zhang

Ghost, Head Player, 1st Gravedigger: Bin Hong

Laertes: Meng Wang

Ophelia: Jennifer Lim

Claudius: Xing Zheng

Little Claudius, Osric: Zao Yang

Gertrude: Wanling Liu

Polonius, Priest: Chuanying Li

Guildenstern, 2nd Gravedigger: Guanting Wu

Premiere: 17.10.2007

Producer: William Huizhu Sun, Vice President of Shanghai Theatre Academy

Co-producer: Liu Zhigang, Vice President of Shanghai Theatre Academy

Production Manager: Wang Lvwei

In Hamlet: That Is the Question everyone spies on everyone else – Claudius on Hamlet, Hamlet on Claudius, Polonius and Ophelia on Gertrude and Hamlet, Hamlet on Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, and they on him. The live cameras in Schechner’s performance spies on all of them. Throughout all of this, Horatio/Shakespeare writes down the story. King Claudius loses everything and Hamlet finally becomes king … of what?

Richard Schechner – creator of some of the most audacious works of American avant-garde theatre in from the 1960s onward, theatre anthropologist, and performance studies professor – explores the play in social, political, and sexual contexts. In a totally white-washed environment, Schechner’s actors and designers explore why Prince Hamlet didn't become king. Who does Hamlet love and in what way? Who manipulates and who is being manipulated in this dark, poetic, and savagely ironic farcical story?

In Mandarin, with some English. No subtitles. Associate Director, Benjamin Mosse. Produced by the Shanghai Theatre Academy in collaboration with East Coast Artists of New York.

Duration: 135 minutes (one intermission)