Let’s discover 9 main stage performances…
Hamlet, dir. Luk Perceval, Thalia Theater, Germany
Performance was shown at:
Gdańsk Shakespeare Festival (Poland) – 5th of August, 2012
There is no time for grief in the state of Denmark. Continuity in politics is sacred – after the funeral banquet, there must always come a wedding, “business as usual”. What can Hamlet do when the situation becomes unbearable? The prince, inexperienced and uncontaminaed by the filth of politics, hesitates between choosing becoming a perpetrator and remaining a victim. Played by two actors, Hamlet is here the symbol of la condition humaine: a man torn between reason and emotion, between truth and lie.
Hamlet, Thalia Theater, Germany
Hamlet, dir. Radosław Rychcik, Kielce Theatre, Poland
Performance was shown at:
Shakespeare im Globe Neuss Festival (Germany) – 26th of June, 2012
Summer Shakespeare Festival Ostrava (Czech Republic) – 8th of August, 2012
Shakespeare Festival Gyula (Hungary) – 11th of July, 2012
The performance was awarded a prize in the Contest for Best Polish Production of William Shakespeare’s Works in 2010/2011. According to the director, its main idea does not concern the actual events. “We are not interested in the concept of power. All we care about are the family relations and the love trauma syndrome that hides behind”.Rychcik’s Hamlet is a victimwho makes use of his ready-made personality and uses it to join the community of the victimised. Once hurt, you are allowed to hurt others…
Hamlet, Kielce, Poland
Miranda, dir. Oskaras Koršunovas, OKT/Vilnius City Theatre, Lithuania
Performance was shown at:
Shakespeare im Globe Neuss Festival (Germany) – 2nd of July, 2012
Oskaras Koršunovas: “The Tempest” can be interpreted in a variety of ways. Most often it is staged as a fairy tale for adults, a féerie, and it has even been produced as an opera. However, I prefer the interpretation of Jan Kott, who sees in “The Tempest” a social drama about the never-ending and absurd struggle for power. Upon a closer look, we see the drama of power and an individual. This drama is eternal. People used to be deported to desert islands at all times. (…) Miranda interests me the most in this play. She is not just a naïve princess, as she used to be seen – she has been created by Prospero, she is his soul. At the end of the day, people deported to desert islands still used to raise their own Mirandas.
Miranda, OKT Vilnius Theatre, Lithuania
The Tempest, dir. Silviu Purcarete, Romania
Performance was shown at:
Shakespeare Festival Gyula (Hungary)
Gdańsk Shakespeare Festival (Poland) – 4th and 5th of August, 2012
Prospero’s island becomes, in Silviu Purcărete’s vision, something like the lucid dream of a an old man, tired, but desperately trying to solve his troubles with this confusing, lyrical, gloomy world. Purcărete’s The Tempest is a compelling, mesmerising journey through the imaginarium of not only Prospero but also of the artists who bring this unique performance to life.
The Tempest, The National Theatre Craiova, Romania
The Winter’s Tale, dir. P. Parr, Parrabbola, UK
Performance was shown at:
Summer Shakespeare Festival Ostrava (Czech Republic) – June, 2012
Gdańsk Shakespeare Festival (Poland) – 3 th, 4th, 5th and 6th of August, 2012
“The Winter’s Tale” is about two very different environments, two countries: Sicily – the home of the autocratic King Leontes and Hermione his queen, and the rural pleasures of Bohemia, where the royal family in disguise are mixing it with the rural peasantry. Making such a play as a community play is tremendous fun – and a great challenge. Such an immersive site-specific production means that the audience are definitely guests at the festival rather than observers. This community play version of “The Winter’s Tale” is being produced in two different communities – Ostrava and Gdansk. Shakespeare’s Bohemia is represented by the Czech Republic and Sicily by Poland.
The Winter’s Tale, Parrabbola, Great Britain
Hamlet, dir. Adam Walny, prod. Adam Walny & Lars Kynde, Walny-Theatre/HamletScenen, Poland/Denmark
Performance was shown at:
Gdańsk Shakespeare Festival (Poland) – 31 th of July and 1st of August, 2012
Summer Shakespeare Festival Ostrava (Czech Republic)
In this extraordinary, puppet staging of Shakespeare’s masterpiece, the action does not take place in the chambers of Elsinore but in… aquariums filled with water, where the characters of the play live separately. Hamlet is the only one who is not immersed in water as he exists partly in the spiritual world and partly in the material world. Thus he stays all the time in relations with the Ghost, which makes him go mad slowly.
Hamlet, Adam Walny & Lars Kynde, Poland/Denmark
Opus Hamlet, dir. Adam Walny & Lars Kynde, Walny Theatre/HamletScenen, Poland/Denmark
Performance was shown at:
Gdańsk Shakespeare Festival (Poland) – 30th of July, 2012
Puppet director and puppeteer Adam Walny and composer Lars Kynde have together transformed the well-known story about Hamlet into “Opus Hamlet”. Everything is turned upside down when objects and instruments take over the roles. There are no language barriers here – only the sound of rattling, clinking and clattering as the puppets and the music interpret the famous story about the Danish court, friendships, life and death in a symphony of sounds.
Opus Hamlet, Adam Walny & Lars Kynde, Poland/Denmark
Henry the 5th, dir. Edward Hall, Propeller Company, Great Britain
Performance was shown at:
Shakespeare im Globe Neuss Festival (Germany) – 28th, 29th and 30th of June, 2012
One of Shakespeare’s most famous plays, Henry V tells the tale of the greatest British warrior in English folklore. At a time when increasing numbers of British servicemen and women are seeing active service, Propeller brings its own unique take to the story. Dangerous, thrilling and deeply moving, Henry V travels from the corridors ofWestminster to the battlefields of France.
Wrote The Independent of Propeller: “The overriding feeling is of a Shakespeare pulsing with muscular life – fresh, physical and utterly modern.” Edward Hall is also Artistic Director of the Hampstead Theatre,London, and the son of renowned British theatre director Sir Peter Hall.
Text from: http://www.theatreview.org.nz/reviews/production.php?id=2477
Measure for measure, Bratislava, Slovakia
Performance was shown at:
Summer Shakespeare Festival Ostrava (Czech Republic). We are still waiting for some more info about this performance!
Discovering Theatrelands 