William Shakespeare

Hamlet

Based on a translation by Arany János

january
11
Saturday
19:00
january
29
Wednesday
19:00

Main stage
RO
EN
14+
2h 45' with intermission (part I: 1h 50', part II: 40')

Claudius
Ervin Szűcs
 
Gertrude
Imola Kézdi

 
The Wittenberg Group

 
Hamlet
Miklós Vecsei H.
 
Horatio
Balázs Bodolai / Loránd Farkas
 
Marcellus
Zsolt Gedő
 
Bernardo
András Buzási
 
Francisco
Ferenc Sinkó

 
Ophelia
Zsuzsa Tőtszegi
 
Polonius
József Bíró
 
Laertes
Tamás Kiss
 
Rosencrantz
Éva Imre
 
Guildenstern
Anikó Pethő
 
Osric
Szabolcs Balla
 
Ghost
Zsuzsa Tőtszegi , Lucian Chirilă
 
The Messenger
Gizella Kicsid
 
Young Hamlet
Venczel Lőrincz-Szabó
 
Young Ophelia
Sára Viola

directed by
Gábor Tompa
 
set design
András Both
 
costume design
Bianca Imelda Jeremias
 
dramaturgy
András Visky
 
original music
Vasile Șirli
 
choreography
Melinda Jakab
 
director's assistant
Emőke Veres
 
stage manager
Réka Zongor
 
video images
András Rancz
 
costume designer's assistant
Gyopár Bocskai
 
director's assistant
Sári Gálhidy
Date of the opening: december 03, 2021

Hamlet is simultaneously assailed by the great project of early modernity, as in the possibility of personal and direct faith, as well as a grave doubt concerning the divine origin of royal power. Claudius is described in such strong and direct words as unworthy of the exercise of kingship that the violent death of old Hamlet becomes synonymous with the death of God and the impossibility of renewing resurrection: “So excellent a king, that was to this / Hyperion to a satyr”.

Hamlet's despairing doubt is not, however, directed only at Claudius, but also at the murdered father-God, his own father. Luther's 95 theses emphasize the untenability of the dogma of purgatory (he sees it precisely as Satan's night-sowing, with which he has corrupted the doctrines of the faith), since he sees it as the self-representation of a church institution that ensures the artificially maintained dependence of the faithful. Hamlet is therefore forced to doubt the Ghost himself, since old Hamlet, in addition to suffering in purgatory, believes that his own suffering is shortened by the revenge of his own son, which is in no way a Christian idea, whether Catholic, Protestant or Orthodox.

The dramatic situation that has arisen forces Hamlet into the role of the instrumentless redeemer who does not believe in his own vocation: the son must perform an act of justice and restitution in order to restore a kingdom whose ethical order he no longer believes in, or at least of which he has serious doubts.

It is a median stance, the promise of pure tragedy and catharsis, which holds the entire work together as a perfect whole and makes it fragmentary, as is the case with great works in general. Catharsis, however, is not possible without the complete abolition of the 'order' that is in place: all must perish for the new political-ethical order to emerge from the ruins, but most of all in the heart of the spectator, who will recognize Hamlet, the performance itself, as his own situation; if he is lucky.

András Visky