German translation by Marius von Mayenburg
A co-production with the Hellenic Festival Athens and the Festival d'Avignon

Hamlet is going mad. His father has died suddenly of a strange disease, and hismother hasmarried her deceased husband’s brother, of all people, after just one month. Hamlet has nighttime visions of his father, who claims his brother poisoned him, and exhorts Hamlet to take revenge and kill his new stepfather. Hamlet acts the part of the madman in order to hide his
plans, and loses his grip on reality in the process. The insane act becomes actual insanity, and Hamlet kills the wrong man: Polonius, Ophelia’s father. His mother and stepfather cover up themurder and keepHamlet out of the public eye, and Hamlet’s plans for revenge seem to evaporate. When his stepfather decides finally to silence Hamlet, Hamlet seizes the opportunity at hand and with one final rampage forces his world to its knees. With its central paradox of the incapacitated protagonist, Hamlet remains today a valid analysis of the intellectual dilemma between complex thought and political action. In Ostermeier’s production, just six actors will play twenty characters, constantly changing roles. Mirrored in their acting style, pretence and disguise become basic principles. read less