Shakespeare’s Hamlet is one of the most frequently performed plays in theater history. The Last Hamlet, the concluding part of the When Men Weep trilogy, also wants to “reckon” with him. “Everything always starts with the family,” notes Lea Kukovičič.
In the Stara mestna elektrarna – Elektro Ljubljana, an author’s project came to life tonight Lee Kukovičić The Last Hamlet. Because Lea Kukovičič is in her own words “obsessive theater researcher”, Hamlet was a logical choice for her. Because this canonical text is constantly being performed, it is the history and at the same time the future of the theater.
Among the reasons why she tackled Hamlet, she stated that, according to the analysis of the sigledal.org portal, Hamlet is the most frequently performed text in the Slovenian space – it was created 33 different performances. In addition, we all meet Hamlet in the educational process, which means that we all know at least something about him.
The story of Hamlet itself gives way to other questionsAccording to her, in this performance, the text of Hamlet is not in the foreground, but the ritual of the theater, canonical repetitions, emoting, reading atmospheres. Throughout the entire history of performing Hamlet, the canon also led her to the issue of family, which plays an important role in Hamlet. Although in Hamlet it is mainly Hamlet who speaks and not other family members, for example, in her project, in the scene in the bedroom, the mother has the main word. “The family is a big corpus, everything starts with it, so does the patriarchy, and it is important to address this in this play,” she said.
She added yes “Hamlet is not a person, but a system of people who want to be gods, but they do not have peripheral vision, they see very narrowly and only what they want. They also do not have the insight to read between the lines, or they read between the lines in their own way”.
When an institutional theater joins forces with an institution without a permanent ensembleThe performance was co-produced by the Bunker Institute and the Prešeren Theater in Kranj: the premiere of Zadnje Hamlet in Kranj will take place on September 20. According to the director of the Bunker Institute Alma R. Selimović the first collaboration between PGK and Bunker meant the meeting of two different production principles – PGK is a repertory theater with an ensemble, while Bunker does not have an ensemble and projects are developed with artists for a very long time, the production processes themselves are also long, in the case The Last Hamlet almost two years.
The Trilogy of Men’s TearsAccording to her, Bunker mainly supported the preparatory and research process, as well as the symposium and these crying interventions. The Last Hamlet is the last part of the trilogy When men crywhich was introduced by the symposium When men cry, the world stops, followed by “crying interventions” at the Week of Slovenian Drama entitled The Last Hamlet, prelude – and PGK entered the process most strongly in the last production phase, when the play was being made.
Director and artistic director of PGK, Jure Novak, expressed his joy that the theater’s cooperation with the Bunker Institute and Leo Kukovičič took place, adding that he considers cooperation between such different institutions to be extremely important.
Hamlet, no longer an untouchable shrineThey act in a play Miha Rodman, Long live Selan, Blaž Setnikar and Borut Veselka. Živa Selan said that the performance did not change her view of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, but it definitely changed her view of how it is permissible to talk about him. “It’s liberating when things start to shake up,” she added.
They sign the text Lea Kukovičić and Wojtek Ziemilskishe is a playwright Judge Zupanc Lotkerscenographer Zuzana Scerankovacostume designer Olja Grubićlighting designer Zuzana Režnachoreographer Nataša Živkovićauthor of the video Toni Soprano Look at me.
An hour before the premiere, an exhibition was opened in the Stari mestni elektrarna as part of the Bunker Kontekst Institute’s support program Context 003: Real or fictional about Lea Kukovičić, which represents the author of the play The Last Hamlet. It was designed by Ivana Vogrinc Vidali and Ana Lorger.
Source: Rtvslo
